[111]

interval while the solid floor was forming in this chamber and
the circumjacent range of coeval formations

That when the floor had attained its present form it sub-
sided along with its {under} {Sub} stratum of loam—and in
its descent was rent into flags thro its entire area--

That from this epoch there is no appearance of subsequent deposition of stalagmite over this fractured crust and the fissures were unoccupied by calcareous drippings-but while the chamber was in the possession of man, during the period of its disturbance

But it saturated and indurated the overlying rubble that this rubble was strewed over its surface, and that it was by the agency of man is clear from the evidence of the Iron blade and other circumstances

That shortly after this event, this cave became again unoccupied as appears from the commencement of a distinct plate of this stalagmite over the bed of rubble and its progress with some slight interruptions down to the time when we first ripped it up

Inscriptions crowded on inscriptions on the walls, however, record the visits of the curious-one carved on the stalagmite in the year of the Prince of oranges landing in Torbay by "John Hodgson† of Ireland" seems to intimate that it afforded an asylum to individuals concerned in the public commotions of that period. Chancellor Bacon is also numbered among its visitors.

Inferences

The prevalence of the remains of Bear in the lowermost
bed of loam is a decisive argument that that animal was the
principal if not sole possessor of this abode-Teeth and bones
of his species in all the various conditions which denote long
residence abounded in this bed some manifestly belonging to
remote generations were greatly decayed and blackish-they
seemed to have lain loose on the floor subject to the trampling
and pressure of animals and to the injuries consequent on
this state-and the teeth and Jaws of the Bear in all the
stages of growth from the infant state to the old and worn
out, sound teeth mingled with those shed by absorption-
such evidence as indicates that this gregarious animal occu-
pied with its young this recess and that Individuals of differ-
ent ages
died and left their remains here-

In this assemblage of its remains there is evidence on the
bones of the effect of disease and of accidents which they met
+ [Correctly, "Robert Hedges." W.P.]

with while yet living and which might have caused their death-The arm and Phalanges and vertebræ, the parts most exposed to injuries exhibit curious examples of disease superind[uce]d. Teeth broken while in the head by violence and those fixed in jaws that were still undergoing the process of absorption, were intermingled with single teeth that were scattered in quantities thro the loam

Then the large and apparently connected skeletons lying near the surface belonging to the same species, but denoting by their perfect preservation a still later epoch-it is almost certain that they were the last {tenants} {inmates} of the den, some victims of some sudden disaster, "held their ancient solitary reign," and that their skeletons thus strewed over the floor freed from their flesh when the entrance of the mud into this chamber partly filled the cavities of the heads and bones with fluid loam-not therefore destroyed by it

"The bear," say Buffon, "is not only a savage but a solitary animal. He flies from all society, avoiding every place to which man can have access, and is only easy where nature appears in her rudest and most ancient form. An old cavern among inaccessible rocks, or a grotto formed by time in the trunk of a decayed tree, in the midst of a thick forest, serve him for an habitation. "Thither he retires alone."t

In the avenues to this den the same circumstances are [113] seen, the Bear is found to predominate and his remains present the same appearances - but the vicinity of the Hyæna is attested by the existence of his teeth and gnawed bones, tho but sparingly, and the extraordinary abundance of A. Græum

It would therefore seem probable that in the Hy. visits to this remote division of the cavern for the purpose assigned in Cap Sykes communication, that he had prowled about in the Environs of the Bears den and cautiously bore away if not lacerated on the spot the straggling skeletons of its rival but that he was however deterred by the superior prowess of the Bear from intruding into his domicile and of risking an open encounter with a superior enemy—

To some such cause must be referred the occurrence of the Bears remains exclusively in the central den near the water and of the untouched aggregation of his remains there-and of their dispersion among the teeth and other evidences of the Hy. presence in the adjacent centres. There may have

+ ["A Natural History," &c. By Charles Louis Le Clerc, Count of Buffon. Translated from the French by William Smellie (1817), vol. i., p. 346. W.P.] [Edin. New, Phil. Journ. vol. xvi., pp. 378-9. W.P.]

been conventional limits to the range of these adverse parties -neither actually invading the others den, but in the environs they may have met-but sullenly suffering the participation of the empire of the cave with each other (What are the habits of the Bear?)

[115] It is certain that the advance of the plate of stalagmite above these entombed skeletons of the Bear was arrested by the intrusion of man into this mansion-The covering of rubble which overspread the solid plate in this cave and in the contiguous vaultings appears to have been thrown about during his sojourn in the cave-and it appears to have [been] derived from the neighbouring undervaultings and partly from excavations made in search of treasure

[117]

[119]

The presence of the blade of iron and the collections of the stalactitic tubes are evidence of his presence here

This last event may be traced with some degree of probability to the period of the introduction of the iron Spear and Etruscan pottery-into a grotto of the upper division and of similar antiquities into the contiguous caves of Anstis Cove and Berry head

Irruption of mud

From the absence of organic remains in certain situations, and their abundance in others and particularly from the prevalence of particular species in the insulated Bears den we are warranted in concluding that they were not conveyed into the cave thro the medium of the mud, but involved by it in its progress through the cave-and that they were drifted forward and lodged in the nearest hollows and ineqalities of the floor and that the advancing inundation after first filling the cavities in its way, passed like a flood of lava from cave to cave, dislodging cones and rocks successively enveloping the contents of each chamber till no additional mud could be admitted into the {chambers} {recesses}-This conglomerate in a state of fluidity supervened the actual rocky floor.

It appears also that this fluid body gradually settled into a firm consistence or bed-but that subsequently in particular localities, as the Lower division, the work of subsidence, continued after a long interval to go on progressively withdrawing the materials into subterranean gulfs-and ultimately undermining the entire Lower division-The consequence of which was the sudden depression of the floor and the dislocation of the superficies of stalagmite—

Diluvium

The materials conveyed into the bosom of the cave by the

movement above specified, were various-Of the constituents the shifting soil of the surrounding surface forms its basisit is identical with that which at present covers the superficies of the country-a rich argillacious loam {deeply} {copiously) impregnated and colored by the admixture of the red oxide of iron

They are such substances as a great body moving over the modern surface would collect, modify and {convey} {discharge} into any open fissures and caverns occurring in its progress-and finding access to this cave thro the numerous windows in its sides rushed in at different points into the common reservoir travelling thro the most complicated windings and diffusing a nearly equal sediment thro the various ramifications of the cave

Moveable {Ingredients} {Constitutients} of Diluvium— [121]

Sea Sand

The loam is thickly saturated with sand and gravel precipitated from a mud in a state of fluidity-which the laborers and masons occupied in digging constantly designated seasand-and with it were associated granular particles and polished pebbles of quartz, limestone, green and red sandstone, grauwacke and granite-accompanying these there were found innumerable large fragments of the same strata--some examples preserving their sharp edges and surfaces of a mass recently torn from an undisintegrated rock, mixed with others but slightly eroded and others rounded globular blocksquartzose pebbles and boulders of granite were particularly noticed-Teignmouth porphyry. It is remarkable that those stony fragments whose native beds occur at a distance are invariably rolled while the fresh wreck of the adjacent rocks are scarcely affected, and among the heterogeneous assemblage were thickly scattered broken spires and cones of stalactite of every size-large tabular masses of limestone

The spires had been formerly knocked off by the thoroughfare of animals, as has been noticed to be the case in the Idol cave visited by modern foxes, or by the violent collision of the mud with the walls-and others broken off and the cones {overturned} {dislodged} by the violent irruption of the loam-by the same impulse the large tabular masses were separated from the roof-they generally lie horizontally in the centre of the loam like tombstones in the very position they fell-in a few instances they stand on their edges having sunk down in the loam

The small angular fragments consist most commonly of [123]

[127]+

limestone-and may be traced to the detritus of the shell of the cave from which similar fragments are constantly scaling off, and the slightly eroded to the shattered strata of the adjacent formations which I identified of the same rock of grauwacke and sandstone

But the {parent} {native} strata of those which are reduced to pebbles lie at a greater distance-many of the pebbles and boulders have been recognized as appertaining to the granite range of Dartmoor-and it seems probable that they attained their rounded forms by agitation in those beds of the numerous {water courses} {torrents} which traverse the moors and {are} {constitute} the sources of numerous rivers in whose beds similar pebbles may be now found undergoing the same process.

The great movement setting in from the north as the granitic pebbles indicate collected in its course loose shingle from the beds of water courses, rivers, torrents and the sea shore-and as it advanced in the direction of the caves, it embraced the wreck of the local strata over which it passed, modifying it more or less according to the distance of the transport and lodging portions of it in the open fissures and caverns it traversed in its progress-Similarly rolled pebbles of granite were found among the remains of Eleph. and Deer in the Dil. gravel which forms the low lines of cliffs on the west of Brighton

The rolled masses are only such as might be drifted in thro small apertures-they do not exceed a good cannon ball in size. The large tabular masses we have already seen are not in the least rolled-and consist of the limestone of the roof and sides

Condition of the Remains

With the single exception of the anomaly of the Bears den near the water, the vast assemblage of organic remains distributed thro the several branches of the cave display precisely similar characters, and as regards respectively the matrix, the position, and the degree of preservation the Bears den coincides with the rest of the cavern-but in the predominance of the Bears species and the ungnawed condition of its remains it constitutes an exception

In all parts of the cavern indifferently, they are most abundant in the sandy loam occupying a central place between the superficial mantle of stalagmite and deeper [?] stratum of rubble on the rocky bottom-They may however

† [“ Page 125” is blank. W.P.]