former. It is more properly a magma (or tufa, as McEnery calls it) into which a stick may be thrust to a considerable depth; and consists of lime united with carbonic acid, and associated intimately with iron (peroxide) in such sense that it is apparently impossible at the usual atmospheric pressure to re-dissolve the mass in any quantity of water acidulated with carbonic acid; the oxide of iron being, of course, entirely insoluble, as will be seen by the analysis I present.† It How, then, should the immense mass of material forming this floor have been dissolved by rainwater, and infiltrated through the rocky roof of the cavern? This solvent could not have extracted the iron from the superincumbent earth unless it there exists at a lower state of oxidation, which I do not think probable, and had no means of examining (the hill above the cave is laid out as a garden, beneath which I am told the labourers can be heard at their work). I certainly was led to suspect the existence of a thermal spring, which containing as usual iron in solution at a lower stage of oxidation, as well as lime, might have gained entrance in some way into the cavern. is not my business to find the explanation, but to insist on this, that a mass of so uncertain origin which (as we may see presently) need not to have been produced as stalagmite at all§ cannot be reckoned upon in any sense as a chronometer of time. So much for the upper stalagmite floor, which was from sixteen to twenty inches thick, sometimes attaining five feet, and containing large fragments of limestone, a human jaw, and the remains of extinct animals. During the long period of years which this took in forming, it seems that only one human being left his remains in the cretaceous mass. If * Mr. McEnery very appropriately observes that in some parts of the cavern the stalagmite and stalactite had been formed by the percolation of water "through the rents or porcs of the rock." The rock itself, as seen by the specimen I exhibit, is impermeable to water; in other parts the calcareous moisture entered laterally through the clefts and crevices, and spread slowly over the floor."-Literature of Kent's Cavern, pp. 41, 42. † "After rains these infiltrations are copious, and in some places coloured with a solution of red marl or vegetable soil."-McEnery, p. 282. In their first report the Committee say, Since the commencement> the work unusually heavy rains have fallen in the district, but water has entered through the roof at very few points only." § Mr. McEnery says in other places the drop from the roof acted concurrently with the oozings from the sides in forming the floor, which consequently partakes of both manners, -Lit. of Cave, p. 42. || In Notes on Recent Notices of the Geology and Paleontology of Devonshire, Part i. p. 37, read at Teignmouth, July 1874, I find that "the human jaw was near the base of the stalagmite." This was 20 inches in thickness, and reckoning "500 years for each inch of the stalagmites," we verge upon 100,000 years for the era of this human being. he could have bequeathed to us his autobiography, it would have been highly interesting to learn what he thought of his position and of his companions. Especially, should we desire information respecting one animal, the Machairodus latidens (Owen), a large lion-like animal, armed with double-edged teeth, in shape like the blade of a sabre and with two serrated edges. This formidable creature seems to belong rather to the pleiocene than to the pleistocene age, and its remains are exceedingly rare, but were found by McEnery in the cave, giving rise to considerable controversy. It is probable that the expenditure of some thousand pounds. by the British Association has produced no result so important. as the confirmation of the accuracy of the previous discoveries of McEnery, this one among the rest, which tended greatly towards the clearing of the cavern. It is needful, if we would preserve the regular sequence of strata, to notice in the next place a local deposit called " the black band," which yielded 350 flint implements and flakes, charred wood in great quantity, bones partially charred, bone tools, including a wellformed awl, a harpoon or fish-spear, barbed on one side, and a portion of a needle, having a nicely-made eye, capable of carrying fine twine, and remains of bear, badger, fox, cave-hyena, rhinoceros, horse, ox, and deer. All these objects may, if I mistake not, be seen in the Torquay Museum, and, if admitted to be more than one hundred thousand years old,* throw considerable light on the early development of the honourable pursuits of the tailor and sempstress. Pity that the art was lost before our first parents so much needed clothing! The cave-earth (next in order) contained the great harvest of remains of the common cave mammals, including extinct species, such as the mammoth, cave-bear, &c. ; recent species no longer existing in Britain, such as the reindeer, wolf, &c. ; and recent species still inhabiting the district, such as the badger, fox, &c. The remains of the horse and rhinoceros were extremely abundant, but were probably surpassed by those of the cavehyena. "The bones lay together, without anything like order; remnants of different species were constantly commingled, and in no instance was there met with anything approaching a complete skeleton. Mixed with them, and at all depths to which the cave-earth was excavated, indications of man were everywhere found,"-harpoons, bone pins, and the inevitable flint flakes. 100 000 according to Mr. Pengelly, or 200,000 according to the Guide. Now I wish to examine how all this mass of cave-earth entered the cavern? When I first visited the place in 1869, under the guidance of Mr. Pengelly, it was supposed that there were only two entrances to Kent's Hole on the eastern side of the cavern hill, fifty-four feet apart, and nearly on the same level, about two hundred feet from the level of mean tide, and from sixty to seventy feet above the bottom of the adjacent valley in the same vertical plane. Under these circumstances it seems to have been concluded "that at least the great bulk of it was washed in through the two external entrances, because there is no other channel of ingress."* But it seems now uncertain whether these are the only two entrances, as in about the furthest point to which the excavations have been extended Mr. Pengelly pointed out to us, from the deflection of the flame of a candle, that a current of air was entering from some yet unexplored communication with the surface. This leads to some doubt about the whole explanation. Indeed, the admissions made by the committee in various places quite confirm the idea of violent disturbance of the contents of the cavern having at intervals taken place. According to Mr. Pengelly,+" the hypothesis that best explains the facts is this, that at the time the cave-earth was carried into the cavern it was introduced in very small instalments or minute quantities at a time, and after some interval a further quantity; and so on. In the intervals the cave was inhabited by wild animals and by men, not jointly but alternately." But I read in the Fourth Report (p. 3), "The older floor, of which the masses of old stalagmite are obviously remnants, appears to have been broken up by being fractured along planes at right and other high angles to its upper and lower surfaces." if so, the remains of man and of animals must surely have been borne along likewise in heterogeneous confusion; and I must confess that, notwithstanding all the explanations of my guide, and statements such as are found in the numerous works on the subject, such was the impression left upon my mind. If the reader will study the above description of these entrances, and But But it seems probable, according to McEnery, that the ancient apertures were not confined to the actual inlets. It has been already remarked that the sewer-like passages which traverse the body of the deposit, as well as the sallyports, appear to have once opened in the sides (a strong current of air circulates through them), though we have not yet succeeded in discovering their cxits, owing to the accumulation of rubble or their being masked by the growth of copsewood. [It has only been by long investigation that I have discovered these confirmations of my original impressions, which will account for the mode in which I present them.] + The Cave Men, &c., p. 143, Part ii. 1875. much more if he could see the place, he would be satisfied that nothing short of the waters of a deluge could effect this result.* As to the period of time which it took to effect all this, I find no attempt at accurate calculation. When once we begin to draw cheques on the Bank of Imagination and are quite sure they will not be dishonoured, it is well to be liberal in the amount. Mr. McEnery, who was not acquainted with the views of modern scientists, calculates from the discovery of a boar's skull accompanied by the head of a badger and an iron spear, which were found in the middle of the stalagmite. He says,† "It is a curious inquiry to ascertain at what historic period the cavern was visited by the boar-hunter, armed with his iron spear. Could we arrive at an approximation to that period, by doubling it, we might have the age of the stalagmite. An intermediate period between the deposition of the mud and the present time is strongly indicated; which squares with that assigned by history for the occupation of this country by savage aborigines, who dwelt in native caverns and pits, which they dug underground, before they formed into societies and built themselves abodes on the surface, brought fields into cultivation, and assumed a civilized form."t "If we may compute by this scale, taking the charcoal seam as a species of chronometer to measure the time elapsed before and since its deposition, we shall have pretty nearly the time which should elapse since the Deluge, viz. 4,000 or 5,000 years.' According to Mr. Pengelly, who has a different theory to support, some hundred thousand years at least before Adam sinned (as Jews and as Christians believe) man was associated with a creature§ possessing the formidable weapons of offence characteristic of the sabre-toothed bear. (See the plate opposite, adapted from Figuier.) Beneath all that I have described comes a second stalagmite floor from three to twelve feet thick, containing bones of bears. only. I am not quite certain whether this is always so regular and subjacent as it ought to be in theory; but be that as it * See Appendix B. + McEnery, p. 73. Camden quotes from Hauvillan, an old British poet, as follows: "Titanibus illa, Sed paucis fabulosa domus quibus uda ferarum Antra lares, dumeta thoros, cœnacula rupes, ** * * sed eorum plurima tractus, |