Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 1 (1877).djvu/393

Rh small virgin cavern on Windmill Hill, at Brixham, led to a sudden and complete revolution; for it was seen that whatever were the facts elsewhere, there had undoubtedly been found at Brixham flint implements commingled with remains of the Mammoth and his companions, and in such a way as to render it impossible to doubt that man occupied Devonshire before the extinction of the cave mammals. Under the feeling that the statements made by MacEnery and his followers respecting Kent's Hole were perhaps, after all, to be accepted as verities, the British Association, in 1864, appointed a committee to make a complete, systematic and accurate exploration of the cavern, in which it was known that very extensive portions remained entirely intact. This committee commenced its labours on March 28, 1865; it has been reappointed, year after year, with sufficient grants of money, up to the present time; the work has gone on continuously throughout the entire thirteen years; and the result has been, not only a complete confirmation of Mr. MacEnery's statements, but the discovery of far older deposits than he suspected—deposits implying great changes of, at least, local geographical conditions; changes in the fauna of the district; and yielding evidence of men more ancient and far ruder than even those who made the oldest flint tools found in Kent's Hole prior to the appointment of the committee. The cavern consists of a series of chambers and passages, which resolve themselves into two main divisions, extending from nearly north to south in parallel lines, but passing into each other near their extremities, and throwing off branches, occasionally of considerable size. The successive deposits, in descending order were—

1st, or uppermost. Fragments of block and limestone from an ounce to upwards of 100 tons weight each, which had fallen from the roof from time to time, and were, in some instances, cemented with carbonate of lime.

2nd. Beneath and between these blocks lay a dark-coloured mud or mould, consisting largely of decayed leaves and other vegetable matter. It was from 3 to 12 inches thick, and known as the black mould. This occupied the entire eastern division, with the exception of a small chamber in its south-western end only, but was not found in the other, the remoter, parts of the cavern.

3rd. Under this was a stalagmitic floor, commonly of granular texture, and frequently laminated, from less than an inch to fully five feet in thickness, and termed the granular stalagmite.