BRIXHAM CAVE, TORQUAY.
The ossiferous cave of Brixham, near Torquay, was discovered in the year 1858, and was almost immediately brought under the notice of the Geological and Royal Societies by the late Dr. Hugh Falconer.[1] The latter society, acting on the recommendation of the council of the former, made a grant towards the exploration of the cave in the manner suggested by the late Mr. Pengelly, who was also assisted with money by the Baroness Burdett Coutts, Sir J. K. Shuttleworth, and the late Mr. R. Arthington of Leeds. With Dr. Falconer was associated a committee of distinguished geologists, including Mr. Pengelly, under whose immediate superintendence the works were carried on. Owing to various delays, the final report of this committee, drawn up by the late Sir Joseph Prestwich, was not presented to the Royal Society until 1872, though some accounts of the progress of the explorations[2] had from time to time been made public.
The Report will be found in the Philosophical Transactions for 1873[3] and comprises a memorandum of my own on the objects of human industry discovered in the cave.
Accounts of the cave have also been given by Mr. Pengelly[4] and Prof. Boyd Dawkins.[5]
The cave itself is in Devonian Limestone, and consists of three principal galleries, in plan not unlike the letter Z, with various diverging tunnel-shaped passages, and a chamber at the right-hand lower corner of the Z, the two entrances being at the extreme points on the opposite side. The gallery represented by the middle limb of the letter, known as the Flint Knife Gallery, bears the most distinct marks of having been hollowed out by the long-protracted action of running water, and the deposit in it was nearly free from stalagmite. In the others, which are known as the Reindeer and Pen Galleries, and which have more the character of fissures, stalagmite abounded.
Where all the deposits of the cave were present,[6] the following was the section in descending order.
1. Irregular layer of stalagmite, 1 to 15 inches thick.
- ↑ "Palæont. Mem.," vol. ii. p. 486.
- ↑ Quar. Journ. Geol. Soc., 1860, vol. xvi. p. 189. Lubbock, "Preh. Times," 4th ed., p. 321. Geologist, vol. i. p. 538; vol. iv. p. 153. Brit. Assoc. Report, 1858.
- ↑ P. 471.
- ↑ Proc. Dev. Assoc., vol. vi. p. 775.
- ↑ "Cave-hunting," p. 319.
- ↑ Lyell, "Ant. of Man," 3rd ed., p. 99. Trans. Devon. Assoc., vol. i. pt. iii. 31.
