"The Cave-earth contained a considerable number of fragments of Devonian grit, huge blocks of limestone, large masses of old stalagmite, and loose lumps of rock-like breccia. . . . The loose lumps of rock-like breccia were of a more or less rounded form, and were composed of red earth, angular pieces of limestone, and rounded and sub-angular pieces of Devonian grit; they differed from the Cave-earth in being invariably cemented together like a firm mass of concrete, and in containing a considerably greater proportion of fragments of grit. Almost all of them were crowded with teeth and bones, which, so far as is known, are those of . . . Bear. No teeth-marks were detected on any of them, nor were there any traces of fæcal matter. . . . These lumps of breccia had not the appearance of being portions of the ordinary Cave-earth agglomerated in situ. Their aspect was rather that of remnants of a deposit older than that in which they were incorporated-the deposit, in fact, which the Old Floor of Stalagmite had covered, and on which it had been formed. To a large extent, this opinion received confirmation in the fact, already mentioned, that the osseous remains in the lumps of breccia as well as in the blocks of Old Stalagmite, were at least mainly those of . . . Bear, the other members of the Cave-fauna being unrepresented." (Rep. Brit. Assoc. 1868, pp. 48-9.) The sequel proved the correctness of all these speculations.

The Supposed Human Fibula of the Victoria Cave.

Quotation IV. "Mr. Pengelly thinks it possible, but not proved, that the lower breccia of Kent's Cavern may be interglacial or preglacial in age. One case only is known where a human bone has been found in a cavern under deposits supposed to be of the nature of the glacial drift. It is that of the Victoria Cave, at Settle, in Yorkshire. At this place a human fibula was found under a layer of Boulder clay. But there are too many chances of this bone having come into this position by some purely local accident to allow us to attach much importance to it until future discoveries shall have supplied other instances of the kind." (p. 308.)

I must here come to the assistance of Sir J. W. Dawson, though it is his imperfect acquaintance with the Literature of the Exploration of British Caverns that gives me this opportunity. The so-called “human bone"-a supposed portion of a human fibula-was, as long ago as August 1878, during the

Dublin Meeting of the British Association that year, publicly withdrawn by the paleontologist who had pronounced it human, who, in a written statement, said "the latter [the fibula] "is, or may be, in reality ursine and not human." (Rep. Brit. Assoc. 1878, p. 378.) It is obviously necessary to read cautiously the book before us.

Quotation V.

Stalagmitic Chronometers.

"Mr. Pengelly has endeavoured to maintain the value of the deposit of stalagmite as a means of establishing dates, in his 'Notes on Recent Notices of the Geology of Devonshire,' Part I., 1874; but, I confess, with little success. He urges, in opposition to the Ingleborough Cave, that at Cheddar, where, according to him, no appreciable deposit is taking place on the existing stalagmite. But this, of course, is evidence not applicable to the case in hand, as in the Cheddar case no stalagmite crust whatever could be produced." (p. 387.)

In my "Notes," to which Sir J. W. Dawson has done me the honour to allude, the following passage occurs :-"I have always abstained from, and cautioned others against, insisting that the thickness of the stalagmite is a perfectly trustworthy chronometer; nevertheless, it seems fair to ask those who deny that it is of any value to state the basis of their denial." (Trans. Devon. Assoc. vi. 670, 1874.) Those words appeared to me in 1874, as they do still, to be an endeavour to maintain, not the value of the deposit of stalagmite as a means of establishing dates, but a spirit of caution and a desire for accuracy.

With regard to Cheddar Cavern the following is my statement written in 1874 :-" When the late Mr. George Cox, in 1838, discovered that cavern he noted the case of a stalactite and stalagmite which had approached so near to one another that a single drop of water suspended from the point of the former just touched that of the latter. When this fell off, its place was taken by a second drop which as completely filled the interspace; and this has gone on ever since without bringing the points perceptibly nearer. In short, to use the words of Mr. J. Streatfield Cox, the present proprietor of the Cavern, who has been so good as to write me on the subject, in 35 years there has been no appreciable growth in any of the formations.'" (Ibid. p. 666.) It is obvious therefore that the statement is not "according to him," i.e. Mr. Pengelly,

but according to Mr. J. S. Cox, whose knowledge of the case exceeds that of any other person.

Sir J. W. Dawson assumes apparently that a non-"appreciable growth in 35 years" is a synonym for an entire absence of growth; but, as is remarked in my "Notes" now under notice, "at the Kent's Hole rate of 05 inch in 250 years the actual approach of the " [Cheddar] "points in 35 years would be no more than ·007 (=1) inch. .. a quantity too small to be perceptible by the naked eye." It cannot be necessary to add that the magnitude to which a deposit may reach even under such circumstances is but a question of time.

Limits of Geological Time.

Quotation VI. "Mr. Pengelly's own estimate of the rate of deposit gives, however, a length of time which is sufficient to show that there must be error somewhere in his calculations. He states the aggregate thickness of the two crusts at twelve feet, and then, assuming a rate of deposit of 0·05 inch in 250 years, or one inch in 5000 years, he arrives at the conclusion that the whole deposit required 720,000 years for its formation. He is willing to suppose the mechanical deposits to have accumulated more rapidly; but allowing one fourth of the time, we have nearly a million of years claimed for the residence of man in Devonshire, which, independently of other considerations, would push back the Paleozoic trilobites and corals of that county into the primitive reign of fire, and which in point of fact amounts to a reductio ad absurdum of the whole argument." (p. 388.)

...

would

The statement in Quotation VI., that "a million of years claimed for the residence of man in Devonshire push back the Paleozoic trilobites and corals of that county into the primitive reign of fire" presupposes some approach, at least, to a definite estimate of the time separating us from the supposed "primitive reign.

It has no doubt become somewhat fashionable for some eminent mathematicians to state in comparatively modest figures the amount of time the earth may have existed at a habitable temperature, and this has apparently been accepted by the writer of the passage just quoted. But Professor Haughton, of Trinity College, Dublin-a mathematician by no means unknown to Fame-has recently declined to accept the said modest figures, or indeed any figures. His position may be briefly stated thus:-Mathematicians, by assuming

the entire rise of temperature, with increase of depth in the earth, to be solely due to a former high temperature, find data for a calculation as to how long ago the earth's surface had a given temperature. He denies the assumption, believing the chief cause of the rise of temperature to be due to chemical action, and only a small part, if any, to a former high temperature. This correction, he says, would extend the limit of geological time indefinitely; adding that mathematicians know as little as any body else about the duration of geological time. (Substance of a private letter to the author.)

CHANGES IN TRAVELLING

ON THE ROAD BETWEEN EXETER AND PLYMOUTH DURING THE LAST SIXTY YEARS.

BY THE LATE REV. TREASURER HAWKER, M. A.

(COMMUNICATED BY THE REV. W. HARPLEY, M.A.)

(Read at Seaton, July, 1885.)

[THE following paper was offered for acceptance in May last year with the characteristic remark, "Do what you like with it." At that time the lamented author was seriously ill; but some of us had not abandoned hope that he might be spared to come amongst us again. A short time, however, before the commencement of the Meeting at Newton Abbot death intervened; and meeting as we did under the shadow of so great a loss, I felt it would but aggravate the universal grief were the paper then read. Notwithstanding therefore that special reference is made towards the close of the paper to Newton, I took upon myself the responsibility of deciding to keep the paper in reserve until the present occasion. This decision has since been approved by members of the deceased author's family, and now I have the mournful pleasure of communicating the paper to the Association.-W. H.]

Nor very far short of sixty years ago the writer of this sketch, when a small child, took his first journey on the outside of a stage-coach from Plymouth to Chudleigh with his father. There, as fresh horses were being put in for the remaining ten miles to Exeter, he remembers that the driver of the "Defiance," the coach by which he had travelled, asked how many passengers there had been on the rival coach, the "Subscription," commonly called, as he called it, the Serippy." "Two," was the answer. It was winter time, I believe. "Ah!" returned our coachman, a burly, powerful specimen of the old style of drivers, called Harvey, "then we've got two and a half," the "half" being my diminutive self. That, my first journey by such a conveyance, was the more deeply impressed on my memory by one of the leaders falling whilst descending a steep hill between Brent and Ashburton, and, from the harness happily breaking, turning