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(see Phil. Trans. 1817,pp. 176–182). This request was cheerfully complied with, and Mr. Whidbey had the pleasure of discovering bone-caves in November, 1816, November, 18-20, August and November, 1822, and of sending the remains found in them to the Royal Society. It is, perhaps, worthy of remark that, though cavern-researches received a great impulse from the discoveries in Kirkdale, Yorkshire, and especially from Dr.Buckland's well-known and graphic description of them, such researches had originated many years before. The request by Sir Joseph Banks was made at least as early as 1812 (see Trans. Devon. Assoc. v. pp. 252, 253), and a paper on the Oreston discoveries was read to the Royal Society in February, 1817, whereas the Kirkdale Cavern was not discovered until 1821. British cave-hunting appears to have been a science of Devonshire birth. The Oreston Caverns soon attracted a considerable number of able observers; they were visited in 1822 by Dr. Buckland and Mr. Warburton; and in a comparatively short time became the theme of a somewhat voluminous literature. Nothing of, importance, however, seems to have been met with from 1822 until 1858, when another cavern, containing a large number of bones, was broken into. Unfortunately there was no one at hand to superintend the exhumation of the specimens; the work was left entirely to the common workmen, and was badly done; many of the remains were dispersed beyond recovery; the matrix in which they were buried was never adequately examined; and we are utterly ignorant, and must for ever remain so, as to whether they did or did not contain indications of human existence. I visited the spot from time to time, and bought up everything to be met with; but other scientific work in another part of the county occupied me too closely to allow more than an occasional visit. The greater part of the specimens I secured were lodged in the British Museum, where they seem to have been forgotten, whilst a few remain in my private collection. Some difference of opinion has existed respecting the character of the successive caverns, and much mystery has been imported into the question of the introduction of their contents. Mr. Whidbey, it is said, "saw no possibility of the cavern of 1816 having had any external communication through the rock in which it was enclosed" (Phil. Trans. 1817, pp. 176–182); but Dr. Buckland was of opinion that they were all at first fissures open at the top, and "that the openings had been long filled up with rubbish, mud, stalactite, or fragments