We owe the full details of their history to the labours of the distinguished cave-hunter Mr. Pengelly, F.R.S.,[200] whose writings are freely used in the following account. _The Oreston Caves._ The first intimation of the presence of fossil bones in the district was furnished by Mr. Whidbey, the engineer in charge of the construction of the Plymouth breakwater, who discovered numerous bones and teeth, imbedded in clayey loam, in some cavernous fissures at Oreston, which were brought before the Royal Society by Sir Everard Home in 1817. Thus Dr. Buckland’s researches in Kirkdale were anticipated by four years. From time to time, since that date, several other fissures and caves close by have furnished remains of rhinoceros, mammoth, hyæna, lion, and other animals. Among the bones and teeth originally sent up by Mr. Whidbey are several which were identified by Prof. Busk,[201] as belonging to the _Rhinoceros megarhinus_, a species that is vastly abundant in the pleiocene strata of northern Italy and is also represented in the early pleistocene forest-bed of Norfolk and Suffolk, and in the lower brickearths of the valley of the Thames at Grays and Crayford. This is the only case on record of the discovery of the animal in a cavern deposit. The cavernous fissures in the neighbourhood of Yealmpton,[202] about seven miles east-south-east from Plymouth, explored by Mr. Bellamy and Colonel Mudge, R.A., F.R.S. in 1835-6, contained the remains of the hyæna and rhinoceros, and the other animals more usually associated with them. They were probably filled, as in the case of Oreston, mainly by the streams which introduced the pebbles. They may, however, from time to time have been inhabited by the hyænas, although the presence of three skulls of that animal forbids the supposition that they dragged in all the fossil bones. _The Caves at Brixham._ The series of fissures accidentally discovered in 1858, in quarrying the rock which overlooks the little fishing town of Brixham, known as the Windmill cave, was selected by the late Dr. Falconer,[203] as a spot in which thorough investigation would be likely to decide the then doubtful question of the co-existence of man with the extinct mammalia. Kent’s Hole had been disturbed by repeated diggings, and the results might be viewed with suspicion. He, therefore, urged the importance of a systematic examination of this virgin cave with such effect, that it was undertaken by the Royal and Geological Societies, and a committee was appointed, comprising, amongst others, Dr. Falconer, Prof. Ramsay, Mr. Prestwich, Sir Charles Lyell, Prof. Owen, Mr. Godwin-Austen, and Mr. Pengelly. To the superintendence of the last is mainly due the minute care with which the exploration was conducted. The remains have been identified by Dr. Falconer and Prof. Busk. The work was commenced in July 1858, and completed in the summer of 1859.[204]