“Finally, as the cave became out of the reach of the flood waters, the drippings from the roof, which up to this period had, with the single exception before mentioned, been lost in the accumulating cave-earth, or deposited in thin calcareous incrustations on the exposed bones, now commenced that deposit of stalagmite which sealed up and preserved undisturbed the shingle and cave-earth deposited under former and different conditions. The cave, however, still continued to be the occasional resort of beasts of prey; for sparse remains of the reindeer, together with those of the bear and rhinoceros, were found in the stalagmite floor. After a time the falling in of the roof at places (and any earthquake movement may have detached blocks from it), and the external surface weathering, stopped up some parts of the cave, and closed its entrances with an accumulation of débris. From that time it ceased to be accessible, except to the smaller rodents and burrowing animals, and so remained unused and untrodden until its recent discovery and exploration.”[206] Mr. Pengelly points out[207] an episode in the history of the cave, between the formation and the filling up with its present contents, which is of considerable importance, viewed in relation to the deposits in Kent’s Hole. Over the empty space in D, of Fig. 95, is an ancient stalagmite floor, E, constituting the present ceiling, and shutting off D from the true roof above, E. At the time this was formed, the cave must have been filled up to that level with débris, fragments of which are set in the inferior portion of the calcareous sheet. Subsequently, and before the present contents, A and B, were introduced, the whole of this material has been swept away, probably by an unusual flood similar to that alluded to in the second chapter in the Clapham cave. The pieces of stalagmite in the cave-earth are, probably, some of the relics of the older floor. This filling up, re-excavating, and re-filling with its present contents, are phenomena which considerably complicate the problems offered not merely by Brixham cave, but also by those of Kent’s Hole. Two other caverns in the neighbourhood of Brixham, the “Ash Hole” and “Bench,” have also yielded the remains of the reindeer, hyæna, and several other pleistocene species, and are fully described by Mr. Pengelly, in his essays contributed to the Devonshire Association.[208] _Kent’s Hole._