“4. Lines, one foot apart, are drawn at right angles to the datum-line, and therefore parallel to one another, across the chamber so as to divide the surface of the deposit into belts termed ‘parallels.’
“5. In each parallel the black mould which the limestone masses had covered is first examined and removed, and then the stalagmite breccia, so as to lay bare the surface of the cave-earth.
“6. Horizontal lines, a foot apart, are then drawn from side to side across the vertical face of the section so as to divide the parallel into four layers or ‘levels,’ each a foot deep.
“Finally each level is divided into lengths called ‘yards,’ each three feet long, and measured right and left from the datum-line as an axis of abscissæ.
“In fine, the cave-earth is excavated in vertical slices or parallels four feet high, one foot thick, and as long as the chamber is broad, where this breadth does not exceed thirty feet. Each parallel is taken out in levels one foot high, and in each level in horizontal prisms three feet long and a foot square in the section, so that each contains three cubic feet of material.
“This material, after being carefully examined in situ by candlelight, is taken to the door and re-examined by daylight, after which it is at once removed without the cavern. A box is appropriated to each yard exclusively, and in it are placed all the objects of interest which the prism yields. The boxes, each having a label containing the data necessary for defining the situation of its contents, are daily sent to the honorary secretary of the committee, by whom the specimens are at once cleaned and packed in fresh boxes. The labels are numbered and packed with the specimens to which they respectively belong, and a record of the day’s work is entered in a diary.
“The same method is followed in the examination of the black mould, and also of the stalagmitic breccia, with the single exception that in these cases the parallels are not divided into levels and yards.”
A careful record of the work, and minute sections should be taken daily on the spot.
The Stalagmitic Floor to be broken up.
In all cases the crystalline flooring of stalagmite and stalagmitic breccias which often occur, should be broken up, or, if necessary, blasted with gunpowder. The former very frequently conceals the pleistocene remains, and the latter, which is in Kent’s Hole many feet thick, often contains the traces of man and wild animals. Sometimes it is very difficult to distinguish the breccia from the rocky floor.