xxii Journal of Proceedings.
double-trefoil ground plan of the No. 3 "dene," but Mr. Spiller hopes to
take other photographs when the heap of sand shall have been cleared
away from the foot of the shaft as one result of the Club's proposed
explorations.
The visitors on Saturday were very numerous, particularly during the
afternoon, a number of ladies being included in the company. What
are known as Nos. 3 and 5 pits were those selected and prepared for
inspection. The large majority of those present descended into one or
other of the excavations, and the little wood in the fields was the scene
of unusual animation. The descent into No. 3 pit was effected with
comfort, a chair-like seat being used from which it was impossible to
fall, but the descent into No. 5 pit was by the much more rough and
hazardous means of a rope with a noose to stand or sit in, and it is
needless to add that only masculine members of the party adopted this
method of descent and ascent, the ladies confining their attention to
No. 3 pit. This last is an extremely fine example, and it is proposed to
commence the investigations in this pit, and to communicate by means
of tunnelling through the solid chalk (as suggested by Mr. Cole) with
one or more of the adjoining pits the shafts of which are closed, and
which, being, as it were, new ground, will, it is hoped, lead to some
interesting results. The air in the pits was very good, and illuminated
by candles the whitened chambers presented a truly weird aspect.
Some members of the party were busy in taking the dimensions and
sketching plans of the chambers, while others were in search of
cretaceous fossils, bones, insects, and other objects. The chief living
occupants of the chambers appeared to be spiders of abnormal growth,
which were very numerous. In No. 5 pit, which consisted of six large
chambers, it was found that the partition wall of chalk between one of
the chambers and an adjoining pit was broken through, and though the
shaft of this (No. 6) pit was filled in with sand some of the more
venturesome were enabled, by creeping through a narrow aperture, to
reach one of the chambers of this pit, and the conclusion come to was
that it consisted of four chambers. In the roof of one of the chambers
of No. 5 pit there was a ring of Thanet sand about the dimensions of
a shaft, and at the first glance this looked like another closed shaft, but
Mr. Holmes jocosely explained that here there must have been some
"jerry building," and that, owing to the thin coating of chalk left at
the top, a portion had fallen, exposing the sand. This called forth from
another member of the party the observation that this pit must have
been the most recently constructed, as "jerry building" was a modern
invention. Enriched by plans, bones, insects, and geological specimens
the party returned to Grays shortly after six o'clock, and sat down to a
capital knife-and-fork tea, admirably served by Mr. Cuming at the
"King's Arms Hotel."
After tea a short informal meeting was held, under the presidency of
Professor Boulger, when Mr. Holmes gave some details of what had