446 Geological Society. 



The rock, through which the valley has been excavated, is lime- 

 stone, much resembling in external characters that of the carbonife- 

 rous series of Europe. This appears on both sides of the valley above 

 the alluvial deposits in the bottom, and extends on the east to the 

 height of about 100 feet above the stream. On the west of the val- 

 ley, hills of greater height run parallel to the limestone, consisting 

 of a red sandstone and conglomerate ; and a range of heights on 

 the east of it is composed of trap rocks. The basis of a tract, still 

 further eastward, which divides the watershed of the interior, from 

 that which sends its streams to the sea, is granite. 



The rugged surface of the limestone tract, in several parts of which 

 the bare rocks are exposed, appears to abound in cavities, the orifices 

 of caves and fissures $ two of which, the more immediate subject of 

 this communication, are about eighty feet above the stream of the 

 Bell, on its eastern side ; the first being a cave about 300 feet in 

 extent ; the second apparently a wide fissure in the limestone, par- 

 tially filled up. 



The Cave agrees in structure with many of those well known from 

 the descriptions of Dr. Buckland and other writers : it descends, at 

 first, with a moderate inclination; and about 125 feet from the mouth, 

 the floor is thickly covered with a fine dry reddish dust, in which a 

 few fragments of bones, apparently of kangaroos, occur. The ca- 

 vern in different places affords beautiful stalactites and stalagmitic 

 incrustations. Irregular cavities in the roof seem to lead towards the 

 surface of the hill j and at the remotest part the floor is covered with 

 a heap of dry white dust, so loose and light, that one of the ex- 

 ploring party sunk into it up to the waist. This dust, when chemi- 

 cally examined by Dr. Turner, was found to consist principally of 

 carbonate of lime, with some phosphate of lime and animal matter. 

 In fine, the cave appeared to terminate in a fissure nearly vertical, 

 with water at its bottom, about thirty feet below the lowest part of 

 the cavern, and nearly on a level with the waters of the river Bell. 

 This fissure also extended upwards towards the surface. 



About eighty feet to the west of the cave above described, is the 

 mouth of another cavity of a different description, first examined by 

 Mr. Rankin. At this place the surface itself consists of a breccia 

 full of fragments of bones ; and a similar compound confusedly mixed 

 with large rude blocks of limestone, forms the sides of the cavity, 

 which is a nearly vertical, wide, and irregular sort of well, accessible 

 only by the aid of ladders and ropes. This breccia consists of an 

 earthy red calcareous stone having small fragments of the grey lime- 

 stone of the valley dispersed through it, and in some parts possesses 

 considerable hardness. Near the lower part of the fissure (the whole 

 extent of which was not explored) were three layers of stalagmitic 

 concretion about two inches in thickness and three inches apart, the 

 spaces being occupied with a red ochraceous matter, with bones in 

 abundance imbedded both in stalagmite and between the layers of it. 



The bones found in the fissure just described, of which specimens 

 have been sent to England, belong with only two exceptions, to ani- 

 mals at present known to exist in the adjacent country j and their 



dimensions 



