332 NATURAL SCIENCE. May, 1895. 



Megaceros. Bone and flint implements are also found here : the former 

 are very numerous and include some beautifully double-barbed 

 harpoons, one of which, 6|-in. long, with nine barbs and a rounded 

 pierced end, was probably used as a detaching harpoon ; another, not 

 pierced, which was evidently hafted, measures 4-l-in. in length and 

 has four pairs of barbs, being very similar to a tool found in the 

 Victoria cave. There are numerous fragments of these tools, and a 

 quantity the use of which is not quite clear ; but the repetition of the 

 same types determines their human origin however unable we may be 

 to decide what was their use. Some of the bone tools are of chisel 

 form and others are suggestive of arrow tips. So preponderating are 

 these bone tools that one might assign the deposit to a " bone age," 

 were it not probable that the extensive use of this material is to be 

 attributed merely to the absence of flint in that part of the country, 

 for in the Hastings Kitchen Midden reverse conditions have produced 

 reverse results. Flint implements have, however, been found, and 

 this is all the more interesting from the fact that the nearest locality 

 for this form of silica is probably Mull. 



3. This bed of beach-gravel is evidently of marine origin, and 

 was deposited by the sea when it rose to this height, or when the 

 land and sea had a relative difference of some 35 ft. as compared with 

 the present configuration of the country. 



4. The succeeding shell-bed is another relic of human habitation; 

 and although greatly affected and decomposed by the overlying bed 

 and the conditions under which the latter was accumulated, it con- 

 tains a large number of precious remains in the form of bone and 

 flint implements, animal bones, and, above all, the bones of the men 

 themselves. The human remains include one skull, two lower jaws, 

 and several limb-bones. Exact details concerning these will be im- 

 patiently awaited ; it is, however, reported that the cephalic index of 

 the skull from the upper layer is 75, while that of the skull 

 from the lower bed is considerably less. During this tenancy 

 it seems that the land was sinking and the sea rising ; so that 

 against the incursions of the tide the troglodytes endeavoured 

 to build a wall right across the mouth of the cave. But their efforts 

 were in vain, and man was driven forth from the cave, unable to 

 return until after the re-elevation of the land and the deposition of 

 three feet of shingle. How long a period this represents we cannot 

 say until a full report has been made on the contents of beds 4 and 2 

 respectively ; and it is to be hoped that every inch of the former will 

 be carefully examined, for it may yield many more human bones. 



5. Even this lower stalagmitic layer contains treasures sealed up 

 in it, and these may carry us back to a period of whose remoteness 

 we have as yet no idea. This, however, we can say, that since man 

 made the attempt to stem the incoming tide at Oban, that part of 

 Scotland has been elevated some 35 or 40 feet. 



W. J. Lewis Abbott. 



