300 Geological Saciety. 



up to the roof, leaving only an empty angular chamber about a 

 foot high above the stalagmite. Upon the latter, remains of 

 Mustela foina, Canis vulpes, and some Fish-bones and Bird-bones 

 were found. In the sand large coprolites of Carnivores, some fine 

 remains of Felts spelcea, bones of Rhinoceros, and the vertebrae 

 of a Fish were discovered. Below the sand, as usual in the Gower 

 Caves, there was a sandy breccia cemented by stalagmite, about 

 a foot thick. Upon it a large block of limestone, smoothed and 

 polished, probably by the rubbing of passing cave-animals, was 

 discovered ; and patches of polished surface were seen on the walls of 

 the cave. Remains of Elephas, Rhinoceros, Bos, and Cervus were 

 met with above the breccia. Below the breccia was a bed of dark-grey 

 gritty sand, indurated by calcareous infiltration, and attaining a maxi- 

 mum thickness of about 8 feet. In this sand, and close upon the 

 rock-floor, teeth of Hippopotamus major, young and old, and remains 

 of XJrsus, Cervus, and Arvicola, were met with. There was evidence, 

 on the cliff beyond the aperture, of the cave and its contents having 

 formerly been continued further seawards. 



The author pointed out that in all these caves the bottom appears 

 to have been first filled with sea-sand or shingle, with which were 

 occasionally intermingled the bones of pachyderms, ruminants, &c, 

 then living on the emerged land of Gower ; that when this deposit 

 was elevated above high- water mark, stalagmite and angular debris 

 of limestone rock formed a floor, on which subsequently cave- earth 

 or other common alluvial materials, with bones and antlers, often 

 in profusion, were accumulated through the fissure above, during a 

 long lapse of time after the rise had been accomplished. At last, 

 by a converse action, of comparatively modern date, the level of the 

 caves was depressed. The raised beach at Mewslade Bay, which 

 appears, according to the evidence of Mr. Prestwich, to be of later 

 date than the Boulder-clay, has without doubt partaken of changes 

 of level similar to what the caves and their contents have under- 

 gone, although, the marine deposits in the caves not being at a uni- 

 form level either in relation to each other or to the raised beach, it 

 is probable that there have been locally unequal depressions of level 

 in comparatively modern times. The author thinks that the sea 

 has effected but a comparatively slight inroad on the cave- deposits 

 and raised beach ; and hence he infers that they belong to a rela- 

 tively modern epoch — seeing also that they are probably of later 

 date than the Boulder- clay period, and rest on marine sands con- 

 taining existing species of shells. 



Paviland Cave was next referred to ; but the author restricted his 

 remarks to the remains of Elephas primigenius and human bones that 

 were found in it, and argues that the latter (t. e. the skeleton of the 

 " Red Lady ") are of more recent date than the former. 



In the cave at Spritsail Tor (cursorily examined by Sir H. De la 

 Beche, and thoroughly explored by Colonel Wood), under a stalag- 

 mitic bone-breccia, the irregular fissure of the rocky floor was im- 

 pacted with ochreous cave-earth full of bones and teeth of Elephas 

 antiquus, E. primigenius, Rhinoceros tichorhinus, Equus, Sus, Bos, 



