120 FOSSILS OF THE NEIGHBOURHOOD. 



course, their occasional narrowness, blocked passages 

 and so forth, than to the deficiency of an entry as 

 has been supposed by some ; and that they almost 

 invariably contain substances, and deposits of various 

 kinds, which resulted from the action of commoved 

 and agitated waters ; some of them are filled with 

 fine sand and pebbles, some with clay and fragments 

 of stone, and perhaps here and there a bone imbedded 

 with these, or incrusted with stalagmite : lastly, 

 some contain an immense assemblage of bones of 

 animals, impacted in clay, and stalagmite, which are 

 usually laying confusedly and mixed up, one species 

 with another ; generally also in fragments and splin- 

 ters, and which on examination appear not essentially 

 different, either in external qualities or in composition, 

 from bones which have been exhumed ^ter a few 

 years interment. Caves in the lime -rock, containing 

 sand, are, I think, by no means scarce : only two 

 however have occurred to me, one adjoining the 

 coach road under the Hoe, and another at a quarry 

 near Yealmpton. Caves containing clay are likewise 

 not scarce, but are less generally observed than the 

 former, for an evident reason. Caves containing 

 bones are not so common. Previously to this com- 

 munication I suspect that the " Oreston Caves " are 

 those only which are known to be of this class, I 

 have now to inform the public that caves of the same 

 kind occur at Yealmpton ; one of them which was 

 discovered about a year since was rich in animal 

 remains ; but these we regret to state were provok- 

 ingly squandered or thrown aside. A second of 

 these is the cave which, from bein<x beautifully deco- 

 rated with stalactites and stalagmites, is preserved 

 from injury, and occasionally lighted up by order of 

 the curious. By order of Mr. Bastard, the proprietor, 

 a pathway was dug through the stalagmite and other 

 substances which compose the floor, when bones of 

 a large animal were discovered, and are still in situ. 

 After this occurrence, an adjoining cavern was di- 

 rected to be emptied of its clay, in the hopes that 



