Stanley's Memoir on a Cave at Cefn in Denhigshire. 45 



doubtless concluded it to be the lower and real surface of the 

 rof;k. So hard indeed was it, that, in addition to the difficulty 

 of working in a confined space, I was unable to excavate in the 

 whole more than about two square yards of soil, which brought me 

 to a depth of about 3 or 4 feet, but I cannot say positively, that 

 even then the workmen had attained the actual floor. Stalag- 

 mitic fragments indeed occurred, but broken as they were by 

 pick-axes, I could not distinctly ascertain, by the doubtful ghm- 

 mering of candle-light, whether they formed parts of larger 

 masses uniformly deposited, or were mere insulated patches, 

 formed by partial drippings from the roof, confined to particular 

 spots immediately below some crevice above. My great object, 

 as I have observed, being a more minute examination of this 

 lower stratum, I paid at this latter visit less attention to the 

 upper depositions, and therefore, confined as I was in space, in 

 proportion to the depth, collected comparatively but few bones 

 from that quarter, though, had this been my sole pursuit, judg- 

 ing from the produce of my two former visits, I might have filled 

 a basket in the same space of time. But those I did collect, 

 were sufficient to realize the conclusions I had before formed. 

 They were all antediluvian, and most of them belonging to large 

 animals. Here, also, I met with pebbles, though in no great quan- 

 tities, perhaps at the rate of a dozen in a cubic foot of soil, most 

 of them not exceeding ;i or ^ an inch in thickness, and generally 

 of an oblong form, and a few of them broken. With very few 

 exceptions they were homogeneous, viz. of the greywacke for- 

 mation, which constitutes the prevailing class of rocks (I have 

 reason to believe) in the distant districts from whence the tribu- 

 tary streams of the Elwy have their source. In addition to 

 these pebbles and bones, I also detected some very minute 

 portions of wood, to all appearance broken pieces of twigs of 

 hazel or birch, none exceeding a half, or at most an inch, in 

 length. 



Of the farther extent of this cave it is impossible to form the 

 slightest guess ; it may continue for several hundred yards, and 

 communicate with fissures or large openings, containing abun- 

 dant stores of similar remains, connected with the indigenous 

 animals of our island in those remote times. 



It only remains for me to make a few observations suggested 

 by the situation and character of this cave, in the hope that 



