EXTINCT TYPE OF DOG. 9 



ON THE AGE OF THE ELY CAVE. 



The foregoing description of certain remains of canine animals which 

 were found in Ely Cave, in Lee county, Virginia, require for their eluci- 

 dation a general description of the geological conditions of this cavern. 

 In 1877 the attention of my friend and colleague, Mr. Lucien Carr, Arch- 

 aeologist of the Kentucky Survey, was called to this cave on account of 

 the quantity of human bones that were found in it. In the course of his 

 explorations he came upon some small fragments of what seemed to be 

 human Tibse, the proportions of which were very surprising. On account 

 of these discoveries I made a visit to this cavern, and spent a day in 

 endeavoring to ascertain whether it would repay a careful excavation. 

 The rocky condition of the floor, and other circumstances, made this seem 

 undesirable. Unfortunately, my notes made on the ground have been lost, 

 so that I have to give the following statement principally from memory, 

 aided by the recollections of Mr. Carr, who spent some weeks in this 

 neighborhood. 



Some general statements concerning the geological structure of this dis- 

 trict is necessary to a proper understanding of the conditions of this cavern. 

 If the reader will consult a maj) of this district, he will perceive that its 

 principal geographical features are the Cumberland Mountains on the west, 

 a very continuous ridge of the Alleghanean type, that extends for over a 

 hundred miles like a wall, and the mountain known as Wallen's Ridge on 

 the east, and between them the valley of Powell's river. The whole sec- 

 tion, from Wallen's Ridge on the east, across the valley of Powell's river, 

 to the western side of Cumberland Mountains, constitutes a great anticli- 

 nal of very gentle curves. The caverns in this section are found either in 

 the Subcarboniferous limestone or in the limestones of the Cambro-Silurian 

 series. Those in the Subcarboniferous limestone are by far the larger; but 

 as this part of the section is subject to a rather rapid erosion, they do not 

 represent a very long duration of geological time. This Subcarboniferous 

 series of limestones lie at the base of the Cumberland Mountains, and, with 

 the overlying millstone grit, forms the greater part of the eastward wall of 

 that ridge. Beneath them is the Devonian black shale, the Ohio shale of 

 this Survey. This last named deposit consists of very soft bituminous 

 clays, arranged in shaly layers. Frost or running water, aided by the 

 cajjilarity of these closely adjoined layers, rapidly decomposes this shale 



