1865.] BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 449 



The same method is followed in the examination of the black 

 mould, and also of the stalagmitic breccia, with the single exception 

 that in these cases the parallels are not divided into levels and 

 yards. 



With very rare exceptions the cavern has been visited daily 

 by one and frequently by both the superintendents, and monthly 

 reports of progress have been regularly forwarded to Sir Charles 

 Lyell, the chairman of the committee. 



* * * * * * 



In passing below the black mould we first encounter the 

 stalagmitic breccia. This the workmen carefully break into small 

 fragments in order to detect any articles of interest embedded in 

 it. The search, though not very productive, has not been quite 

 fruitless. In the breccia have been found charred wood, marine 

 and land shells, and bones of various animals, none of which per- 

 haps are extinct. 



Immediately beneath this cake we enter the red cave loam, 

 and at once find ourselves amongst the relics of several extinct 

 species of animals. The only differences in the four successive 

 levels in which, as already stated, the red loam is taken out, are 

 simply that the first, or uppermost, is the poorest, and the third, 

 perhaps the richest in osseous remains ; and that the three lower 

 levels contain a large amount of minutely comminuted bone, of 

 which there are very few instances in the uppermost foot. In 

 other respects the levels are the same. Everywhere the same in 

 the materials which form the staple of the deposit ; in the occur- 

 rence of pebbles of various kinds of rock, which differ from those 

 in the overlying black mould only in being less numerous ; in the 

 presence of bones in the same condition, and representing the 

 same species of animals ; and in yielding flint implements of the 

 same types. It will not be necessary, therefore, to describe each 

 level separately or in detail. 



The bones found below the stalagmite are heavier than those 

 met with above it. This distinction is so well marked and so 

 constant as to be characteristic. It would be easy to assign them 

 to their respective deposits by their specific weights alone. Most 

 of those from the red loam are but little discolored ; indeed, some 

 of them are of a chalk-like whiteness. A few, however, occur here 

 and there which have undergone a considerable amount of dis- 

 coloration, a consequence probably, and also a proof of a greater 

 degree of exposure before their inhumation. On most of the 



