452 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Dec. 



Nor are these the only indications of human existence found 

 in the cave earth. Several small pieces of burnt bone have been 

 met with in the red loam, some of them loose and detached, others 

 of smaller size, and incorporated in the breccia, composed of loam, 

 stones, and comminuted bone. 



Mention has been made already of the occurrence, in the cave 

 earth, of rounded stones not derivable from the limestone hill in 

 which the cavern is situated. It seems probable that at least 

 some of them were selected and taken there by man, though it 

 may not be easy, perhaps, to determine, in all cases, for what pur- 

 pose. But waiving this point, there are two stones which must 

 not be hastily dismissed. The first of them is four and three- 

 quarter inches long, and something less than an inch square in the 

 section. It is a mass of hard purplish gray grit, and is undoubt- 

 edly a whetstone or rather a portion of one. It was found in the 

 first level of the cave earth in a small recess or cavity in the 

 northern wall of the chamber, immediately beneath a projecting 

 stratum of limestone in situ. In this cavity the stone stood with 

 its longest axis vertical. The superintendents were inclined to 

 the opinion that it had slipped through a hole into the cavity at a 

 comparatively recent date, and they diligently set to work to find 

 the means of the ingress. Here, however, they were completely 

 foiled. There was no hole or passage, vertical or lateral, by which 

 the cavity could have been entered. Not only, as has been said, 

 was there a thick stratum of limestone in situ immediately over 

 the recess, but over this again, as well as over the red loam there 

 was a thick compact mass of stalagamitic breccia, consisting of 

 large and small pieces of limestone firmly cemented, and having a 

 height of fully eight feet, the whole of which was removed before 

 the cavity was disclosed or suspected. 



The second stone is a rude flattened spheroid, formed from a 

 pebble of coarse, hard, red sandstone, and apparently used for 

 breaking or crushing. Its diameters measure two and three- 

 quarters and one and three-quarter inches. It was found in the 

 second level of the red cave earth, over which lay an enormous 

 block of limestone, but no stalagmite. * * * 



THE SUCCESSIVE PALAEOZOIC FLORAS IN EASTERN NORTH 

 AMERICA. 



BY J. W. DAWSON, P.R.S. 



The Palseozoic formations of eastern North America may 

 be grouped in four great ages, each characterized by a dis- 



