xxvi Proceedings. [March lyth, igoj. 



is excavated in a rolling plateau of carboniferous limestone, from 

 i,ioo to 1,189 feet above the sea, and forming at this spot the 

 water parting between the tributaries of the Goyt, flowing 

 past Chapel-en-le-Frith westwards into the Mersey, and those 

 flowing southwards and eastwards, past Buxton, to join the Wye 

 and Derwent. It is a little to the north of the centre of the divide. 

 On the western side the limestone dips at an angle of 15" 

 underneath the Yoredale sandstones and grits, which form the 

 lower half of a range of hills, extending southwards to Buxton 

 and beyond, the upper half being composed of shales and sand- 

 stones of the Millstone Grit series, that rise in Black Kdge to 

 a height of 1,662 feet. The drainage of the eastern slope of 

 these hills passes downwards until it arrives at the limestone, 

 where it sinks into the rock, through the many swallow holes 

 which mark the upper boundary of the limestone. There are 

 no surface streams in the limestone in the immediate neighbour- 

 hood of the Victory quarry, which, from its position on the 

 divide, could not, under existing geographical conditions, 

 receive the drainage from this western range of hills. 



In the course of the working of the quarry, in the beginning 

 of 1 90 1, a cave was discovered, and was luUy exposed in the 

 course of 1902. It was about 90 feet long, 15 feet high, and 

 4 feet broad. It ran nearly horizontally north and south, and 

 consisted of a large chamber and a small passage, buth eroded 

 in a master joint traversing the limestone. On the south it 

 contracted to a dead end, now quarried away. Its continuation 

 to the north is obscured by a great accumulation of broken rock 

 and clay, which has not yet been removed. It was filled with a 

 horizontally stratified red clay, containing angular and rolled 

 pebbles of limestone, and a few sandstone pebbles from the 

 Millstone Grits and Yoredales. There were also pebbles of 

 white vein quartz. Scattered through the mass were mam- 

 malian bones and teeth, some water worn, and others with sharp 

 fractures. The contents had clearly been introduced into the 

 cave by water, flowing under geographical conditions whicli no 

 longer exist. 



