V. 



The New Oban Cave. 



ALTHOUGH the former treasures of the English caves are 

 admired, it is so long since anything new has been disentombed, 

 that cave-hunting is regarded by some almost as a lost art. It is, 

 however, probable that many of the gaps still existing in our geo- 

 logical history will be filled by the study of cave-deposits. The more 

 microscopic methods of examination now coming into vogue have 

 already revealed much that was previously overlooked. Thus, as in 

 the case of the rich finds of the Ightham fissure, we have been able 

 to add to our Pleistocene fauna numerous small, but none the less 

 interesting, species. However large the cave may be, pickaxe and 

 shovel should never be used, except for the removal of fallen rock or 

 the breaking through of stalagmite: every particle of the uncemented 

 material should be removed with a knife, or, at the most, by a small 

 hammer or trowel ; it should then be sifted through six or eight 

 sieves fitting into each other, and after having been carefully 

 examined for friable things, washed through the sieves, with a 

 judicious application of acid when such seems necessary. The last 

 sieve should be fine enough to stop an ostracod, the gall of a Cynips, 

 or a Cham capsule. 



Between the discoveries of Dr. Hicks in the Welsh caves and the 

 publication of a list of the contents of the Ightham fissure, a long 

 rest intervened. But the succeeding twelve months have been far 

 more fruitful. Other fissures further south have been worked, and, 

 so far as the investigations have gone, have proved quite as interest- 

 ing. That part of the fissures as yet examined is not older than the 

 Kitchen Midden period ; but the closer examination of the material 

 has revealed whole sets of tools, perhaps the most delicate ever used 

 by man. The British Association made a grant last year for the 

 furtherance of these researches, and the results will shortly be 

 published. 



On the top of these comes a most interesting discovery in 

 Scotland, where the later chapters of geological history are somewhat 

 different from our own. There, for instance, the old Palaeolithic man, 

 whose remains are entombed in almost every rod of gravel from the 

 Wash to the English Channel, is unknown ; while Kitchen Middens, 

 which were practically unknown in the South till those just mentioned 

 were discovered, are quite plentiful in the North. A few years ago a 

 cave of some interest was found at the back of Mr. J. W. Higgin's whisky 

 distillery at Oban. Recently Mr. McArthur, while blasting rock on 

 his property in Oban Bay, broke into another cave of great promise 



