240 ON RAINS CAVE, LONGCLIFFE, DERBYSHIRE. 



charcoal. In the right region of the cave several much decayed 

 pieces of pearly shell appeared to belong to the Anodonta cygnsea. 

 Was this fresh-water mollusc eaten? Were its shells used as 

 utensils or personal ornaments ? 



The lower beds were not very complex. Immediately below 

 the one I have just described was a seam of loam (B), showing 

 very distinctly on the median section. It was even in texture and 

 colour ; contained few stones ; and, so far as we could make out, 

 no bones, or objects of human make. Like the layer above, it 

 had a tendency to get thinner and obscurer towards the entrance. 

 Its maximum development was a little behind the middle of the 

 cave, where it attained a thickness of seven inches. Towards the 

 end it was vague and irregular, and, like the layer above, most 

 of it in the right region had been removed before we were aware 

 that it was a separate bed. 



Below this lay an unconsolidated breccia (A), that is, a deposit 

 of angular rock-fragments in contact with one another. The 

 interstices as a rule were filled with loam identical with that 

 above ; where not so filled, as at the back of the cave, the stones 

 were usually loosely cemented with films of stalagmite connected 

 with the stalagmites below the charcoal layer described above. 

 So deep as we went it contained no bones nor any objects 

 indicating the contemporary presence of man. 



By the end of March our work for 1890 concluded. The 

 amount of work done on the spot in the present year (1891) has 

 been considerably less, and was confined to February and March. 

 It consisted at first in the further excavation of the central and 

 extreme left regions. This we did down to the base of the dark 

 ossiferous layer (C), and horizontally as far as it was practical or 

 worth while. The yield of bones and other objects was not great, 

 but in other respects it accorded to former results. It was plain 

 enough now that no further systematic digging could be made, 

 except at the cost of a very large amount of labour. With a view 

 to the prospects of further digging, we decided to ascertain what 

 was below the breccia. For this purpose we chose the back Of 

 the cave, where the floor consisted of little else than loose stones. 



