76 DEEPDALE CAVE. 



The silence of history and tradition compels us to seek an 

 explanation of the human occupation from the results of the 

 excavations only. It is not my intention to go minutely into 

 Messrs. Salt and Millett's work — they probably will favour us 

 with an exhaustive paper upon it — but to point out its salient 

 features. Both have used their spades and pick-axes here and 

 there throughout the cave ; Mr. Millet's work, however, has 

 chiefly been in the second chamber and the cavities below its 

 floor, while Mr. Salt has given much of his attention to the 

 first chamber, but probably his most successful and valuable 

 work has been in the slope outside below the entrance of the 

 cave. The deposits of the interior have been described ; a few 

 words must be said about the nature of tiie soil outside. I visited 

 the spot with Mr. Salt about three years ago, some months after 

 he had found the objects illustrated in last year's volume. The 

 difference between the soil he had disturbed on that occasion and 

 that elsewhere in the dale was most marked. Right and left of 

 the cave the slightly darker superficial mould passed into the usual 

 ruddy- buff sub soil. But soil below the entrance was very dark, 

 and when examined was found to contain an abundance 

 of particles of charcoal and fragments of pottery ; in fact, it was 

 impossible to mistake its origin — it was ancient refuse of human 

 habitation. Another point I noted — this stratum of dark earth 

 was very thick, being sometimes as much as three feet, so Mr. 

 Salt assured me. He also informed me that as the cave was 

 approached, this deposit became darker and more carbonaceous, 

 while towards the bottom of the slope it was Lirgely mixed with 

 broken limestone. 



This dark earth outside the cave seems to be the equivalent of 

 that of the interior, for the "finds" of both are distinctively 

 Romano-British. There may have been more ancient and 

 more recent objects present ; but, as a class, no one who has any 

 acquaintance with Roman antiquities can possibly mistake their 

 age. On the occasion of my visit with Mr. Salt 1 turned over 

 the surface soil outside with my stick, and every fragment of 

 pottery I met with was of the common hard wheel-made varieties, 



