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Monday, \Sih December. 



Dr hope, V. P. in the Chair. 

 The following Communications Avere read : 



1. Remarks on the Ossiferous Caves of Cefn, in Denbigh- 

 shire. By Professor Traill. 



These caves, which were first described by the present Bishop 

 of Norwich in 1832, and have since been more fully explored by 

 Dr Gumming of Denbigh, were visited by the author in the autumn 

 of 1837. The principal cave is a fissure in a grand mural escarp- 

 ment of the mountain limestone of Wales, about two miles and 

 a-half south-west of St Asaph, and occurs half-way down the pre- 

 cipice, which seems to be about 250 feet in height. It forms at 

 that point the southern boundary of the limestone, which consti- 

 tutes the basis of the Vale of Clwyd ; and is divided from the ex- 

 tensive greywacke slate formation of that county by the narrow 

 picturesque Vale of Cyffredin, through which the river Elwy flows. 



The hill of Cefn consists of parallel beds of limestone, which the 

 extensive quarries on its southern flank shew to have a regular dip 

 of about 8°. This cave was discovered in 1830 to contain earthy 

 deposits exceedingly rich in bones of mammifera ; and, since that 

 period, they have been much employed as a manure by Mr Lloyd, 

 the proprietor. During the excavations for this purpose, many 

 teeth and fragments of larger bones, so entire as to be readily re- 

 cognised, have been obtained. An interesting collection of them is 

 preserved at Cefn House, and some are in the hands of the author. 

 Among the former, he noticed part of the humerus and a molar tooth 

 of a rhinoceros, several teeth and bones of the h ysena, and beauti- 

 ful teeth, and a considerable portion of the lower jaw, of a bear. 

 Dr Traill has in his possession two phalanges and two teeth of a 

 bear ; a phalanx of a large Felis, resembling the tiger ; parts of the 

 tibia, and of the astragalus, and a phalanx of a large Bos ; portions 

 of the metacarpus of an immense ruminant, apparently a deer; be- 

 sides a variety of fragments, not so easily ascertained on account 

 of their mutilated state. 



The materials, which filled up the fissure or principal cave al- 

 most to its roof, are regularly stratified. They formed together a 

 mass of earthy matter twelve feet in thickness. The first or upper 



