MENDIP BONE CAVERNS. 37 



those that are found in the Menclip caverns. They clearly 

 belong to the same period. But here, unlike the Mendip 

 caverns, the bones appeared disturbed by ancient diggings, 

 showing that it had beeil accessible to man, in ages long 

 gone by. Of this however, undoubted evidence was sup- 

 plied, for a little under the surface a female skeleton 

 was discovered. From the description given of the man- 

 ner in which the bones lay, there can be no doubt that 

 the body was interred there with great care and tender- 

 ness. Ivory rods, nearly cylindrical, portions of ivory 

 rings, and a number of sea shells were found near the 

 skeleton, just in the same way as such things occur in 

 graves and sepulchral remains of early times. In the same 

 cave were found the tusks of the elephant, but so far de- 

 cayed as to crumble at a touch. When these rings were 

 made the ivory must have been firm : and the subsequent 

 decay leads na to infer that the human skeleton pro- 

 bably dates from a period not far distant from the Roman 

 occupation. Charcoal and remains of human food were 

 likewise found in this cavern, thus indicating tvvo suc- 

 cessive occupations of the cavern, at periods long, long 

 distant from each other. What a theme for a poet ! The 

 weird maiden laid to rest, with her ivory needles, her ivory 

 rings, and toys of pearly sea-shells by her side, in the 

 cavern vvhere she had dwelt among the remains of a former 

 world ! There she livetl, and there she died, carving her 

 needles and her toys from the ivory of primaeval elephants ; 

 and possibly theorizing, as we are now doing, on the origin 

 and history of the wonderous occupants of the cave. But 

 it is not with the poetry we are now concerncd, only with 

 the fact ; and the facts do not oppose, but rather confirm, 

 the view we have advanced. 



Indeed, very few of the Mcndip bone caverns were known 

 to exist until within, cdmparatively, a few years. Their 



