354 Cave containing Bones. 
Art. XXI].—WNotice of a Cave containing Bones, in Lanark, 
Upper Canada.* By Joun |. Biessy, M.D. F.L.S, &c. 
Prog. Sinuman, 
Dear Sir, | 
u are perhaps not aware that a cave contaiming bones 
was discovered last autumn, in the township of Lanark, Up- 
per Canada, on the river Mississippi, a branch of the Ottawa. 
It is 23 miles north of the village of Perth. It is 10 feet 
below the surface, with which it communicates by a sort of 
shaft just large enough to admit of the entrance of a man. 
This shaft or passage leading down into the cave is 2 feet 
three inches wide by 1 foot nine inches broad. The cave is 
25 feet long by 15 broad, and is 6 feet high in the middle, 
gradually lowering at each end: at the extremity most re- 
mote from the shaft, there is a fissure 2 feet by six 
inches, and therefore too small to allow of further penetra- 
tion. The floor of the cave is covered with fragments of the 
dark coloured granular limestone of which it is formed. ‘The 
sides and roof are covered with small mammillary concre- 
= of calespar. The bones are in the state of |Soup gee 
large—and were chiefly found in a heap near, but not 
er, the aperture from above—others were found scattered 
atnotig the debris ofthe floor. This aperture was open when 
it was discovered by Mr. Colquhoun, the owner of the 
ground. In clearing the land he observed the hole at the 
foot of a tree, and curiosity induced him to descend. 
Mr. Robe of the Royal Staff Corps, from whom all my 
information is derived, tells me that the animal whose bones 
are found in this cave, is much too large to have entered 
the cave alive or whole. 
In November last | saw a hint of this discovery in a Ca- 
nadian newspaper. I was at Philadelphia; but immediately 
wrote to this enterprising and intelligent officer who was re- 
siding at Montreal. He took horse directly, and went to the 
spot, at the distance of 200 miles into the forest, examined 
the cave, and by favour of Dr. Wilson, of Perth, brought all 
the bones to Montreal. 
* Extracted from two letters to the animes dated Philadelphia, Feb- 
tuary 4th, 1925, aad March 4th, 1825 
