236 Geological Society. 



terranean springs, changed all the conditions previously existing, 

 and emptied out the whole of the loose incoherent contents, leaving 

 only the portions agglutinated to the roof. The wreck of these 

 ejecta was visible in the patches of " ceneri impastate," containing 

 fossil bones, below the mouth of the cavern. That a long period 

 must have operated in the extinction of the Hyaena, Cave-lion, and 

 other fossil species, is certain ; but no index remains for its measure- 

 ment. The author would call the careful attention of cautious 

 geologists to the inferences — that the Maccagnone Cave was filled 

 up to the roof within the human period.Jso that a thick laj^er of bone- 

 splinters, teeth, land-shells, coprolites of Hycena, and human objects 

 was agglutinated to the roof by the infiltration of water holding 

 lime in solution ; that subsequently, and within the human period, 

 such a great amount of change took place in the physical configura- 

 tion of the district as to have caused the cave to be washed out and 

 emptied of its contents, excepting the floor-breccia, and the patches 

 of material cemented to the roof and since coated with additional 

 stalagmite. 



2. Mr. Prestwich gave in a few words the results of the exa- 

 mination of the bone-cave at Brixham in Devonshire. 



The cave has been traced along three large galleries, meeting or 

 intersecting one another at right angles. Numerous bones of Rhino- 

 ceros tichorhinus, Bos, Equus, Cervus tarandus, XJrsus spelaus, and 

 Hycena have been found ; and several flint-implements have been 

 met with in the cave-earth and gravel beneath. One in particular 

 was met with immediately beneath a fine antler of a Reindeer and 

 a bone of the Cave-bear, which were imbedded in the superficial 

 stalagmite in the middle of the cave. 



3. " Observations on a Flint- implement recently discovered in a 

 bed of Gravel at Saint-Acheul, near Amiens." By John Wickham 

 Flower, Esq. 



The gravel capping a slight elevation of the chalk at St. Acheul 

 is composed of water-worn chalk-flints, and is about 10 feet thick; 

 above it is a thin band of sand, surmounted by sandy beds (3 feet 

 6 in.) and brick-earth (11 feet 9 in.). In this gravel the remains 

 of Elephant, Horse, and Deer have been found, with land and fresh- 

 water shells of recent species. From the gravel Mr. Flower dug 

 out a flint- implement, shaped like a spear-head, at about 18 inches 

 from the face of the pit, and 16 feet from the surface of the ground. 

 Mr. Flower in this communication pointed out evidences to prove 

 that this and many other similar flint- implements obtained from 

 the same gravel were really the result of human manufacture, at a 

 time previous to the deposition of the gravel in its present place. 

 Mr. Flower's visit to St. Acheul was made in company with Messrs. 

 Prestwich, Godwin-Austen, and Mylne, with a view to verify the 

 discoveries made respecting the occurrence of flint-inplements in 

 the gravels and peat of the Somme Valley by M. Boucher de Perthes, 

 of Amiens. 



