52 GEOLOGY AND HISTORY 



The former is a shelter or hollow under an over- 

 hanging ledge of limestone, and excavated originally 

 by the action of .the weather on a softer bed. It 

 fronts the south-west, and, having originally been 

 about eight feet high and nearly twenty deep, must 

 have formed a comfortable shelter from rain or cold 

 or summer sun, and with a pleasant outlook from its 

 front. Being nearly fifty feet wide, it was capacious 

 enough to accommodate several families, and when 

 in use it no doubt had trees or shrubs in front, and 

 may have been further completed by stones, poles, or 

 bark placed across the opening. It seems, however, 

 in the first instance to have been used only at 

 intervals, and to have been left vacant for consider- 

 able portions of time. Perhaps it was visited only by 

 hunting or war-parties. But subsequently it was per- 

 manently occupied, and this for so long a time that 

 in some places a foot and a half of ashes and carbon- 

 aceous matter, with bones, implements, &c., was 

 accumulated. All of these, it may be remarked, 

 belong to the palanthropic age. By this time the 

 height of the cavern had been much diminished, and, 

 instead of clearing it out for future use, it was made 

 a place of burial, in which five individuals were 

 interred. Of these, three were men, one of great age, 

 the other two probably in the prime of life. The 

 fourth and fifth were a woman of about thirty or 

 forty years of age, and the remains of a foetus. 



These bones, with others to be mentioned in con- 

 nection with them, unquestionably belong to some of 



