276 Messrs. J. H. Cooke and A. S. Woodward. 



It is the author's opinion that the cave owes its present dimen- 

 sions to the same torrential waters which widened the gorge and 

 moulded and channeled the rocky sides of both. 



It must have been repeatedly submerged, and its sides became 

 coated by the muddy waters with the clay now adhering to them. 



These torrential inundations no doubt caused the death and en- 

 tombment of the Hippopotami, Deer, and other animals, whose remains, 

 commingled with boulders and broken-off stalactites, attest the turbu- 

 lence of the waters. 



Eight excavations were made in various parts of the cavern, of 

 which ground plans and sections are given by the author. 



Trench I was opened on the right-hand side of the main gallery, 

 350 ft. from the entrance. 



It was 24 ft. in length, 8 to 9 ft. in width, and 8 ft. 6 in. in depth. 

 It gave the following deposits in descending order : 



A. Floor earth with stones, clay, and boulders (unstratified), 

 Gin. 



B. Red clayey loam (3 ft. in thickness), containing bones of Hippo- 

 potami (H. Pentlandi), teeth and bones of Cervus, the bones very 

 irregularly distributed ; also some fragments of ancient pottery. 



C- Layer of black earth (4 in. thick), like coarse oatmeal, quite 

 unfossiliferous, but very persistent throughout. 



D. Dark red plastic clay (1 ft. 6 in. thick), with many remains of 

 Hippopotamus Pentlandi in good preservation and less disassociated. 

 Although well preserved, however, they were so soft from the drip- 

 ping of water that they would not bear handling. 



E. Layer of reddish clay (1 ft. thick) full of bones, jaws, and teeth 

 of a small Hippopotamus, cemented together by calcareous infiltra- 

 tions, and forming an ossiferous breccia (very compact). A single 

 molar of Elephas (JE. mnaidriensis) was found here. 



F. Stratum of stiff yellow plastic clay (2 ft. thick), unfossiliferous, 

 but enclosing a few angular fragments of limestone fallen from the 

 roof. 



Trench II, also on the right-hand side of the cave, but nearer to 

 the entrance, showed a series of ten regularly stratified layers, mostly 

 alternating layers of clay and grey calcareous marly earth. 



The upper layers contained no organisms, but the red-marly earth 

 contained numerous remains of antlers of Deer and abundance of land 

 shells (but mostly broken) ; beneath this series, and separated by a 

 seam of marly earth, is a bed of red clay (3 ft. thick), containing 

 antlers, teeth, and bones of Deer, and remains of Hippopotamus, very 

 well preserved. 



Trench III, midway, in the centre of the floor of the cave : this 

 trench reached the rock at 6 ft. 6 in. from the surface. Immediately 

 in contact with it is a layer of dark red clay, with broken bones of 



