42 OBSERVATIONS ON CAVES ANB 



has been explored at Button, in Mendip-hills, three 

 near Plymouth, and tv.o in Craw ley rocks, near 

 Swansea; besides one at Gailenreuth, in Germany, 

 and at other places on the continent. Some of these 

 fissures rise vertically to the surface, others ascend 

 in an oblique direction, having ledges or landing 

 places, on? above the other, which communicate 

 with lateial fissures and cavernous chambers ; and 

 others are horizontal, leading to the face of the rock, 

 and continuing in that direction. These are fit ha- 

 bitations for animals, and even human bones have 

 been found in them. In a cavern at Paviland, 15 

 miles west of Swansea, was discovered the skeleton 

 of a female ; it u supposed from this circumstance, 

 and from finding different utensils there, of a culi- 

 nary and other descriptions, that this had once 

 been a human abode. We read of the primitive 

 Christians living in dens and caves of the earth. The 

 cavernous stale of limestone rock is known by ab- 

 sorbing the water from the surface, drawing it 

 from the high grounds, and disgorging it in low sit- 

 uations, or in places where the rock becomes com- 

 pact and void of fissures ; there it finds vent and 

 bubbles up, sometimes in amazing volumes. Many 

 of the becks or rivulets of this district sink, and af- 

 ter having run a mile or two under ground, rise 

 again nearly in the direction of the beck from which 

 it had disappeared : this is the case in the Hodge- 

 beck, the Dove, and others. 



Many of these caverns and fissures contain animal 

 remains imbedded in marl, some are filled with 

 marly clay unmixed with bone? and teeth, and 



