176 EARLY MAN IN BRITAIN. [CHAP.VII. 



the most beautiful and picturesque. It is about a third 

 of a mile long, with the vertical cliffs on either side 50 

 to 80 feet high, overhung with ivy, and relieved by a 

 luxuriant growth of hazel and maple, stunted oak and 

 ash wherever the scree at the bottom, or the cracks in the 

 surface, allow the vegetation to root itself. Through it 

 flows a stream dividing the counties of Derby and Not- 

 tingham, which now forms the beautiful sheet of water 

 filling the bottom of the ravine. Caverns and fissures 

 open on it on either side on the north the Pin Hole, 

 the Kobin Hood, and Mother Grundy's Parlour (on the 

 left of Fig. 40), and on the south the Church Hole 

 Cavern. 



The Pin Hole. 



The Pin Hole, so called from a curious superstitious 

 custom of dropping a pin into a small water-filled hollow 

 in it, and of taking away at the same time one left by a 

 previous visitor, 1 first attracted the attention of the Eev. 

 J. M. Mello in 1875. .It runs some 40 or 50 feet hori- 

 zontally into the rock, and was partially filled with sand 

 containing blocks of stone and large quantities of remains 

 of animals. The sand and pebbles had been introduced 

 by a stream, the large blocks had fallen from the roof in 

 the long course of ages, while the fossil bones and teeth 

 were so scored with teeth-marks as to show that their 

 owners had fallen a prey to some wild beast, which 

 had eaten not merely their flesh but their marrow- 

 containing bones. This creature is proved to have 

 been the spotted hyaena by the numerous teeth and 



1 This singular custom is probably connected with the ancient practice 

 of making offerings to the dead, and in later times to fairies, in little 

 cups in stones (see Chap. IX.) 



