VOL. LXXXIV.3 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 439 



various and innumerable teeth and broken bones. The stalactical covering of the 

 uneven sides of the cave does not reach quite down to its bottom, by which it 

 plainly appears that this vast collection of animal rubbish, some time ago filled 

 a higher space in the cave, before the bulk of it sunk by mouldering. 



This place is in appearance very like a large quarry of sandstones; and indeed 

 the largest and finest blocks of osteolithical concretes might be hewn out in any 

 number, if there was but room enough to come to them, and to carry them out. 

 This bony rock has been dug into in different places, and every where undoubted 

 proofs have been met with, that its bed, or this osteolithical stratum, extends 

 every way far beneath and through the limestone rock, into which and through 

 which these caverns have been made, so that the queries suggesting themselves 

 about the astonishing numbers of animals buried here confound all speculation. 

 Along the sides of this 3d cavern are some narrower openings, leading into dif- 

 ferent smaller chambers, of which it cannot be said how deep they go. In some 

 of them, bones of smaller animals have been found, such as jaw-bones, vertebrae, 

 and tibiae, in large heaps. The bottom of this cave slopes toward a passage ^ 

 feet high, and about as wide, being the entrance to a 



Fourth cave, 20 feet high, and 15 wide, lined all round with a stalactical crust, 

 and gradually sloping to another steep descent, where the ladder is wanted a 2d 

 time, and must be used with caution as before, to get into a cave 40 feet high, 

 and about half as wide. In those deep and spacious hollows, worked out through 

 the most solid mass of rock, you again perceive with astonishment, immense 

 numbers of bony fragments of all kinds and sizes, sticking every where in the 

 sides of the cave, or lying on the bottom. This cave also is surrounded by 

 several smaller ones; in one of them rises a stalactite of uncommon magnitude, 

 being 4 feet high, and 8 feet diameter, in the form of a truncated cone. In 

 another of those side grottoes, a very neat stalactical pillar presents itself, 5 feet 

 in height, and 8 inches in diameter. The bottom of all these grottoes is covered 

 with true animal mould, out of which may be dug fragments of bones. 



Besides the smaller hollows, before spoken of, round this 4th cave, a very 

 narrow opening has been discovered in one of its corners. It is of very difficult 

 access, as it can be entered only in a crawling posture. This dismal and dan- 

 gerous passage leads into a 5th cave, of near 30 feet high, 43 long, and of un- 

 equal breadth. To the depth of 6 feet this cave has been dug, and nothing has 

 been found but fragments of bones, and animal mould: the sides are finely deco- 

 rated with stalactites of different forms and colours; but even this stalactical crust 

 is filled with fragments of bones sticking in it, up to the very roof. From this 

 remarkable cave, another very low and narrow avenue leads into the last disco- 

 vered, or the 



Sixth cave, not very large, and merely covered with a stalactical crust, in 



