430 NOTES ON SKELETON FOUND AT CISSBUKY. 



Subsequently to the interment, the history of the filling- up of 

 the pit must have been very much the same as has been the history 

 of the filling up of the pits excavated and observed during" the last 

 half-dozen years by ourselves. In a section of such of the contents 

 or filling' in of the pit as Mr. Park Harrison had left in the position 

 which they had assumed in falling into it, two other red streaks, 

 besides the one on which the skeleton had been placed, were 

 visible. The first of these describes a somewhat conical contour 

 with the apex of the cone reaching downwards to the level of the 

 couple of feet of chalk which we suppose to have been heaped over 

 the body as deposited, and with the base prolonged upwards to a 

 place more than half-way from its apex to the surface of the 

 ground. And we must suppose this red streak to have been 

 formed simply by the deposition of the lowly soluble alum- and 

 iron-silicates, the rain carrying away with it to lower levels the 

 more soluble calcareous element of the chalk it fell upon. This 

 red streak is, to the eye, just like the red layer found capping the 

 natural surface of the Downs, and the two layers may therefore, 

 with considerable probability, be considered to have been both 

 formed in the same way. 



The former, however, of the two layers contained traces of lime 

 and magnesia, and may have been deposited in a comparatively 

 short time, as the square surface of chalk made up firstly by the 

 walls of the pit, and secondly by the heaps of excavated rubble 

 which no doubt surrounded its mouth, must have been compara- 

 tively great. Within the boundary, constituted by this red streak, 

 were contained alternately strata of fine chalk and of medium sized 

 rubble, more or less interpenetrated and agglutinated by still finer 

 water-deposited chalk. 



These contents of this upper crateriform cavity we may reason- 

 ably suppose to have fallen into it under the influences of rain and 

 frost acting upon the exposed chalk surfaces just mentioned. Above 

 them a second red streak was to be seen at about the level of the 

 natural surface stretching more or less horizontally across the 

 section. It appears to have been continuous at the walls with the 

 other downward dipping red streak, very much as the upper or 

 anterior of the two conical sacs forming the surface net used for 

 catching sea animals is continuous with the lower. 



The more thorough washing which its longer exposure had given 



