TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 95 
authenticity, the cuts were as old as the date of fossilization. And as bones are 
there only found in one band of loam, it was further urged that they might be taken 
as evidence of the coexistence of man in that district with the Irish Elk, Bos pri- 
pea Elephas primigenius, Hippopotamus major, and the other mammals of the 
gravel, 
On a Successful Search for Flint Implements in a Cave called “ The Oyle,” 
near Tenby, South Wales. By the Rey. Girprrr N. Sure. 
This is a cave in the mountain limestone, about 70 feet above the level of the 
valley beneath, up which the tide has till very recently been used to flow. 
Within, it is distinguished by chambers, alternating with narrow passages, pene- 
trating 30 or 40 yards into the spur of a ridgeway of the Old Red. 
Floor not more than 3 feet deep anywhere, and bearing traces at the sides of a 
stalagmite covering long since destroyed. 
Seventy-three artificial flakes or chips were unearthed, together with the identical 
humps of flint which remained after the chips were struck off, when, from their reduced 
size, they were no longer capable of yielding flakes sufficiently large to answer the 
destined purpose. 
Some of the chips are of ordinary flint; some of a dull green, opake chert. In 
size they vary from about 4 inches in length to half an inch. In general form 
they are almost identical with the flakes found at Red Hill. They were dissemi- 
nated through the soil of the whole cave, but much the most thickly scattered on 
the floor of a recess near the entrance. : 
Interspersed also with them through the soil, which in some places is nearly 
black, were a great many bones. Most of these belong to such ruminants as are 
now domesticated. Some are of the usual caye-mammals, as Ursus speleus, &e. 
One very fine front prong of an antler lay by itself in black earth, and has marks as 
ofa tool. Length 11 inches; circumference at base 43 inches. 
The lowest portion of the soil seemed quite undisturbed, down to the rock. It is 
similar to the drift around the cave. Plenty of edible-mollusk shells occurred in- 
termixed. 
The investigator believes these flints to belong to the same human family that 
raised seven or eight tumuli which exist above on the ridgeway, which contained 
Junt arrow-heads and a central kist yaen, or covered cromlech. 
. He is of opinion that these flakes are the neglected refuse of the workshop, there 
being no perfected flint arrow-heads among them, like those in the barrows, though 
there are eight broken pieces of perfected ones among the seventy-three specimens, 
The Welsh antiquaries here do not find mention of any weapons of stone among 
their ancient writings, except for sacrificial purposes,—in accordance, this, with 
Joshua v. 2, where flint knives are prescribed to circumcise, which Lightfoot says 
was a kind of sacrifice also. The most eminent Welsh scholars haye been con- 
sulted by the writer. 
There is no flint in the strata of this neighbourhood; and the chert, which has 
small white spots through it, and looks more like some fine kinds of trap, does not 
appear in the coast-strata, although sea-borne boulders of granite and an occasional 
flint may be picked up, with here and there a worn fragment of serpentine and 
iridescent plutonic rock, 
On the Cause of the Difference in the State of Preservation of different kinds of 
Fossil Shells. By H. C. Sorsy, F.B.S., de. 
The fact of certain kinds of fossil shells having lost their organic structure, or 
being entirely removed, whilst in the same bed other kinds remain almost in their 
‘original state, cannot fail to have attracted the attention of most geologists. For 
example, most univalve and such bivalve shells as Trigonie, and the inner layer of 
Avicule and Spondyl, are often altered or removed, though their outer layer and 
the entire shells of Ostree and Brachiopoda are well preserved. After having 
made a considerable number of experiments with recent and fossil specimens, the 
author had come to the conclusion that this difference was due to the original 
