156 KiiPoKX — 1871. 



of 100 feet above tliat sea, the rocks themselves attaining an elevation of 2G0 feet. 

 They have now been repeatedly rifled by the learned or the curious ; but when the 

 principal cave was nearly intact, the author made a section of it from the modern 

 or highest floor down to the solid rock. There were five floors formed in the earth 

 by long continued trampling ; on each, and near the centre, were marks of fire, 

 around which broken bones and flints were abundant, except upon the lowest, 

 where but few bones occurred and no flints. The bones were those of animals still 

 existing. Few implements were found, but many chips of flint, some cores, and 

 stones used as haumiers. Perhaps this cave was used as a place for manufacturing 

 flints, which must have been carried from their native bed, distant about one mile. 



There is nothing to evince the action of Avater ; on the contrary, the numerous 

 stones that occur are all angular, derived apparently from the flaking ofl" of portions 

 of the rock, — a slow process, and showing that long periods had elapsed between 

 each of those five occupations, and thus evidencing the great antiquity of the 

 present European fauna. 



Whatever that antiquity may have been, we now come to still more ancient 

 times. 



Below these caves a slope of about 180 feet descends to the edge of the sea. 

 Through the upper part of this slope, at distances from the caves of from to 10 

 feet, is a railway-cutting 600 feet long, 54 feet deep, and GO feet above the sea. 

 The mass removed in making this cutting was composed of angular stones, not 

 waterwom. Loose at the surface, it soon became a more or less mature breccia 

 (specimens were produced), for the most part so hard that it was blasted with gun- 

 powder. In this breccia, and at various depths, some of more than 30 feet, the 

 author has taken out teeth of the Bear (Ursits spelceus) and of the Hyfena (Hi/ccna 

 sjK-laa), while with and below those teeth he found flints worked by man (spe- 

 cimens of teeth and of flints were produced). 



Bones and teeth of other animals also occur, for the naming of which the author 

 is indebted to tlie kindness of Mr. Busk, who says that they are almost identical 

 with those found in the Gibraltar caves. 



At the eastern end of the cutting described the railroad passes through a tunnel, 

 emerging close to the sea, and near to what is known as the Roman bridge. Hero 

 in sinking for the foundation of a sea-wall, bones and teeth were discovered, but 

 not tuider such satisfactory conditions as at the western side of the tunnel, since 

 the stones were loose and some of them rounded. 



Still following the line of the railway to the east, at half a mile a deep cutting 

 occurs through stifl" clay, the result of the washing down of the hill-side. In this, 

 at a depth of 65 feet, the author took out the frontal bone and part of the antlers 

 of a large stag (produced). They were perfect; but in such a state that he could 

 save only the parts. 



A few feet oft", and on the same horizon, were these teeth of Ursvs spckais, 

 marvellously well preserved A\-hen we consider the time that must have been re- 

 quired for the accumulation of 65 feet of solid ground ; and that not in a hollow or 

 a river's bed, but on the gently sloping side of a hill. 



The author suggested that the section of the cave evidences the great antiquity 

 of the present European fauna, vrhile the teeth of the CaA-e Bear and Hyrcna found 

 with Avorked flints some .30 feet deep in solid breccia, add to the proofs hitherto 

 adduced that those beasts were really contemporary with man. 



JS^ote on a Cross traced uijon a HiU at Crhujlclle, near Fcehles. 

 ■By J. "VVoLrE Mubeat. 



On Ancient Modes of Sejndtitre in iJie Orlncys. By Geoege Petrie. 



The author stated that sepulchral nioimds are A'ery numerous in the Orkneys. 

 Generally they occupy elevated situations which command a view of the sea, or of 

 a lake, or of both, Avhere the latter was attainable. They stand singly or in groups, 

 or aie arranged in a straight line. Occasionally they appear as twin barrows. 



