28 REPORT— 1870. 



As has been stated iu previous Reports, the Committee have long been fa- 

 miliar with the presence of blocks of stalagmite in the eave-earth, and 

 have inferred from them that an ancient floor of the cavern had been broken 

 up by natural agency before or during the introduction of the cave-earth. 

 There seemed no difficulty in conceiving of a machinery by which such a floor 

 might have been destroyed in the comparatively lofty chambers. For example, 

 it was known that the deposit which the old floor had covered, and on which 

 it had been formed, had been, in some parts of the cavern, partially dis- 

 lodged, or had subsided so as to leave the floor unsupported ; it was also 

 known that blocks of limestone, some of them scores of tons in weight, had 

 from time to time fallen from the roof ; and it was not difficult to see that 

 such blocks would break into fragments any such unsupported floor on which 

 they might faU. 



This, however, utterly fails to account for the destruction of the floor 

 which once existed in at least some of the narrow passages of the North Sally- 

 port. That such floors have been destroyed admits of no question, since, as 

 has been already stated, remnants of them stiU adhere to the walls, to say 

 nothing of their abundant fragments in the deposit below. That they were not 

 destroyed by the fall of blocks of limestone is obxious from the facts that their 

 remnants on the walls show that they were almost in contact with the roof 

 even as it now exists, and that the roof itself presents no indications that sach 

 masses have been detached from them. This problem still awaits solution. 



Many of the potsherds in the North SaUy-port were found in the overlying 

 black mould considerably beyond the point where man could have actually 

 placed or lost them, though not perhaps bej'ond the point where he might 

 have thrown them, if he could be supposed to have had a motive for doing 

 80. It seems not improbable, however, that, being, as they were, on a highly 

 inclined plane of very contracted width, their presence in the spots where 

 they were found was due to a participation in a slow and gradual movement 

 of the black mould downwards and inwards, in consequence of the frequent 

 passage of small recent animals. 



There is greater difficulty in accounting for the occurrence of keen-edged 

 flint implements and flakes at and near the external mouth of the North 

 Sally-port. There is every reason to believe that the cave-earth found in the 

 successive chambers at the highest level of the cavern was introduced 

 through the long-known North and South (or Triangular and Arched) En- 

 trances ; whence it seems to follow inevitably that at that time the bottom 

 of the valley was but little below these entrances, and was therefore nearly 

 20 feet above the level of the opening just discovered. That the " implements" 

 are of human origin there is every reason to believe ; but it cannot be sup- 

 Common Shrew are occasionally observed near the door and in the adjacent thictet. On 

 December 8th, 1869, one of the Superintendents found the workmen in a state of excite- 

 ment, caused, no doubt, by an unwelcome visit of some infra-human marauder. They had 

 that morning taken to the cavern a pound of candles, of sixteen to the pound, and hun" 

 them in the accustomed place. On going to cut one of them, at 3 o'clock, it was found 

 that twelve of the pound were missing, and tlie condition of the remnants of the wicks was 

 such as to indicate cutting rather than gnawing. Hence it would have been concluded 

 that the loss was due to a human thief, had it been possible for one to have entered the 

 cavern without the knowledge of the workmen. On examination, one of tlie missing can- 

 dles was found between some large loo.se stones beneath the nail on which they were hung, 

 but no trace of teeth-marks could be found on it. Before the men left work the remnant 

 of the pound had been taken, so that not a candle was left ; but by what agency, remains 

 unknown ; for tliough a gin temptingly baited was set at the spot, it failed to'aid in the 

 solution of the problem. 



