10 REPORT — 1866. 



from the flint core left this a somewhat irregular surface ; that a near approxi- 

 mation to flatness, and especially smoothness, on this side was essential to 

 the performance of the work for which the tool was to be used ; and that the 

 requisite character was produced by numerous minute chippiugs carefully 

 and skilfully directed. The obverse also contains evidence of a more than 

 usual amount of work. It has two somewhat irregular and rudely parallel 

 longitudinal ridges, as well as several facets. The lateral margins are not 

 quite symmetrical. It is formed of fine-grained flint, of a light lead-colour 

 inchning to whiteness ; and it was found in the Chamber, 49 feet from the 

 external entrance, 3 feet deep in the red deposit, and covered with a thick 

 stalagmitic floor. 



The only specimen of the thii'd or ovoid class found since the First 

 Eeport was lu'cscnted is quite the finest "implement" which has been 

 exhumed during the present exploration. It measures 4| inches long, 

 3| inches in greatest breadth, and about 1 inch in maximum thickness. 

 It is strictly oval in form, being wider at one end than at the other. 

 Like the fine "implements" of the same class described in the former Eeport, 

 it is formed of a somewhat coarse-grained greyish flint. The bilateral sym- 

 metry of its outline is sensibly perfect. Its opposite faces differ somewhat in 

 convexity ; each of tliem, and especially that Avhich is most convex, displays 

 a large amount of chipping. This splendid tool was found 55 feet from the 

 entrance, S feet from both the northern and the western wall of the Chamber, 

 in the fourth foot of cave-earth, or the lowest yet excavated, beneath stalag- 

 mite which was about a foot thick and extended without a break for several 

 yards in every direction ; and it was dug out in the presence of one of the 

 Superintendents and two gentlemen who accompanied him to the cavern. 



Besides the foregoing "implements," aU of which, as has been stated, were 

 found in the Chamber, there is one which was met with 8 feet from the inner 

 end of the GaUery, or 83 feet from the external entrance of the cavern ; and 

 which seems to connect the lanceolate and ovoid classes, — resembhng the first 

 in being pointed, and the second in being worked to an edge round its entire 

 perimeter. Its dimensions are less than those of any oval, and its breadtli, 

 in proportion to its length, exceeds that of any lance-shaped "implement" 

 which the cavern has yielded. It is 3 inches long, and in greatest breadth and 

 thickness measures an inch and three-quarters and four-tenths of an inch re- 

 spectively ; it is nearly an inch and a quarter wide at the broad end, attains its 

 maximum breadth about midway in its length, and has lost its extreme point. 

 It is formed of fine-grained flint of a cream-colour, and difl'ers from all the 

 other cavern " implements " in having what may be conveniently termed a 

 " varnished" or "glazed" surface. This "implement," which seems to have 

 experienced rough usage, was found in the second foot-level below the stalag- 

 mite, which, in the Gallery, as already stated, is the lowest composed of true 

 cave-earth. 



Though, as has been stated, the lower levels have, on the whole, yielded 

 fewer "implements" than the upper, it is stUl true that "those found in 

 the third and fourth levels are the most highly wrought ' implements,' " and 

 also that " those in the fourth or lowest zone are the most elaborately flnished 

 tools of the cavern series." In glancing over all that have been dug out 

 during the present exploration, it appears that whilst there are several inter- 

 esting tools from the first level, and a larger number from the second, neither 

 of these zones has yielded an ovoid " implement ;" that from the third belt 

 were exhumed the first oval and the two best lanceolate forms ; and that the 



