20 REPORT — 1865. 



3rd. A line, termed the " datum line," is stretched horizontally from a 

 fixed point at the entrance to another at the hack of the chamber. 



4th. Lines, one foot apart, are drawn at right angles to the datum line, 

 and therefore parallel to one another, across the chamber so as to divide the 

 surface of the deposit into belts termed " parallels." 



5th. In each parallel the black mould which the limestone masses had 

 covered is first examined and removed, and then the stalagmitic breccia, so 

 as to lay bare the surface of the cave-earth. 



Gth. Horizontal lines, a foot apart, are then drawn from side to side across 

 the vertical face of the section so as to divide the parallel into four layers or 

 " levels," each a foot deep. 



Finally, each level is divided into lengths, called " yards," each 3 feet 

 long, and measured right and left from the datum line as an axis of abscissas. 



In fine, the cave-earth is excavated in vertical slices or parallels 4 feet 

 high, 1 foot thick, and as long as the chamber is broad where this breadth 

 does not exceed 30 feet. Each parallel is taken out in levels 1 foot 

 high, and each level in horizontal prisms 3 feet long and a foot square 

 in the section, so that each contains three ci;bic feet of material. 



This material, after being carefully examined in sitn by candlelight, is 

 taken to the doorway aud reexamined by daylight, after which it is at 

 once removed without the cavern. A box is appropriated to each yard ex- 

 clusively, and in it are placed all the objects of interest which the prism 

 yields. The boxes, each having a label containing the data necessary for 

 defining the situation of its contents, are daily sent to the Honorary Secre- 

 tary of the Committee, by whom the specimens are at once cleaned and 

 packed in fresh boxes. The labels are numbered and packed with the speci- 

 mens to which they respectively belong, and a record of the day's work is 

 entered in a diary. 



The same method is followed in the examination of the black mould, 

 and also of the stalagmitic breccia, with the single exception that in these 

 cases the parallels are not divided into levels and yards. 



With very rare exceptions the cavern has been visited daily by one, and 

 frequently by both of the Superintendents ; and Monthly Reports of progress 

 have been regularly forwarded to Sir Charles Lyell, the Chairman of the 

 Committee. 



Though it would be premature to attempt anything like an exhaustive 

 list, it may be of interest to furnish a brief and general account of the objects 

 which have been found. 



Of the articles met with in the black mould, those occurring between the 

 fallen masses of limestone have been kept distinct from such as have been 

 detected beneath them. Such a division, however, is not rendered necessary 

 by the characters of the objects themselves, and will not be attended to on 

 the present occasion. In this category also may be placed the greater num- 

 ber of the specimens found in the talus outside the cavern. The collection is 

 of a various miscellaneous nature. It consists of stones of various kinds, 

 human industrial remains, charred wood, bones of various animals, marine 

 and land-shells, and the broken shells of hazel-nuts. It passes from the 

 Rabbit's nest fined with clean dry fur and containing a couple of fresh 

 green ivy-leaves, and numberless fragments of wine and porter bottles flung 

 away by parties who have visited the cavern mainly from a love of frolic, 

 back to the age of bronze implements and of flint flakes, and probably repre- 

 sents from fifteen hundred to two thousand years. 



The stones are in most cases well rounded, and, at least, some of them are 



