22 report — 1865. 



flint, the latter being the best formed. The light colour is more or less 

 superficial, the centre being of a dark grey. 



The charred wood is very abundant. Some specimens are undistinguish- 

 able from prepared charcoal, whilst others are obviously nothing more than 

 partially burnt sticks, some of them of considerable size. 



Bones are extremely numerous. They are more or less discoloured, and 

 have lost a considerable portion of their weight. It may be doubted whether 

 the entire elements of any skeleton have been found lying together. 

 Amongst them there are the relics of pig, deer, sheep, fox, wolf (?), bat, 

 hare, rabbit, with smaller rodents, birds, and various kinds of fish. Some of 

 them appear to have been exposed to the action of fire. 



The land shells are principally various kinds of snail, the larger forms 

 being the most prevalent. They occur in all stages of growth, and thus 

 render it probable that they had established a colony in the cavern. 

 Amongst the marine shells are the limpet, whelk, oyster, cockle, mussel, 

 pecten, solen or razor-shell, and the internal shell of the cuttle-fish, Sepia 

 officinalis. From the unrubbed condition of the last, it was probably not 

 found cast ashore on the beach, but taken directly from the cephalopod to 

 which it belonged. 



The source of the shells of hazel-nuts is not far to seek. They were no 

 doubt obtained from the wood in which the cavern is situated, and were 

 perhaps carried in by small animals whose homes were under the fallen 

 masses of limestone where the shells were found. Most of them are per- 

 forated at one end. 



In passing below the black mould we first encounter the stalagmitic 

 breccia. This the workmen carefully break into small fragments, in order to 

 detect any articles of interest imbedded in it. The search, though not very 

 productive, has not been quite fruitless. In the breccia have been found 

 charred wood, marine and land shells, and bones of various animals, some of 

 which perhaps are extinct. 



Immediately beneath this cake we enter the red cave-loam, and at once 

 find ourselves amongst the relics of several species of extinct animals. The 

 only differences in the four successive levels in which, as already stated, the 

 red loam is taken out are simply that the first or uppermost is the poorest, 

 and the third, perhaps, the richest in osseous remains ; and that the three 

 lower levels contain a large amount of minutely comminuted bone, of which 

 there are very few instances in the uppermost foot. In other respects the 

 levels are the same — everywhere the same in the materials which form the 

 staple of the deposit ; in the occurrence of pebbles of various kinds of rock, 

 which differ from those in the overlying black mould only in being less 

 numerous ; in the presence of bones in the same condition and representing 

 the same species of animals ; and in yielding " flint implements " of the 

 same types. It will not be necessary, therefore, to describe each level sepa- 

 rately or in detail. 



The bones found below the stalagmite are heavier than those met with 

 above it. This distinction is so well marked and so constant as to be cha- 

 racteristic. It would be easy to assign them to their respective deposits 

 by their specific weights alone. Most of those from the red loam are but 

 little discoloured, indeed some of them are of a chalk-like whiteness. A few, 

 however, occur here and there which have undergone a considerable amount 

 of discoloration, a consequence, probably, and also a proof of a greater degree 

 of exposure before their inhumation. On most of the latter, certain lines 

 and patches of fighter colour not unfrequently present themselves, which 



