200 RKPOiiT— 18GU. 



patches of modern, stalagmite, occasionally incorporating pipes of stalactite, 

 such as have been just mentioned, which by some means had been broken 

 off. In fact a modern floor was in process of formation, vertically beneath 

 the old one, by the agency of water filtering through the latter, and carry- 

 ing with it the requisite calcareous matter. 



As nothing would have been gained by their removal, the objects just 

 described are left adhering to the ceiling — a fact which induces visitors to 

 regard the Water Gallery as the most attractive branch of the Cavern. 



All that portion of the Breccia wliich was not more than about a foot 

 from its upper surface, and about a yard from the south Avail of the Gallery, 

 was invariably cemented into a firm rock-hke concrete, but at aU lower 

 levels, and at greater distances from the south wall, it was perfectly in- 

 coherent. Where it was cemented it was crowded with fossils, but where it 

 was not, there were none. The former was its almost uniform condition in 

 the adjacent South-Avest Chamber and Lecture Hall, where its fossils formed 

 a very large percentage of the entire mass. 



The problem of the severance of the Breccia from the Stalagmite closely 

 occupied the attention of the Superintendents whilst the excavation of the 

 Water Gallery was in progress. There ajjpear, « priori, to be three possi- 

 ble solutions, — first, that a stream of water had insinuated itself between 

 the deposit and the floor, and had carried off the detritus which once filled 

 the interspace ; second, that, through failure of support at the base, the 

 Breccia had sunk away from the Stalagmite to a slightly lower level ; and, 

 third, that Avater passing slowly through the floor had carried the finer 

 particles of the detritus from the top of the Breccia to loAver levels, lodging 

 a portion of them in such interstices as it encountered, and perhaps carrying 

 off' the residue as colouring-matter. 



The first is met by the fatal objection that there is no channel, large or 

 small, either of ingress or egress, for the hj'pothetical stream, or the matter 

 it is supposed to have removed. 



Since the vacuity was both partial and discontinuous, the second sug- 

 gested solution requires that the supposed failure at the base should have 

 had the same characters, and hence that the Breccia should have been 

 faulted. To this latter point the closest attention was given from first to 

 last, and no trace of anything like a fault was ever detected. 



The third hyj^othcsis presupposes that both the Stalagmite and the Breccia 

 are permeable by water. On neither of these points is there any doubt. 

 Water has been seen oozing through this very Stalagmite, and it is Avell 

 kiioAvn that j'ools Avhich in Avet Aveather are formed on the Breccia dis- 

 appear in a short time on the cessation of the drip. Indeed, when the Lake 

 Avas tapped, the water was led to a depression in the surface of the Breccia 

 in the South-west Chamber, and in less than a week the greater part of 

 it had disappeared. There seems to belittle doiibt that the third is the true 

 solution of the problem of the severance in the Water Gallery. 



The animal remains found in that branch of the Cavern at present under 

 notice were, so far as is known, exclusively those of Bear ; and many of 

 them are fine specimens, including some splendid canines and molars. 

 Many of the bones were found broken, and some of them had been certainly 

 fractured where they lay, as the j)arts remained in juxtaposition and, indeed, 

 are reunited by some natural cement. When first exhumed, many of them 

 Avere so soft that in cleaning them it was found that a soft brush left its 

 traces on their surfaces. Exposure to the air hardens them. Some of the 

 canines have obviously seen considerable service. Many of the molars are 



