202 REPORT— 1869. 



" 2nd. The flake was not found vertically beneath any part of the Lake, but 

 fully a yard beyond its nearest margin. 



" 3rd. It did not lie on the surface of the deposit, but from 2 to 3 feet be- 

 neath it. 



" 4th. If the flake was originally lodged in the Cave-earth found in the Lake, 

 it must have been the ouly one deposited there ; for when we carefuUy and 

 completely emptied the Lake no flint implement was met with. 



" 5th. If the flake had found its way through the Stalagmite, it might have 

 been expected that some such bones as were found in the Lake (Horse and 

 JVIammoth, for example) would have descended through the same crevice ; but 

 instead of this, the remains of the Cave-bear alone are met with in the 

 Lreccia, and teeth of this animal were found in contact with the flake itself. 



" In short, there is no crevice through which the object could have passed ; 

 if it descended through the floor, it descended alone ; and if it did so de- 

 scend, it ought not to have been where it was found. "We have no hesita- 

 tion in stating that the flake is of the same age as the Ercccia which con- 

 tained it ; and that if our opinion of its human origin is confirmed, it is 

 anthropologically by far the most important object the Cavern has yielded." 



On June 3rd, 1869, the flake was submitted to Mr. John Evans, F.ll.S., a 

 Member of the Committee. He drew up the following statement, with the 

 intention that it should be inserted in the present Ileport : — " No. 3991 is 

 imdoubtedly of human workmanship. It is a flake of flint from the Challv, 

 one of the smaller facets of which shows the natural crust of the nodule from 

 which it was struck. The other external facet shows the characteristic de- 

 pression arising from the bulb of percussion on the flake previously removed 

 to form this facet. The flat or internal face of the flake shows a well-deve- 

 loped bulb, and the large but-end where the blow was struck has been 

 fashioned by two or tliree blows. It has therefore taken four or five blows, 

 each administered with a purpose in \'iew, to produce this instrument. 



" Not only, however, has it been artificiallj- made, but it carries upon it 

 evidence of having been in use as a tool ; for the edge produced by the inter- 

 section of the two principal artificial faces is worn away along its entire 

 length, and exhibits the slightly jagged appearance jiroduccd by the breaking 

 oft' of the sharp edge, such as I find by experience to result from scraping 

 bone or other hard substances with the edge of a flint flake. 



" (Signed) John Evans, June 3, 1869." 



Besides the above, a small perfectly angular piece of coarse-grained white 

 flint (No. 4037«) was discovered in the first foot-level of the Breccia in the 

 Water Gallery on Friday, April 23, 18G9. It has all the aspect of having 

 been struck oft' in making an implement. 



Having ascertained by careful measurements that a very few feet would 

 take the workmen into the Bears' Den, it was decided to excavate the Water 

 Gallery no further, as it was deemed undesirable to commence the investiga- 

 tion of theWcstern Division of the Cavern so long as any branch of the Eastern 

 Division remained unexplored. 



The South Scdh/-Port. — Two long, comparatively narrow, and approxi- 

 mately parallel galleries extend in a south-easterly direction into the eastern 

 wall of the Eastern Division of the Cavern, one from the Great Chamber, the 

 other from the Lecture Hall. They were termed " The Sally-Ports " by Mr. 

 M'Enery, who believed that they ultimately led to external openings in the 

 eastern side of the Cavern hiU. On the discontinuation of the excavation of 

 the Water Gallery, the exploration of the South Sally-Port, opening out of 



