304.. REPORT— 1869. 



the same route the day before, and they were all satisfied that the earth was 

 not there then. On examination it was found to have been thrown out of a 

 newly made hole, in aU respects resembling those made by rats, and extend- 

 ing from the edge of a slab of limestone obhquely through the Cave-earth 

 beneath*. 



In the South Sally-Port, the Black Mould, which in most of the other 

 branches of the Cavern was found continuously overlying the Stalagmitic Floor, 

 did not extend many feet within the entrance. Beyond the point at which 

 the Stalagmite ended, the entire deposit was Cave-earth from top to bottom 

 of the section, and in aU probability every part of it had been introduced be- 

 fore the formation of the calcareous floor began. In previous Reports the Com- 

 mittee have recorded the fact that in the Stalagmite itself are lodged remains 

 of the Cave-bear, Hyaena, and Rhinoceros. Indeed the only fossU found in 

 the scanty floor in that branch of the Cavern now under consideration was a 

 tooth of the last-named species, which is not only in quite the upper part of 

 tlie stalagmitic sheet, but, instead of being completely covered, projected 

 above its surface. Obviously, then, Ursus sjieJceus, Hyania spelcea, Sindlihino- 

 ceros tichorhhms ontlived the era of the Cave-earth, and therefore it would 

 not be surprising if their remains, together with palfeolithic flint implements, 

 were found lying on the surface of this deposit ; nor, if they were left unpro- 

 tected, would there be anything inexplicable or strange if they were found 

 mixed with objects belonging to more recent periods, or even to the present 

 daj'. Such a commingling might or might not be the result of disturbance 

 and rearrangement when occurring on the surface, but could not be otherwise 

 explained when met with below it. 



Be this as it may, it is imdeniably the fact that in this, but in no other 

 branch of the Cavern which the Committee have exjjlored, ancient and modern 

 bones, and unpolished flint implements and rude potter^', have been found 

 lying together. Remains of the extinct brute inhabitants of Devonshire are 

 mixed confusedly with those of the present day, and the handiwork of the 

 human contemporary of the Mammoth is found inosculating with the product 

 of the potter's wheel. 



It is worthy of remark that whilst potsherds lie on the surface, and the 

 mouths of shafts, connected with the tunnels or burrows, stand open to 

 receive them, instances of their having fallen in are extremely rare. The 

 modern objects found in the body of the Cave-earth are almost without excep- 

 tion such as have been actually taken in by the recent animals which made 

 their homes there. 



In a sensibly horizontal tunnel about the size of a fox-earth, at a depth of 

 4 feet below the surface, there was found a beU, such as huntsmen are wont 

 to suspend to the neck of a terrier when sent in after a fox — a fact which in 

 all probability explains its presence in the spot it occupied. 



In other and smaller buiTows bundles of moss, each about the size of a 

 man's fist, have been met with and supposed to be the nest of some animal. 



Compared with the phenomena of every other branch of the Cavern ex- 

 plored by the Committee, those of this Sally-Port are no doubt anomalous ; 



* The visits of rats to the Cavern and tlieir habit of carrying off candles have long been 

 well known. In January 1867 the workmen observed a rat in the Cavern on several suc- 

 cessive days. At length he made his presence felt iri a very disagreeable manner. At 9 a.m. 

 the principal workman placed liis dinner, carefully lodged in a bag, in a stout wicker basket. 

 At the dinner-hoiu- (1 p.m.) he found that the rat had eaten a hole through the basket, 

 anotlier through the bag, and carried off every particle of his meal. Poisoned food was at 

 once prepared for the intruder, and nothing further was seen of him until a few days after 

 his dead body was found. 



