46 REPORT—1868. 
taking down scaffolding or working-platforms, and there would be a great 
liability for the deposit to “cave in,” which, by rendering it impossible to 
determine their exact positions and associations, would deprive the objects 
found of much of their interest, as well as of their value as evidence. 
The workmen still follow the practice of first examining the deposits in 
situ, and of re-examining them by daylight at the entrance of the Cavern; 
the lines described in the First Report (1865) are still employed in 
order to fix the precise position of every object found; the specimens, as at 
the beginning, are all carefully cleaned and labelled, those found in each 
“yard” (mass of deposit a yard long and a foot square in the section) are 
kept together in a separate box; the Cayern is visited daily by the Superin- 
tendents; the Secretary continues to keep a daily journal of the work; Re- 
ports, signed by both Superintendents, are, at the end of each month, for- 
warded to Sir C. Lyell, Chairman of the Committee; and well-defined and 
satisfactory arrangements exist for the admission of visitors accompanied by 
the Superintendents, so as at once to keep alive a healthy interest in the 
exploration and to prevent inconvenience from their visits. 
Amongst the numerous visitors during the past year, the Superintendents 
had the pleasure of receiving Dr. Hooker, President of the British Associa- 
tion. 
The Lecture Hall.—tIn their Third Report (1867), the Committee stated 
that researches, probably on a somewhat large scale, had been carried on in 
the Lecture Hall by Mr. M‘Enery and the other early explorers, who, in- 
stead of taking out of the Cavern that portion of the deposits which they 
had examined, simply threw it on one side. On the removal of this dislodged 
material, the Committee found that they had considerably over-estimated the 
extent of the old working, and that by far the greater portion of the deposits 
in this Hall remained indubitably intact. 
The objects met with, not only in the broken ground, but in every locality 
about which there was the least uncertainty, were carefully kept distinct 
from those found in undoubted virgin soil. 
Without at present entering into details, it may be stated that in the Lec- 
ture Hall the deposits were of the same general character and order as in 
those parts of the Cavern which the Committee had previously explored and 
reported on,—Red Cave-earth of unknown depth, completely sealed up with 
a Stalagmitic Floor, which, in its turn, was covered with a layer of Black 
Mould. 
The objects found in the overlying Black Mould were less numerous than, 
but similar to, those described from the same accumulation in former Reports. 
Amongst them may be mentioned several pieces of pottery, a spindle-whorl, 
a roughly shapen piece of New Red Sandstone, a portion of a bone comb, 
-part of a small vase, a small red earthenware pan, marine shells, a small piece 
of smelted copper, the entire lower jaw and an almost complete skull of a 
badger, part of a human upper jaw with eight teeth, of which four are still 
in their sockets, and the internal cast of a fossil shell. 
The potsherds do not require detailed description, most of them are of 
black coarse clay mixed with small stones, some of them are ornamented, 
whilst others are plain, and, in short, they closely resemble those described 
in the former Reports. 
The spindle-whorl is of clay-slate, measures an inch in diameter and half 
an inch in depth, and is ornamented with a series of curvilineal and straight 
lines, both on its curved and flat surfaces. It is, perhaps, worthy of remark 
that, though the Cavern has yielded spindle-whorls formed of different kinds 
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