34 REPORT— 1872. 



found September 20, 1871, in the first Level, with 2 teeth of horse and 1 of 

 rhinoceros. 



No. 5602 is a strongly proportioned chert lanceolate implement, 3'9 inches 

 long, 1-1 inch broad, and -4 inch thick. It is concave on one face, very 

 strongly carinated on the other, truncated at one end, pointed but blunt at 

 the other, and worked to an edge along its two margins. It was found Sep- 

 tember 22, 1871, in the fourth Level, with 4 teeth of hyaena, 2 of horse, and 

 several fragments of bone. 



No. 5656 is a somewhat irregular ovate chert tool, unequally convex on its 

 two faces, 4-2 inches long, 3'3 inches in greatest breadth, and -85 inch in 

 greatest thickness. It has been wrought to an edge around its entire cir- 

 cumference, but not elaborately finished ; at one small jjart near its broader 

 end a portion of the original surface of the nodule from which it was formed 

 remains, and it has apparently been much used. It was found October 13, 

 1871, in the third Level, but without any bones or teeth in the same Yard. 

 Three implements of the same type have been mentioned in previous 

 Ileports *. 



The Cave of Rodentla. — From the north-eastern corner of the Wolf s Cave, 

 a passage, scarcely 5 feet long, about 5-5 high, and where narrowest not more 

 than 5 feet wide, leads into a chamber measuring about 25 feet from east to 

 west, and 20 from north to south. It was termed the " Cave of Rodentia " by 

 Mr. MacEnery, who thus describes his researches in it : — " We now found our- 

 selves in the midst of hundreds of Eodentia. Of their remains and dust the 

 deposit was constituted, agglutinated together by calcareous matter into a bony 

 breccia. It should have been premised that the stalagmite above them was 

 about a foot and a half deep, regularly laminated and free from all adventi- 

 tious matter It suffered no disturbance or interruption from its first 



commencement The remains of llodentia were wanting in no part of 



the Cavern that we had yet examined, .... but here, in this grotto, they 

 swarmed in countless multitudes. Not only had their tiny remains penetra- 

 ted into every cleft and crevice of the rock, but they insinuated themselves 

 even into the chambers of the large bones. The wolf's skull, in the passage, 

 had its cavities charged and its surface incrusted over with a concretion of 



their bones It was an interesting spectacle to behold myriads of 



minute animal remains congregated by the side of elephants, rhinoceroses, 

 and hyaenas in a common sepulchre. Heads generally crushed ; lower 

 jaws preserved. When a handful of this dust was thrown into water, 

 hundreds of teeth rose to the surface, and it was by this means they were 

 collected " f. 



It will be seen from the foregoing quotation that here, too, the Committee 

 were foUowiug Mr. MacEnery's steps. His labours, however, were on a 

 less extended scale than in the Wolfs Cave. In the narrow trench to 

 which he restricted himself, and which was not continuous, his excavations 

 never extended more than 2 feet, and frequently not more than 18 inches, 

 below the base of the Stalagmitic Floor. Connected with this Cave, more- 

 over, there proved to be two recesses, which he did not enter ; indeed he did 

 not suspect their existence. 



The Roof of the Cave of Rodentia slopes gently towards the north. Its 

 general height above the bottom of the Committee's excavation is about 8 feet ; 



* See also ' The Ancient Stone Implements, &c. of Great Britain,' by John Evans, 

 F.R.S., F.S.A., 1872, figs. 386, 387, p. 447. 

 t Trans. Devon. Assoc, vol. iii. pp. 244, 245. 



