313 REPORT — 1873. 



called the Ovine period, remains of the sheep being restricted to this accu- 

 mulation. 



7tb. The bones of each period were distinguishable by their physical con- 

 dition — those from the Black Mould being lighter, and those in the Breccia 

 more mineralized, than the products of the Cave-earth. 



Flint and chert implements presented themselves in each of the niecJui- 

 nical deposits ; and, as in the case of the bones, those belonging to any one 

 were easily distinguishable from those of the other two. 



The implements of the Black Mould, the uppermost deposit, were of the 

 ordinary colour of common flints. They were mere flakes and " strike- 

 lights," the latter probably used and cast aside or lost by those who during 

 a long period, and before the invention of lucifer-matches, acted as guides to 

 the cavern. All further notice of them may be omitted as not being note- 

 Avorthy. 



Omitting mere flakes, of which there were great numbers, the principal 

 flint implements found in the Cave-earth were ovoid, lanceolate, and tongue- 

 shaped, produced by fashioning, not flint nodules, but flakes struck off 

 them. They were of comparatively somewhat delicate proportions, usually 

 of a white colour and porcellaneous aspect, and had, through metamor- 

 phosis, a granular chalk-like internal textui'e. 



Flint implements were not the only human industrial remains found in the 

 Cave-earth, as it had yielded a bone needle with a well-formed eye, three 

 bone harpoons (one of them barbed on both sides, and the others on one only), 

 a bone pin, a bone awl, and a badger's tooth having its fang artificially 

 perforated for the purpose apparently of being strung with other objects to 

 form a necklace or bracelet, thus indicating that the Cave-dwellers of the 

 hyanine period occupied themselves in making ornaments as well as objects 

 of mere utUity. 



The implements from the Breccia are much more rudely formed, more 

 massive, less symmetrical in outline, and have been made by operating, not 

 on flakes, but directly on nodules derived from supracretaceous accumula- 

 tions, and generally retain some traces of the original surface. One of 

 the specimens, however, is a mass of flint which may have been a " core " 

 from which flakes were struck, or, what seems not less probable, the useless 

 result of an abortive attempt to make a tool. 



No such implements have been found in the Cave-earth, nor have any of 

 the comparatively slender, symmetrical, and well-finished tools of the more 

 modern deposit been met with in the more ancient. They are by no means 

 so abundant as those of the Cave-earth ; that is to say, a given volume of 

 Breccia does not yield so maiij- implements as an equal volume of the more 

 modern accumulation. Whether equal periods of time are represented by 

 equal volumes of deposit in the two cases, or whether equal pei-iods of time 

 represent ecjual numbers of human cave-dwellers or tool-makers in the two 

 eras, are questions into which it is not possible to enter at present. 

 Omitting rude flakes and mere chips, as well as the " core " just mentioned, 

 the Breccia up to this time has yielded no more than eleven specimens. It 

 must be remembered, however, that the time during which the Committee 

 have been excavating Breccia is comparatively very short. 



That the implements from the Breccia belong to a ruder age than those 

 from the Cave-earth may probably be safely concluded from their much 

 ruder form and finish, and also, if negative evidence be trustworthy, from 

 the entire absence of bone tools of any kind. That they belong to an earlier 

 period is obvious from the position they occupied : they were lodged in a 



