I REPORT — 1877. 



appearance. Over the whole area it was cracked into large slabs, resembling 

 flags in a pavement. The upper sheet was not in the least fractured. The 

 average thickness of the cracked sheet was about two feet. It possessed the 

 hardness of rock, and, but for its division into insulated flags, it would have 

 been almost impossible to pierce it. Powder made no impression on it. 



" The first flag we turned over displayed a curious spectacle. Skulls and 

 bones of Bear, crowded together, adhered to its under surface. Flag after 

 flag disclosed the same phenomenon ; but in one place numerous skeletons 

 lay heaped on each other ; the entire vertebral column and its various other 

 bones, even to the phalanges and claws, were discovered lying in their natural 

 relation in a state of preservation as if belonging to the same individual. 

 The remains of Bear prevailed here to the exclusion of all other animals. 

 Some of the teeth were of the most dazzling enamel, and the bones of their 

 natural fresh colour. Others, on the contrary, were of a darkish brown ; 

 even the enamel was of a greenish tinge. Owiug to the induration of their 

 earthy envelope, or their incrustation by stalagmite, few were extracted 

 entire. Two skulls were buried in the stalagmite as in a mould, and were 

 brought away in that state. In no case were the remains broken or gnawed 

 by the jaws of Carnivores. The long bones were generally found entire, 

 and when observed broken it was only mechanically from pressure. The 

 bones were highly mineralized, heavy, brittle, easy of fracture, and when 

 struck rang like metallic substances." (See ' Trans. Devon Assoc' vol. iii. 

 (1869) pp. 233-10, 272-4, and 307-16.) 



" The annexed section," says Mr. MacEnery, " will indicate the relative 

 arrangement or position of the alternating strata of stalagmite and loam " 

 (ibid. p. 311). It must not be supposed, however, that the section makes 

 any thing like an approach to accuracy of scale or proportions (Plate I.). 



The portions of the Stalagmitic Floor which Mr. MacEnery had faded to 

 break up, chiefly adjacent to the walls and other confines of the Bear's Don, 

 were sufficient to furnish the Committee with two good examples of tho 

 remarkably cracked condition of which he speaks. One of these was in the 

 north-east corner, where a crack about half an inch wide extended from 

 wall to wall, dividing the Bear's Den from the " Lake" area, passing quite 

 through the stalagmite, which was nowhere less than 2 feet thick, but 

 Avitkout " faulting " it in the slightest degree, or, so far as could bo observed, 

 in any way affecting the underlying deposits. Mr. MacEnery, however, 

 states, though somewhat obscurely, that iu some instances a derangement 

 had taken place in the materials covered by the broken stalagmite (ibid. 

 p. 301)). The second existing crack varies from '25 inch to 2-5 inches wide, 

 and passes completely through the boss of stalagmite already mentioned, but 

 without faulting it. It is, perhaps, worthy of remark that there is no 

 unoccupied space between the base of this boss and the deposit beneath it. 

 The two arc in direct and undisturbed contact. No such cracks appear to 

 be mentioned by Mr. MacEnery as occurring elsewhere, nor have the Com- 

 mittee met with any thing of the kind in any other branch of the Cavern. 



Tho ground broken by Mr. MacEnery extended to a depth of from 8 to 

 20 inches over almost the entire area of the Bear's Den. As was his wont, 

 he left the excavate! materials almost where he found them, and, as in all 

 previous cases of the kind, there were amongst them a large number of 

 specimens which had been overlooked or neglected. These, Carefully 

 collected by the Committee, were kept apart from the relics they found in 

 the deposits below his diggings, and, when the exploration of the Den was 

 completed) such was their number and volume that a horse and cart were 



