on rent's cavern, Devonshire. 6 



required for their removal from the Cavern. They included 1 tooth of Horse, 

 1 of Fox, 2 teeth of Deer, 4 of Hyscna, 4 of Mammoth, upwards of 200 of Bear, 

 very numerous hones, especially of the vertebral column and feet, a crowd of 

 broken bones and bone splinters, numerous balls of coprolite, and a few bits 

 of coarse pottery. 



It cannot be doubted that such cracks as Mr. MacEnery describes, if at all 

 approaching in width to that still existing in the Stalagmitic boss, must be a 

 possible, and, indeed, probable source of uncertainty respecting the position 

 and relative chronology of some of the objects found in the underlying 

 deposit, especially if, as he states, this deposit shared in the disturbance ; 

 for it must be supposed that portions of the overlying Cave-earth or, as Mr. 

 MacEnery calls it, the Rubble-bed, together with teeth, bones, and coprolites, 

 such as he found in it, would pass down through the cracks, and be lodged 

 oh, and perhaps in, the underlying Breccia. 



In accordance with Mr. MacEncry's description and the foregoing con- 

 siderations, the deposit the Committee had to excavate was the Breccia, with 

 a small amount of Cave-earth lying on it here and there. Fallen blocks of 

 limestone were extremely numerous ; many of them were of great size, and 

 required to be blasted before they could be removed ; whilst others, still larger, 

 penetrated the Breccia below the depth to which the excavation was carried, 

 and were allowed to remain undisturbed. 



The excavation in the Bear's Den was limited, as in other branches of the 

 Cavern, to a depth of four feet below the bottom of the Stalagmite, and the 

 Limestone Floor was nowhere reached. 



The "finds" in tho Den were 216 in number, of which 12 were in the 

 Stalagmite, 101 in the first or uppermost foot-level of the underlying 

 deposits, 47 in the second, 32 in the third, 23 in the fourth or lowest, 

 and 1 in a small recess in the north-west corner of the Den, where no 

 attempt was made to define the exact position of the objects. Omitting 

 those found in the Stalagmite and the Recess, 32 of the " finds " were in 

 Cave-earth, 05 in a mixture of Cave-earth and Breccia, and 96 in the Breccia, 

 whilst the matrix of the remaining 10 must be regarded as uncertain. The 

 colour and other characters of the specimens, however, indicate with toler- 

 able certainty to what beds and eras they belong. 



Besides a considerable number of bones and pieces of bone representing 

 every part of the skeleton, the specimens included upwards of G20 teeth of 

 Bear, 24 of Hyaena, 10 of Horse, 7 of Fox, 5 of Mammoth, 4 of Lion, and 1 of 

 Dog (?) or Wolf (?). There were also 20 " finds " of coprolite and 11 flints. 



Amongst the bones, the skull of a Bear may be mentioned, which, to 

 requotc the language of Mr. MacEnery, was " buried in the stalagmite as in 

 a mould, and was brought away in that state." Many of the specimens arc 

 of considci'able interest, but, perhaps, none of them differ so much from those 

 mentioned in previous Reports as to require detailed description. There is, 

 however, a portion of a large canine tooth, probably of Bear, which is note- 

 worthy as having been apparently chipped artifically. From its colour and 

 general characters, it belonged to the breccia, or oldest known deposit ; but 

 it was met with, as part of " find " No. 6993, in the cave-earth, with two 

 teeth of Hyaena and a coprolitic ball, on 9th of June, 1 S77. Specimens similar 

 in character, and found under corresponding conditions, have been previously 

 met with in the Cavern, and were first pointed out by Professor Boyd 

 Dawkins, a member of the Committee, in 1SG8. 



None of the flints found in the Bear's Den are of so much interest 

 as many of those exhumed in other branches of the Cavern, and described 



