ON THE EXPLORATION OF THE SETTLE CAVES. 215 



Fifth Report of the Committee, consisting of Sir John Lubbock, Bart., 

 Prof. Prestwich, Prof. Busk, Prof. T. M'K. Hughes, Prof. W. 

 Boyd Dawkins, Prof. Miall, Rev. H. W. Crosskey, and Mr. R. 

 H. Tiddeman, appointed for the purpose of assisting in the Explora- 

 tion of the Settle Caves (Victoria Cave). Drawn up by R. H. 

 Tiddeman (Reporter). 



The Local Committee have this year sustained a great loss in the death of 

 their Chairman, Sir James P. Kay-Shuttleworth, Bart. Sir James took a 

 great interest in the work from the commencement. He recommended us to 

 employ in working the admirable methods of excavation so inseparably con- 

 nected with the names of Mr. Pengelly and Kent's Cavern, and which, with 

 slight modifications, were adopted. Besides his liberal contributions to the 

 fund, his business-like method of conducting the Committee's meetings was 

 of the greatest service to the undertaking. 



The work has been carried on almost continuously since we last reported 

 at Glasgow up to the 14th of July last. As the state of our funds was then 

 very low, it was determined to give up work for a time ; and it has not yet 

 been resumed. 



In our last Report we called attention to a very stiff, dark, laminated clay 

 which occurred in chambers A and D at a lower level than the principal 

 bone-bed or hyaena-bed. It was separated from the underlying yellow sandy 

 clay by a thin bed of stalagmite of varying thickness. A large part of our 

 time in the past year has been taken up in removing portions of these beds 

 in these two chambers, working them down to a lower level inwards, in order 

 to be able to work at the back of the cave. In doing this it was found that 

 these beds rose as we proceeded inwards towards the junction of the ends of 

 chambers A and D. Large blocks of fallen limestone occurred along the 

 right wall of chamber D and much impeded us and others at the junction of 

 A and D. No bones occurred in this portion of the work, except at 2 feet 

 Parallel 34, where we obtained bones of a large bear, of a goat, of a large ox, 

 also a gnawed antler of Red Deer. These were at a depth of 13 feet. 



On the 16th of November we had made a sufficiently good clearance of the 

 route to the further junction of these two chambers to enable us to carry on 

 our investigation in this direction ; and as the beds were rising inwards, we 

 entertained a hope that by working on these we might come to earlier beds than 

 we had yet discovered. The result confirmed our expectations, and, although 

 not in any way sensational, was very interesting. We had previously worked 

 for some time in an easterly direction from this point, but without much 

 practical result. The beds were so wet and slippery that the section could 

 not be properly observed. There was no drainage for the water which was 

 accumulating ; and in short, to use a miner's phrase, we were " drowned 

 out." We now resolved to try in another direction ; and finding that at the 

 end of chamber A the deposits ran further north beneath the limestone, and 

 that there was no true wall to the cave at that spot, we proceeded to make a 

 cut to the north in the direction of an old shaft at the end of chamber B. 

 There were two reasons for selecting this direction. First, it would show 

 us the extent of the cave to the north, and whether B was separated from A 

 or continuous with it at the further end, as A and D had been proved to be. 

 Secondly, in that old shaft hyaena had been first discovered, many years ago, 

 by Mr. Jackson in his earlier researches, and identified by Dr. Buckland ; 



