214 repokt— 1878. 



sion by Mr. Laws, lying by a piece of iron slag, the only piece of metal- 

 work found in or near this cave. Now these specimens would bring the 

 date of the inhabitation of the cave, if they had been found in situ within 

 it, down to a period as late as that in which the inhabitants had oppor- 

 tunities at least of procuring articles of Roman manufacture. There is 

 other evidence to show that the date of the burials on the roof of this 

 cave may have been no earlier than such a date ; but the finding of this 

 piece of pottery in the externally placed talus does not absolutely prove 

 the date of its being inhabited to have been so. But as regards the rela- 

 tive age of the human interments and of the human habitation of this 

 cave, it is of cardinal importance to note that two thin, flattish, fine- 

 grained red fragments of apparently Romano-British pottery were found, 

 in company with the human bones, deep down in the " depression seg- 

 ment." No other articles of human manufacture, however, except one 

 worked flint, though many remains of domestic animals, were found with 

 them. Still, it is difficult to think that these fragments were not of the 

 same date as the human bones found with them. On the other hand, in 

 the north cave and on the natural bottom, known locally as " Rabb," 

 were found the ashes and fire-place already spoken of; and in the red 

 cave-earth, just inside the mouth of the north cave and beneath the black 

 mould, were found a flint chip, a horn-stone scraper, and a bone needle, 

 the juxtaposition of which is not without significance. 



The finding of the remains of several dogs, one old and several young 

 ones, so closely mixed up with the human remains at the line of commu- 

 nication between the north cave and the segment of depression as to 

 suggest that the two sets of remains had been buried and had fallen down 

 together, and also the finding of a worked flint, and the absence of metal 

 in that segment, are phenomena usual or universal in neolithic interments. 

 But they have been all observed in interments even of the iron age. 



On the other hand, the finding of the bones of the brown bear (JJrsus 

 Arctos) in the black mould of the north cave, and notably also in the east 

 chamber, in company with, and similarly conditioned as to colour and 

 preservation to, the bones of man and of domestic animals, appears to 

 show with some probability that these latter remains should not take date 

 later than at least the time, about 900 years back, when this bear ceased 

 to infest Wales. 



We have, then, in the stone and bone implements found in the north 

 portions of this cave some tolerable evidence to the effect that it was 

 inhabited by man in probably late neolithic times. And whilst the 

 pottery found in the "depression segment," in company with the human 

 bones, appears to show that they, or, at any rate, the immense majority 

 of them, cannot be referred to an earlier than the Romano-British period, 

 the remains of the bear give us a certain datum line of at least 900 years 

 distance away from us as the latest period to which they can with any 

 probability be referred. 



We append a short summary of the results obtained from examina- 

 tion of all the bones obtained from this cave, whether obtained by Mr. 

 Edward Laws or ourselves, after they had been washed, cleaned, and 

 otherwise prepared. 



Some 160 or so fragments of bones and teeth referable either to 

 rhinoceros or elephant were found scattered throughout the northern 

 segments of the cave. We have not been able to find that they were in 

 positions apart from the other bones of more recent date, and usually of 



