So THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



loose fragments of fissile greenstone.* Scaling the hill by walldng 

 was next to impossible on the Glenorchy side, by which we made the 

 ascent. We had literally to climb by laying hold of the stunted 

 vegetation which grew thereon, so steep is the escarpment. 



Upon reaching the entrance to this subterranean bone depot, I 

 found it to consist of a nearly circular opening of about 18 feet in 

 its greatest diameter, situated close to the summit of the hill, 

 and parallel to the surface, and presenting the appearance of the 

 roof of a vault having caved in. It formed a chamber of about 12 

 feet in depth, the sides and floor of which were composed of angular 

 masses of dense, hornblendic greenstone. In outline, it was very 

 concave, so as to resemble the interior of a dome. The interstices 

 of the floor were filled with humus and fragments of wood, such as 

 sticks, twigs, and decayed leaves. Upon disturbing the soil I 

 could find no bones, but there were fragments of the shells of the 

 land-snail Bulimus gunni, which is tolerably abundant in the 

 immediate neighborhood. 



On the western side of this chamber is an opening close to the 

 floor, barely large enough to admit the body of a man crawling on 

 his stomach, and which leads into another compartment, narrow, and 

 iiTegular, with the floor sloping at an angle of about 35 degrees. 

 In some parts of the cavern a person could stand upright, while in 

 other parts progress could only be made on the hands and knees. 

 Here I found a few small fragments of bone, which had the 

 appearance of having been gnawed. It was here that my young 

 friend found the pieces of bone to which he had drawn my attention, 

 and beyond which he had not ventured. There was no deposit of 

 vegetable soil in this compartment, to which, must be added, an 

 almost entire absence of twigs and leaves. The soil, or cave earth, 

 on the floor, was of a chocolate color, and of fine, loamy character. 

 The angular blocks of greenstone forming the sides and roof of the 

 chamber, were coated with a natural enamel, which, reflecting the 

 lights of our candles, had a very pleasing effect. This enamel 

 coating, I am inclined to believe, has been caused by the percolation 

 of moisture carrying silica in solution. It is singular, however, 

 that this deposit should be confined to this particular part of the 

 cave, since no trace of it was visible in other parts. The length of 

 this chamber is about 50 feet, and it leads into two others, one of 

 which is narrow and irregular, running upward toward the surface 

 of the hill at an acute angle, but along which I was unable to 

 proceed more than a few yards, owing to a large mass of rock 

 which had apparently fallen, at some time or another, blocking up the 

 passage — the other, or fourth chamber, is reached by a hole in the 

 floor of this one. The hole, at the widest part, being about five feet 

 across. Failing to see any bottom to this well-like opening by the 

 *A dense, crystalline variety of igneous rock of Plutonic age. 



