352 REPORT — 1891. 



bones acd cliarcoal were found in three places. Three human skeletons 

 were discovered buried 5 feet below the floor level, with the legs bent and 

 the knees drawn up close to the skull. The other human bones were 

 more or less scattered. Most of the skulls were shattered, though two, 

 obtained from the east end, are fairly preserved, and are dolichocephalic, 

 the index of one being 73 4. Two skeletons in very bad condition were 

 also found at the other end of the chamber at a much lower level, 13 and 

 15 feet respectively below the floor (one lying but a few inches above the 

 clay containing bones of the bear and reindeer). The latter specimens 

 are more decayed than the others, and could not be measured. Associated 

 with them was pottery of diSerent character to that which was found in 

 the other parts of the cave. It is thicker, ruder, and ornamented with 

 triangular-shaped characters made with an angular tool. The pottery 

 found near the other specimens at the higher level was marked with 

 straight lines, which in some cases cut one another and form a diamond- 

 shaped ornamentation, in others the lines go in and out without intersect- 

 ing, and form a ' herring-bone ' pattern ; others had impressions made by 

 some rounded bone tool. Both kinds of pottery were made from clay 

 similar to that found in the cave, and both kinds were hand-fashioned 

 without wheel, and charred and brirned from the inside. No flints or metal 

 of any kind have been found in the cave. The only objects obtained have 

 been bone pins and a few other worked bones. 



Nearly all of the upper stratum containing human remains had been 

 cleared away before August 1890, and the next layer had been worked 

 for some distance, especially in the second shaft at the west end of the 

 chamber. So far this lower stratum was composed of stiff clay, with 

 angular fragments of limestone and at times a thin bed of stalagmite. 

 No human remains or any of the animals associated with them have 

 been found. These are i-eplaced mainly by bears, both Ursus ferox and 

 Ursus arctos, and great numbers of Alpine hares and foxes. The bones 

 in this layer show no evidence of having been gnawed by other animals ; 

 they either perished in the fissure or their bones were washed down 

 through pot-holes into the cave. The bones from the lower layer are 

 darker, much harder, and less porous than those from the upper one. 



After the meeting of the Association at Leeds the efibrts of your 

 Committee were first directed to the careful examination of the lower 

 clay bed in the centre of the chamber. A pot-hole, about 10 feet deep 

 and 3 in width, was cleared out. Tliis contained a few of the limb 

 bones of a bear. A great part of the rock floor at the foot of the first 

 ladder was blasted. It consisted apparently of a quantity of rock fallen 

 ft'om the roof and cemented by stalagmite. We were hopeful that 

 underneath it we should find an old deposit. So far, however, it is 

 solid. Further west the excavation was continued, the difliculty of 

 working in the soft adhesive clay increasing. The percentage of bones 

 was small, and in the next 6 feet not a single bone was found. The 

 cave has now developed into a deep fissure, and is from 4 to 6 feet in 

 width at a depth of about 45 feet from the original level of the cave 

 floor. The attention of your Committee was next directed to find any 

 possible entrance to the cave in addition to the present one : the floor 

 was tested along the sides of the cave east of the first ladder, but the 

 miners report that there the ground was all solid rock. 



Between the barren clay section and the second ladder there is a 

 quantity of unexplored material. Huge blocks of fallen rock are wedged 



