Notices of Memoirs. 119 



" History of Somersetsliire," the work from which many of the facts 

 above stated were derived. 



Note. — A curious circumstance in connexion with these caves, 

 though not exactly relevant to the subject of the present paper, is 

 the existence of a pipe or chimney, passing from the lower to the 

 higher one. The opening of this passage above was filled up by 

 blocks of Limestone wedged together in such a manner as to form 

 the floor of the den above, so that it was upon them that the remains 

 of the extinct animals were found. These loose blocks were re- 

 moved by the first explorers of these caves, and it was by way of 

 this " chimney" that the lower chamber was first entered, the outer 

 entry beneath the head being discovered subsequently. 



Had an earthquake shock in modern times dislodged the floor of the 

 hyaena den, its contents would have been" scattered over the human 

 and recent remains and the Eoman coins below. Such a simple 

 case of "false" super-position might not have misled an acute 

 observer ; but had the convulsion been accompanied by a temporary 

 irruption of the sea, or by a permanent depression of the coast line, 

 (either combination of events being by no means improbable) then 

 the entire contents of the cave, ancient and modern, would have 

 been disturbed, washed about and intermingled in such a manner as 

 altogether to conceal the true history of the confused mass. Such a 

 case may not be expected to occur in the British Isles, but cave- 

 explorers in less favoured countries, where earthquakes and changes 

 of level are of frequent occurrence, would do well to bear the sug- 

 gestions of this instance in mind. Neither, it must be remembered, 

 will the state of preservation of the bones, under such circumstances, 

 always give certain evidence as to their age ; for in this same cave 

 I met with recent bones, some in the sand and some in the clay, of 

 which the former had lost the greater part of their animal matter, 

 whilst the latter were almost as fresh as if yesterday thrown out of 

 the kitchen. 



n^OTicss oip nycDsnvEOiies. 



QUARTEKLY JOUBNAL OF THE GEOLOGICAL SoOIETY OF LoNDON. 



Vol. XXII. Part I. Februart, 1866. 



THIS Number of the Journal does not contain such a long list of 

 original articles as did the last, which contained more than 

 twenty original papers on various interesting topics, while this 

 number contains but five, one on Foreign Geology, the rest on the 

 Tertiary and Post-tertiary Geology of Great Britain. Mr. Godwin- 

 Austen gives a description of the submerged forest-beds of Porlock 

 Bay, showing what light they throw upon the minor oscillations to 

 which our island has been subject in the more recent periods. The 

 Eev. E. Boog Watson discusses the origin of the "parallel roads" 

 of Glen Eoy, advocating the Marine Theory, in opposition to the 



