102 Dorothy Bate — A Bone Cave on the Rker Wye. 



The cave consists of two chambers, the larger of which 

 penetrates the cliff for about thirty yards, only decreasing slightly in 

 size from the entrance, which is large. The floor is partially' covered 

 with a layer of earth, which in one place is about a foot and a half 

 thick. As already remarked, its original disposition has been more 

 or less altered by the workings of the miners. This earth contained 

 great quantities of small skulls and bones, the commonest among 

 them belonging to Microtus agrestis and If. amphibius. 



Owing to lack of time 1 was unable to penetrate below this earth 

 except where some of the rock had alreadj^ been removed. Portions 

 of the walls several feet above the present level of the floor are 

 encrusted with numberless small bones, impossible to extract in 

 good condition owing to the hardness of the limestone. If pieces 

 of rock were broken away similar bones were certain to be found 

 loose in any soft or crumblj'^ places. In fact, they were plentiful 

 throughout the cave — in the earth, on the ledges, in the walls, 

 and even on the surface of the floor. The bones embedded in 

 the rock, as well as those concealed in the earth, were found 

 extending right up to the mouth of the cave. These must have 

 accumulated at a time when the cave was considerably larger than it 

 now is. This it undoubtedly was at one time, for, as the face of the 

 cliff has gradually been worn away, the slope below has become 

 strewn with fragments of rock of all sizes. Another proof of this is 

 that in its present state it would be impossible for such animals 

 as sheep and deer to reach the cave. Yet the bones of these animals, 

 and of others for whom it would be as difScult of access, are found 

 buried in the earth. It is now evidently inaccessible to foxes and 

 badgers, as there are no holes used by them here, although they 

 are to be seen in almost every other cave I have visited in the 

 district. 



The smaller chamber opens into the main cave near the inner end 

 of the latter, and runs almost parallel with it towards the face of the 

 cliff. It has now no direct connection with the outside, although 

 there is an opening in the cliff with which it was probably formerly 

 connected. It is possible that the present entrance has only lately 

 been made. The roof is very low, forcing one to crawl on hands 

 and knees. Part of the floor has been disturbed in the same way as 

 in the outer chamber, but, unlike it, there is little of the earth in 

 which the greater number of the small bones were found. Probably 

 the real mouth of this cave has been closed up by the roof at this ^^ 

 point giving way, the rock having been loosened by water. At the ^Bi 

 end nearest the face of the cliff there is always a certain amount of ^^ 

 water to be seen dripping from the wall. The rock over which it runs 

 down to the level of the floor has been formed into a series of ridges, 

 somewhat resembling those left on the sand by the receding tide, 

 though they differ in being higher and sharper and closer together. 

 This has a very striking appearance when a light is thrown on 

 its ribbed surface, which looks black and highly polished, and is 

 always glistening with moisture. "Wherever this water penetrates 

 it leaves a deposit of stalagmite, which causes the rock to become 



