382 TRANSLATIONS AND SELECTED ARTICLES. 



the same place, coupled -with the absence of all traces of an entrance- 

 having been effected posterior to the filling up of the cave, is easily 

 explicable ; as also is the fact of the bones and teeth being confusedly 

 scattered, and as yet in no instance viatcv-worn. This gradual process 

 may at times have been varied by floodings, by -which a large quantity 

 of earthy sediment, derived from higher levels, may have been intro- 

 duced, as now in a cave close by, in Avhich sediment similar in every 

 respect to the red earth ot the bone-cave is deposited during a rainy 

 season. Had the numerous large stones been put in motion by water 

 in the cave, they would soon have ground down the animal remains to 

 an impalpable dust. 



Thus, indeed, the discovery of these inplements in the same spot, 

 so far from proving that they were introduced subsequently to the 

 other remains, adds additional testimony to the method by which the 

 cave was filled, — that it was filled gradually and by causes still in 

 operation, and not by any great cataclysm, by which the contents of 

 numerous bone-caves are supposed to have been introduced. And the 

 only alternative left us is to believe that they were deposited during 

 the time that the Rhinoceros tichorhinus, Irish Elk, and Cave-bear 

 inhabited the British Isles, and before the great submergence of land 

 in the Northern Hemisphere. 



In April, 1861, we resumed our excavations ; and, as we made our 

 way inwards, found that the cave began to narrow, and ultimately to 

 bifurcate ; one branch extending vertically upwards, while the other, 

 which is undisturbed, appeared to extend almost horizontally to the 

 right hand. As we reached the middle constricted passage, the teeth 

 became fewer, while the stones were of 4arger size than any we had 

 hitherto discovered. The great majority of the gnawed antlers of 

 Deer were found at this part, also the posterior half of a cervine 

 skull, the right maxilla of Canis lupus, and, what is more remarkable, 

 a stone with one of its surfaces coated with a deposit apparently of 

 stalagmite : this, however, was much lighter than stalagmite, and not 

 so good a conductor of heat ; and, on analysis, I found that it consis- 

 ted of phosphate of lime, with a little carbonate, and a very small 

 portion of peroxide of manganese. Doubtless the surface of the 

 stone, covered with phosphate of lime, formed part of the ancient 

 floor of the cave, and hence was coated with excrement, while h.e 

 lower part, being imbedded in the earth on the floor, was not so coated* 

 This deposit may, perhaps, explain the absence of round balls of Al-^ 



