Uev. W. 8. Symonds — Sycena-^den near Ross. 437 



have attempted thus to deceive. Still Mr. Evans's opinion is of 

 the greatest consequence on such subjects, and for that reason I 

 sent the whetstone to him, believing myself at the time that it 

 it came from the lower cave earth. On thinking the matter care- 

 fully over I believe the history may be thus explained. When the 

 whetstone was thrown out of the bottom of the pit it was directly 

 after I had directed the removal of a quantity of debris from the side 

 of the fissure, outside the cave, in order to get at more relics from 

 the upper cave earth, on which a mass of rock had fallen. The pit 

 in the lower cave earth lay right in the way of the fall of some of 

 this upper debris from the side of the cave, and this whetstone may 

 have fallen in from the debris. I prefer this solution to that of the 

 hoax and the lie ! and, therefore, place the whetstone in the same 

 category as the pottery, and the recent human bones ; so even if it 

 was a hoax, the hoax has failed I 



Still we must not forget that the disinterment of flint flakes from 

 the lower cave earth is as convincing a proof of the existence of man, 

 and of his frequenting the cave at the time of the deposition of this 

 earth, as would be the discovery of 20,000 whetstones ; as well as 

 of his contemporaneity with the extinct animals. 



One or two of the flint flakes I discovered in situ myself imbedded 

 with the bones of the extinct mammalia. They are completely 

 whitened by their long interment in the cave earth. I would also 

 remark that the flakes, teeth, and bones do not show the faintest sign 

 of being rolled or acted upon by water. The fangs and edges of the 

 teeth are as sharp as when in the jaws of the living animal. The 

 lower cave earth was introduced gradually and by degrees, probably 

 by the wash of rain and melting of snow through crevices in the 

 limestone. It is separated continually by thin layers of stalaginite, 

 in many instances coated with the album grcecum of hyaenas, proving 

 that for a time each layer of stalagmite formed the floor of the cave, 

 and that during such periods there was no influx of water save by 

 the drippings from above. The very idea of this cave earth having 

 been washed in by a flood, or floods of water, is simply preposterous 

 nonsense to those who worked it, and examined it, as we did, inch 

 by inch, and foot by foot. The animal remains are those of the 

 cave Lion, Hygena, Ehinoceros, Mammoth (three sizes and ages), the 

 Gigantic Irish Deer, the Horse, the Bison, and the Eeindeer ; but no 

 Bear was found in the lower earth. 



From the foregoing facts it appears safe to draw the following 

 inferences : — 



1st. That long ages ago King Arthur's Qave was a deep fissure in 

 the rocks of the mountain limestone, which was gradually silted up 

 by the introduction of the lower cave earth, by the wash of rain and 

 water through crevices and fissures ; and that during that period it 

 was a Hygena's den, and, also, the occasional haunt of ancient Here- 

 fordian men, who left there their manufactured weapons and sharpened 

 tools. These implements are all foreign to the district, for the flints, 

 the cores, and the more modern whetstone have all been imported 

 from long distances. A thick floor of stalagmite seals this lower 



