498 



OSSIFEROUS CAVES OF GOWER. 



XIX. OBSERVATIONS ON THE OSSIFEROUS CAVES 

 IN THE PENINSULA OE GOWER, SOUTH 

 WALES. 1 



1. Introduction. — Object of the communication to give a 

 Summary op some Recent Observations. 



The object of this coimnunication is to submit a summary of 

 the results of some researches with which I have been oc- 

 cupied, during the last three years, in conjunction with my 

 friend Lieut.-Colonel Wood, F.G.S., of Stout Hall, upon the 

 Bone Caves of Gower in Glamorganshire. The caverns in 

 question are numerous, and the details, both palseontological 

 and stratigraphical, are much too voluminous for a single 

 communication. I have in consequence thought that it 

 might be useful to give at once a brief account of the more 

 novel and important results already arrived at. I have the 

 less hesitation in adopting this course, as the Gower caves 

 have already furnished a considerable amount of new in- 

 formation regarding the mammalian occupants of the country, 

 during what may be conveniently called the Cave-period ; 

 and they appear to me to indicate with more precision than 

 elsewhere in England the date when the cavern strata 

 emerged above the sea, to become the receptacles of the 

 organic remains that are now found in them. 



2. Importance and Extent op Colonel Wood's Gower 



Collection. 



It is incumbent on me to premise, in limine, that while 

 solely responsible for the paleeontological determinations, 

 and the conclusions therefrom arising, I am indebted to the 

 collections of Colonel Wood for nearly the whole of the 

 fossil materials, bearing on the Gower caves, that form the 

 groundwork of this communication. Colonel Wood has been 

 engaged on excavations in most of these caves in succession, 

 during the last ten or twelve years. He has discovered and 



1 This paper was communicated to tlie 

 Geological Society on May 30 and June 

 13, 1860. An abstract of it appeared in 



the 'Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc' for No- 

 vember, 1860 ; but the paper itself has 

 not before been published. — [Ed.] 



