502 



OSSIFEROUS CAVES OF GOWER. 



excellent account of the operations, with plans and sections, 

 has been published by Mr. Starling Benson, 1 founded on ob- 

 servations made during the progress of the work, which 

 relieves nie from the necessity of a minute description on the 

 present occasion. ' Bacon Hole ' is situated about the lower 

 third of the limestone cliffs on the sea coast, about six miles 

 west of Swansea, and in a line nearly due S. from KilvrOugh. 

 You descend from a level grassy plateau by a steep and 

 difficult path along the cliff, till you come upon the brink of 

 an enormous accumulation of cemented angular breccia, 

 below which, but a little more to the E., opens the cavern 

 towards the sea, and directed to the SE. The mouth is 

 wide and open, with diverging walls admitting the free access 

 of light to the interior. The cavern is evidently, as has been 

 observed by Mr. Starling Benson, in the line of one of numer- 

 ous faults which intersect the limestone of South Wales. A 

 cleft continuous with that of the cave can be seen stretching;- 

 out into the sea, and bending slightly to the east, upon the 

 rocky platform below which forms the present sea beach. 

 The walls of the interior lean to and meet so as to form an 

 anticlinal axis along the centre of the roof, in part of which 

 the remains of a wide chasm are visible, which was probably 

 continued upwards in a flue. This chasm is at present in a 

 great measure blocked up with masses of breccia, sheeted 

 over by an abundant coating of stalagmite ; but, like the 

 corresponding flue in the roof of Paviland, as figured in 

 Buckland's section, it may have formed a channel through 

 which injecta were precipitated from above into the cavern. 

 The upper parts of the interior are mostly covered over 

 with a cake of stalagmite. There is a copious drip from 

 above, which keeps the surface soil of the floor in a soppy 

 state. The roof slopes from the outside inwards, and it is 

 most probable that the cavernous fissure is continued much 

 further back than is now apparent, but blocked up by breccia 

 and stalagmite. The extreme height of the interior is about 

 20 feet. 



(a.) Section of the Floor Deposits. — The floor of the cavern 

 at the entrance consists of a thick accumulation of cemented 

 angular limestone breccia, which is well seen in section from 

 the outside below. This breccia can be traced seaward upon 

 the diverging walls beyond the existing portion of the cave, 

 for a distance of 100 feet. 2 The floor slopes down from the 

 entrance inwards. The uppermost layer of stalagmite is, 

 according to Mr. Starling Benson, 30 feet above the level of 



1 Account of the Care Deposit of 

 ' Bacon Hole.' ' Annual Report for 

 1852 of the Swansea Literary and Scien- 



tific Society,' p. 9. 



2 Starling Benson. Op. cit. p. 13. 



