512 OSSIFEEOUS CAVES OF GOWEK, 



breccia in front of and below the month.. The projecting 

 ledge upon which it rested was undermined, and the whole 

 was precipitated in mass into the abyss, where it soon disap- 

 peared under the action of the waves at high water. The 

 mass measured about 16 feet in height ; the width was 4J 

 feet at the top, 8 feet in the middle, and 7 feet at the base, 

 where the depth from the fissure, forwards, amounted to 8 

 feet. The rock on one side extended beyond the opposite wall 

 of the fissure a distance of about 50 feet seaward. A streak 

 of the loamy breccia, continuous with the mass in situ, was 

 traceable along the projecting side for a distance of about 30 

 feet, indicating that the progressive encroachments of the sea 

 must have undermined part of the cliff, and swept off large 

 masses of the superincumbent breccia. 



To avoid the risk of confusion between ' Bacon Hole ' Cavern 

 and ' Bacon's Eye,' I suggested for the new cavern the name 

 of ' Bosco's Den,' by which it is designated throughout in the 

 present communication. The mouth opens upon the sea, to- 

 wards the SSE., and the cavity extends backwards a distance 

 of 76 feet, with a slight alteration of direction near the 

 middle ; the outer division measuring along the western wall 

 30 feet, and the inner, which is deflected a little to the E., 

 46 feet. At the entrance, the width of the fissure near the 

 middle is 7^ feet ; it soon expands to 14 feet, and retains this 

 size with considerable uniformity throughout, the greatest 

 width being about 16 feet, and the minimum, where contracted 

 near the end, being 9 feet. The same remark applies to the 

 height, which is mostly about 14 or 15 feet. The Avails of 

 the fissure are also very regular ; there are no lateral offsets, 

 nor cul-de-sac expansions. The western wall throughout is 

 much more vertical than the eastern, which leans to it, and 

 near the shaft or flue in front of the angle of the bend it is 

 nearly perpendicular. The walls meet at the apex so as to 

 form a kind of Gothic roof, of which a narrow line of fissure 

 forms the ridge-pole. The gable end near the extremity has 

 the slopes inclined at a high pitch. The eastern wall, a little 

 behind the middle, shelves out so as to form a nearly hori- 

 zontal or but slightly inclined ledge, which is interrupted 

 near the great flue, and then re-appears on the western side, 

 in the anterior division of the cavern. The eastern or more 

 inclined wall is sheeted over by a thin coat of stalagmite, of 

 which but little or none is seen upon the western wall. The 

 fissure of the roof, a little in front of the angle of bend, is 

 continued upwards in an irregular shaft or flue, which evi- 

 dently communicated with the surface. It was choked up 

 with detritus of the same nature as the upper deposits of the 

 floor, the surface aperture being covered over with a coating 



