a 



414 OSSIFEROUS CAVES OF GOWER. 



percentage of exceptions, applied to the enormous quan- 

 tity of antlers of the same species, which were met with in 

 the lower deposits. The hones and antlers occurring in the 

 peat, as might have heen expected, were fresher, and in a 

 "better state of preservation than those found in the loam below. 

 The source of this peaty stratum is evidently traceable to the 

 shaft in the roof, with which all the observed conditions were 

 in direct and obvious relation. 



2. Immediately, underlying the peat there occurred a very 

 regular and uniform, bed of stalagmite ranging in thick- 

 ness generally from 6 to 9 inches, but in some places attain- 

 ing 1 foot. It formed a slightly undulated sheet, extending 

 from the mouth to the bottom of the cave. This was the 

 only layer of stalagmite encountered in the section. I ob- 

 served one phenomenon of great significance in relation to 

 this deposit. Close to the eastern wall, near the angle of the 

 bend, the stalagmite attains a thickness of 12 inches, and 

 suddenly rises into an obtusely conical boss, measm*ing 2 feet 



3 inches in height by 2 feet 6 inches of length at the base, 

 and with a width of 1 foot 6 inches. It is free from adhesion 

 to the wall of rock. This boss is rent through vertically, and 

 shivered in every direction, with partial dislocation of the 

 fragments. But the remarkable circumstance is, that the pieces 

 are loose and uncemented, proving that notwithstanding the 

 great amount of drip which must have at one time existed to 

 form the stalagmitic floor, not a single drop of water charged 

 with lime in solution has fallen upon it, since the shock 

 which reft the boss into its present shattered condition. About 

 eight feet further in front there is another boss close to the 

 eastern wall, which is also shivered, but not rent to the same 

 degree. Constant Prevost and Desnoyers, when arguing 

 against the sole agency of Hyaenas and other Carnivora, in 

 explanation of the common occurrence of bones in caves, 

 have earnestly insisted upon the great amount of change 

 which must have taken place, after upheaval and subsidence, 

 in the course of subterranean rills. The unceniented con- 

 dition of the shivered ball in ' Bosco's Den ' is a striking 

 illustration of the truth of what they inculcated. 



3. Below the stalagmite was a bed of ferruginous sandy 

 loam, containing dispersed angular fragments of rock, mea- 

 suring about 1 foot 4 inches in thickness. Colonel Wood 

 informs me that very few, if any, bone-remains were found 

 in this stratum. 



■ 4. Next, a deposit of sand about 2 feet 6 inches in depth, 

 without bones. 



5. Below the sand, a bed of loose angular breccia. Few or 

 no bone-remains were met with in this bed, which measured 



4 feet. 



