518 OSSIFEROUS CAVES OF GOWER. 



upon a bed of marine sand; thin tabular aggregations of 

 sandy matrix adhere to the lower surface of the diaphragm, 

 penetrated by attenuated irregular septiform plates of iron- 

 tinted calcareous matter, forming a rude cancellar appearance. 

 The sand is also permeated by calcareous infiltration. The 

 upper chamber is likewise washed out, back to the extremity, 

 and the floor is so free from any overlying matrix that it 

 was compared by one of the quarrymen employed to a swept 

 parlour floor. The denuding action of the sea is still in 

 progress, and at no very distant period the segment of the 

 horizontal partition now remaining will have been swept 

 away. The rocky floor of the chasm is overlaid by a massive 

 and stream-like sheet of stalagmite, which dates from the 

 emptying out of the lower chamber, and is now in progress 

 of formation. As above described of ' Bacon Hole,' a con- 

 tinuation of the cemented breccia can be traced upon the 

 face of the cliff beyond the mouth, to a distance of many 

 feet. The same phenomenon is repeated in ' Crow Hole.' 

 The breccia corresponds in the character of the materials, as 

 I have already remarked, with the angular brecciated debris, 

 which overlies the raised beach, in the ' Mewslade Section ' 

 given by Mr. Prestwich. The penetration, so to speak, of 

 this angular debris into the interior of so many of the Gower 

 caverns, and its extension upon the face of the cliffs beyond 

 their mouths are not a little remarkable, implying clearly 

 something more than a mere local cause for the phenomenon. 

 So far as I am aware, no such developed beds of breccia are 

 met with in the caverns in the mountain limestone of the 

 south coast of Devonshire. 



I regard ' Bowen's Parlour ' as an emptied repetition of 

 ' Bosco's Den' or ' Raven's Cliff: ' namely, that the bottom 

 of the cave was originally filled with marine sand or gravel ; 

 that when this deposit was elevated above the reach of high 

 water, stalagmite was formed upon the surface, enveloping 

 the angular debris thickly strewed upon the sand ; that upon 

 the flooring so formed, cave-ochre or some of the other 

 common alluvial materials, occurring in the contiguous 

 caves, were injected through the fissure above, into the ixpper 

 chamber ; and that at last a converse action, of comparatively 

 modern date, took place, by which the level of the cave was 

 depressed, so that it was emptied of its contents both above 

 and below the partition by the action of the sea. For 

 reasons which will be adduced in the sequel, it is not pro- 

 bable that this effect could have been produced by the 

 gradual encroachment of the sea upon a receding cliff which 

 maintained a constant level. 



No organic remains of any description were detected in 

 ' Bowen's Pai'lour.' 



