522 OSSIFEROUS CAVES OF GOWER. 



collection of Miss Talbot, in Penrice Castle. They are very 

 pronounced and characteristic specimens of the true Mam- 

 moth, E. primigenius. At a lower level, and at no great 

 distance from the bones of the ' Red Lady,' a very consider- 

 able portion of the skull of an Elephant was discovered, 

 comprising the sockets of the two tusks and a portion of one 

 tusk two feet long. The tusk, like the stained rods, was in 

 a state of advanced decay, and very brittle. Dr. Buckland 

 inferred that the cylindrical rods, rings, &c, were ' certainly 

 made from part of the antediluvian tusks that lay in the 

 same cave.' If this assumption were well founded, there 

 would be no escape from the conclusion, that the ' Red 

 Lady ' and the Mammoth had been contemporaneous or 

 nearly so, for the ivory must have been fresh and hard when 

 the rods and rings were shaped out of it. But similar rods 

 and rings are met with in the barrows ; it is known from 

 history ' that the ancient Britons imported them from France, 

 and it seems more probable that the ivory ornaments of the 

 ' Red Lady ' were of the imported class, than that they were 

 fabricated out of the Mammoth tusks that lay in the cave 

 deposits. 



14. Spkitsail-Tok Cavekn. 



The double-mouthed cavern named ' Spritsail-Tor ' is situ- 

 ated on the west side of Gower, facing Carmarthen Bay, 

 and on the northern flank of the axis of Old Red Con- 

 glomerate. The carboniferous limestone strata have been 

 denuded here to a narrow band, and the cave occurs in 

 the projecting point, forming the northern boundary of 

 ' Broughton Bay,' overhanging the Whiteford Sands. This 

 cavern differs from all those on the south coast, in having its 

 mouth's opening near the very summit of the cliff, which, 

 together with a considerable portion of the crowning plateau, 

 is buried under an immense accumulation of blown sand, 

 that rises into hillocky downs in the 'Whiteford Burrows.' 

 It was accidentally discovered in 1839, through the cutting 

 back of a quarry in the carboniferous limestone. 2 On remov- 

 ing the sand a concealed cavern was discovered, which was 

 partially explored at the time by Sir Henry de la Beche, and 

 thoroughly opened in 1849 by Colonel Wood, who, during 

 the progress of the operations, detected the second opening. 

 The two apertures, which are low and angular, are about 1 3 



1 ' Tbey (the Britons) pay but mode- 

 rate duties on the imports and exports 

 from Kettica, which are iTory bracelets 

 and necklaces, amber, vessels of glass, 

 and small wares, &c' — ' The Geography 



of Strabo,' translated by H. C. Hamilton 

 and W. Falconer (1854), vol. i. p. 298. 



2 De la Beche, 'Geological Observer,' 

 p. 303. 



