OSSIFEROUS CAVES OP GOWER. 533 



a relative movement of the walls of tlie cavern Lad taken 

 place since the accumulation of the bones within it. I ex- 

 amined, in the Bristol Museum, a verj remarkable specimen 

 of a lower molar of Elephas antiquus from the same cave, in 

 which the three anterior plates of the crown were undis- 

 turbed, while a fault passed diagonally through the next five 

 plates, involving a difference of level on the opposite sides of 

 the dislocation, to the extent of an inch. The fissure was 

 filled with stalagmitic loam. In the same collection I ob- 

 served a large upper molar of Hippopotamus, presenting a 

 vertical fissure and fault, running transversely, the opposite 

 ends overlapping alternately. These appearances are only 

 explicable in the manner suggested by Mr. Stutchbury, and 

 they belong to the same class of phenomena as the rent boss 

 of ' Bosco's Den.' Distinct evidence of modern subsidence 

 has been found in Torbay, in the submerged peat or forest- 

 bed in front of the Torre Abbey Ground, near Torquay, and 

 along other points of the coast in the vicinity, while on the 

 opposite points of the bay there are patches of raised beach, 

 with ossiferous caves in the vicinity, repeating the conditions 

 which are presented on the south coast of Gower. On the 

 whole, if not proved, it appears at least highly probable, 

 that some of the Gower caves have undergone a depression 

 of level. 



One of the most interesting geological phenomena among 

 the newer deposits in Gower is the enormous development 

 upon the cliffs along the coast of the ' Breche en place,' or 

 angular debris, to which Mr. Godwin- Austen has applied the 

 name of ' Head.' I have had constantly, througbmit the 

 descriptive details of the caverns, to refer to its presence, 

 sometimes in vast accumulations, in the immediate vicinity 

 of the caves, and to its intrusion, so to speak, into their 

 interior, as a flooring cemented by stalagmite, overlying the 

 marine sands and stretching seaward upon the face of the 

 cliffs. The origin of this angtdar debris and the rationale of 

 the accumulations are at present involved in the greatest 

 obscurity, seeing that some, like Mr. Godwin- Austen, regard 

 it as being a sub-aerial deposit, while other able observers 

 view it as an aqueous deposit, the result of tumultuous 

 transport. It is not my intention to enter upon the question 

 here, but simply to call attention to the fact, that there is 

 probably no part of the South Coast of England in which the 

 phenomena are developed upon a greater scale, nor can be 

 studied with greater advantage, than in the peninsula of 

 Gower. 



