PLEISTOCENE CAVE-DEPOSITS. 87 



to the cave, from which it thinned off rapidly inwards, so that its surface 

 formed an inclined plane. 



3. Black Bed ; a thin layer of blackish matter, which Professor Prest- 

 wich describes as " peaty calcareous earth (or leaf mould?)." It contained 

 some angular fragments of limestone, and did not exceed one foot in thick- 

 ness. It was met with immediately under the breccia, but occurred 

 nowhere else throughout the cavern. 



4. Cave-earth, from two to four feet thick, — a reddish-brown, tenacious, 

 clayey loam, with many angular and sub-angular fragments of limestone, 

 which varied in size from very small bits up to blocks weighing a ton. 

 Pounded pebbles of trap, quartz, and limestone, were also of common 

 occurrence, and nodules of iron-ore were occasionally met with. Frag- 

 ments of stalagmite, apparently portions of an old "floor," likewise 

 appeared here and there. 



5. Shingle, consisting mainly of pebbles of quartz, greenstone, grit, and 

 limestone, mixed with small fragments of shale. With the sole exception 

 of the limestone, all these pebbles are foreign to the hill in which the 

 cave is excavated. Here and there the shingle is cemented into a con- 

 glomerate. 



Throughout a considerable part of one of the main galleries 

 appears what Mr. Pengelly has termed a " stalagmitic ceiling," 

 which varies from six inches to upwards of a foot in thickness. 

 It extends horizontally from wall to wall, and through the large 

 holes that occur in it an unoccupied space of two feet or so is 

 seen to separate it from the solid limestone-roof of the cavern. 

 Firmly adherent to its under surface, were observed in several 

 instances angular, sub-angular, and well-rounded fragments of 

 old stalagmite, together with small pieces of quartz and lime- 

 stone. 



With the exception of the black bed, all the other accumula- 

 tions on the floor of this cavern proved to be more or less fossili- 

 ferous, but the cave-earth was by far the richest repository of 

 bones. Associated with the mammalian remains were found a 

 number of " worked flints." The bones belong, according to Mr. 

 Busk, to twenty or twenty-one species, namely, mammoth, woolly 

 rhinoceros, horse, great ox, shorthorn ox, great red-deer, rein- 

 deer, roebuck, cave-lion, cave-hysena, cave-bear, grisly bear, 

 brown bear, common fox, common badger, hare, rabbit, lemming, 

 water-rat, shrew. 



