Plunkett — On the Exploration of the Knochninny Cave. 471 



also some animal remains mingled with charcoal found in the same 

 layer. 



Having thoroughly explored this end of the cave up to the narrow 

 part which intervenes between the east and west end, and finding- 

 it very inconvenient to advance any further with the excavation from 

 this side, I determined to try the other end. Up to this point there 

 were 35 feet excavated, leaving 16 feet still unexplored. I directed the 

 men to pass round a steep rocky declivity to the west entrance, which 

 opens out on a shelf on the top of a precipitous rock, and was hid 

 from view by briar and stunted blackthorn bushes — after the removal 

 of which we found the entrance almost closed with debris measuring 

 only 1|- feet high, by 2 feet broad. This end presented the same de- 

 nuded appearance as the other. The cave ran nearly parallel with the 

 escarpment, and would have been entirely obKterated only for the 

 hardness of the rock in which it is, which appears as a bulge on the 

 face of the cliff, and is merely a fragment of a much larger cavern. 



Finding that the cave formerly extended on this side to the very 

 edge of the cliff, 7 feet from the present entrance, I had all the debris and 

 stones removed which covered this space, and found, as I anticipated, 

 the old cave fl.oor. In this earth and debris I found traces of 

 charcoal. After removing this pile, which had accumulated before 

 the entrance, and having now exposed a good vertical section of the 

 mass of earth which filled this end of the cave, we removed each layer 

 separately, as was done at the other end ; the first was composed of 

 small stones, being a continuation of the same stratum from the other 

 end, but 6 inches deeper, being 18 inches thick. Being anxious to 

 know how so large a quantity of stones could be conveyed in and 

 deposited so uniformly over the sui'face, I made a careful inspection of 

 the rocky surface I'ound the entrance. In passing up a steep rugged 

 surface of rock which ascended fi'om the entrance, I found that owing 

 to atmospheric agencies small stones became detached and rolled down 

 its surface, falling over the cliff below, and forms the greater portion of 

 the talus abutting its base. When the cave extended to the edge of 

 the cliff these stones could not possibly fall into it ; but when it became 

 "weathered," and the roof tumbled in, forming a pile before the pre- 

 sent entrance, almost as high as the roof of the cave, which caused the 

 entrance there to be vertical for a few feet, and had the external 

 appearance of a "pot-hole;" right above this apertui-e there was a 

 shallow trough which ran up the face of the mass of rock fi^om which 

 the small stones were detached, causing a great many of them in their 

 course down from the higher slopes to roll into the mouth of the cave. 

 Then rains and melting snows, o^ving to this descending hollow, con- 

 verged towards the entrance, and there being a considerable incline 

 from this to the east end of the cave, formed a current of water with 

 force enough to carry the stones over the surface from the west to the 

 east end of the cave. 



The above facts lead me to infer that the cave when occupied by 

 man, and even up till the time the iirn was deposited in the top 



