Vol. 60.] HUMAN REMAINS IN GOTJGH's CAVERN, CHEDDAR. 337 



method the accumulation of ages, in order to make a comfortable 

 and easy access for visitors to the principal chambers ; and quite 

 recently the grandeur of the vaulting and the beautiful stalactites 

 in the more inaccessible parts have been revealed by the introduction 

 of the electric light. 



In carrying out these necessary improvements, beds of stalagmite 

 and cave-earth, blocks of limestone, pebbles and sand have been 

 removed from the entrance and passages ; and the bones and teeth 

 of extinct and existing animals, with human relics (prehistoric and 

 historic) have been brought to light, and are now to be found crowded 

 together in a small museum near the entrance. The objects prove 

 that the caves were the alternate resort of extinct animals and 

 man. The cases contain jawbones and teeth of the cave-hyasna, 

 cave-bear, cave-lion, woolly rhinoceros, boar, horse, deer, Irish 

 elk, etc., which have at various times been taken out of the cave- 

 earth during the excavations ; but they were never found in large 

 numbers, while flint-flakes, knives, scrapers, borers, and chips were 

 plentiful, and bone and horn-borers, needles, and pins were some- 

 times met with. From the talus at the base of the cliffs, which 

 rose high enough almost to block the entrance to the cavern, a 

 bronze celt of the plainest type and a looped lance-head of later 

 date have been taken, which seems to indicate that the cavern had 

 become choked before the Bronze Age. I have found it quite 

 impossible to locate the position in the cave-earth in which any of 

 the above-mentioned bones and teeth were found. Some, I know, 

 of the cave-specimens were found in the adjoining chamber, or Old 

 Cave, by the father of the present proprietors ; but the stock has 

 been considerably added to since the clearing out of the present, 

 or Xew Cave, was begun in 1892, although it is to be regretted 

 that no record has been kept of the dates, nature, or position in the 

 cave-earth of the finds. 



±so human bones had ever been found in this cavern until 

 December 1903, when the workmen struck a human skull and 

 other bones of the skeleton under circumstances that suggested their 

 great antiquity. 



AVhen the work of clearing out the Xew Cave was begun, the 

 entrance was only 2 feet high. Great quantities of talus and wash 

 had to be removed before access could be gained to the vestibule 

 (6, fig. 1, p. 335). Banks of mud and stone have been left in 

 some places, to show the original height of the floor before it was 

 lowered to its present level. There was no calcareous crust on the 

 top of the thick deposit which filled the entrance-passage. The 

 rock-floor was found to dip steeply inward for some yards, after 

 which a more gentle incline led to the point marked (7) on the plan 

 (fig. 1, p. 335), which is the lowest point of the central passage. 

 From this spot the ascent is gradual until a large chamber is entered, 

 when it becomes steep and sudden. 



The upper stalagmite. — After the surface - accumulation 

 (h, fig. 2, p. 336) had been removed, the upper stalagmite (<?, fig. 2) 



