490 PROCEEDINGS OE THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [June 13, 



was deposited on a bed of sand. The same phenomena are repeated 

 in " Crow Hole " with modifications, — the cave -deposits being still 

 in situ : here remains of Ursus, Meles, Rhinoceros, and some other 

 forms have been found by Colonel Wood. 



" Raven's Cliff " presents a cavernous fissure, broad and high ex- 

 ternally, contracted within. Here a thin crust of stalagmite formed 

 a floor upon sand 9 feet thick, which filled the fissure close up to the 

 roof, leaving only an empty angular chamber about a foot high above 

 the stalagmite. Upon the latter, remains of Mustela foina, Canis 

 Vulpes, and some Fish-bones and Bird-bones were found. In the 

 sand, large coprolites of Carnivores, some fine remains of Felis spelcea, 

 bones of Rhinoceros, and the vertebra of a Fish were discovered. 

 Below the sand, as usual in the Gower Caves, there was a sandy 

 breccia cemented by stalagmite, about a foot thick. Upon it a large 

 block of limestone, smoothed and polished, probably by the rubbing 

 of passing cave-animals, was discovered ; and patches of polished sur- 

 face were seen on the walls of the cave. Remains of Elephas, Rhi- 

 noceros, Bos, and Cervus were met with above the breccia. Below 

 the breccia was a bed of dark-grey gritty sand, indurated by cal- 

 careous infiltration, and attaining a maximum thickness of about 

 8 feet. In this sand, and close upon the rock-floor, teeth of Hip- 

 popotamus major, young and old, and remains of Ursus, Cervus, and 

 Arvicola were met with. There was evidence, on the cliff beyond 

 the aperture, of the cave and its contents having formerly been con- 

 tinued further seawards. 



The author pointed out that in all these caves the bottom appears 

 to have been first filled with sea-sand or shingle, with which were 

 occasionally intermingled the bones of pachyderms, ruminants, &c, 

 then living on the emerged land of Gower ; that when this deposit 

 was elevated above high-water mark, stalagmite and angular debris 

 of limestone rock formed a floor, on which subsequently cave-earth 

 or other common alluvial materials, with bones and antlers, often 

 in profusion, were accumulated through the fissure above, during a 

 long lapse of time after the rise had been accomplished. At last, 

 by a converse action, of comparatively modern date, the level of the 

 caves was depressed. The raised beach at Mewslade Bay, which 

 appears, according to the evidence of Mr. Prestwich, to be of later 

 date than the Boulder-clay, has without doubt partaken of changes 

 of level similar to what the caves and their contents have under- 

 gone, although, the marine deposits in the caves not being at a uni- 

 form level, either in relation to each other or to the raised beach, it 

 is probable that there have been locally unequal depressions of level 

 in comparatively modern times. The author thinks that the sea 

 has effected but a comparatively slight inroad on the cave-deposits 

 and raised beach ; and hence he infers that they belong to a rela- 

 tively modem epoch, — seeing also that they are probably of later 

 date than the Boulder-clay period, and rest on marine sands con- 

 taining existing species of shells. 



Paviland Cave was next referred to ; but the author restricted his 

 remarks to the remains of Elephas primigenius and human bones that 



