120 PKOCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Jan. 22, 



would not have been found as they were left by their former possessor. 

 They would moreover have lost their sharp edges. On this point, 

 indeed, they, as well as a large number of the animal remains, where 

 slender processes and points of bone are left uninjured (as, for 

 instance, the palatine process of the right maxilla of a Wolf), agree in 

 showing that violent watery action had a very small share in filling 

 the cave. 



I should infer that, as the dolomitic conglomerate of the roof and 

 walls gradually jdelded to the attacks of the carbonic acid in the air, 

 the deh'is was gradually accumulated at the same time that the 

 Hyaenas from time to time brought in the remains of their victims. 

 On this hypothesis the fact of the occurrence of these implements in 

 the same place, coupled with the absence of all traces of an entrance 

 having been effected posterior to the fiUing up of the cave, is easily 

 explicable ; as also is the fact of the bones and teeth being confusedly 

 scattered, and yet in no instance water- worn. This gradual process 

 may at times have been varied by floodings, by which a large quantity 

 of earthy sediment, derived from higher levels, may have been 

 introduced, as now in a cave close by, in which sediment similar in 

 every respect to the red earth of the bone-cave is deposited during 

 a rainy season (p. 116, note). Had the numerous large stones been 

 put in motion by water in the cave, they would soon have ground 

 down the animal remains to an impalpable dust. 



Thus, indeed, the discovery of these implements in the same spot, 

 so far from proving that they were introduced subsequently to the 

 other remains, adds additional testimony to the method by which 

 the cave was filled, — that it was fiUed gradually and by causes still 

 in operation, and not by any great cataclysm, by which the contents 

 of numerous bone-caves are supposed to have been introduced. And 

 the only alternative left us is to believe that they were deposited 

 during the time that the Rhinoceros ticliorliinus, Irish Elk, and 

 Cave-bear inhabited the British Isles, and before the great sub- 

 mergence of land in the Northern Hemisphere. 



In April 1861 we resumed our excavations ; and, as we made 

 our way inwards, found that the cave began to narrow, and ulti- 

 mately to bifurcate; one branch extending vertically upwards, 

 while the other, which is undisturbed, appeared to extend almost 

 horizontally to the right hand. As we reached the middle constricted 

 passage, the teeth became fewer, while the stones were of larger 

 size than any that we had hitherto discovered. The great majority 

 of the gnawed antlers of Deer were found at this part, also the pos- 

 terior half of a cervine skull, the right maxilla of Canis lupus, and, 

 what is more remarkable, a stone with one of its surfaces coated with 

 a deposit apparently of stalagmite : this, however, was much lighter 

 than stalagmite, and not so good a conductor of heat ; and, on 

 analysis, I found that it consisted of phosphate of lime, with a little 

 carbonate, and a very small portion of peroxide of manganese. 

 Doubtless the surface of the stone, covered with phosphate of lime, 

 formed part of the ancient fioor of the cave, and hence was coated 

 Avith excrement, while the lower part, being imbedded in the earth 



