62 THE TOEKSHIRE GATES. 



remains of the spotted hysena were very abundant in the cave 

 earth, consisting of fragments of skulls, jaws, and bones, and 

 especially of coprolites, which formed irregular floors, accumu- 

 lated during successive occupations of the caA'e by that animal. 

 One piece of this deposit, shewn to us in the Museum, broken in 

 two, disclosed a fragment of undigested bone, embedded in the 

 centre. 



The explorations were conducted under the direction of a 

 scientific Committee, with Sir John Lubbock as chairman, as- 

 sisted by Sir Charles Lyell, Mr. Darwin, Professor Phillips, Mr. 

 Boyd Dawkins, and others, and the expenses were met by a 

 grant from the British Association and by public subscription. 

 A most interesting account of the cave is given by Professor 

 Boyd Dawkins, in his book on " Cave Hunting," pp. 81 to 125. 

 In this work two or three very important conclusions seem to 

 have been arrived at by the author. 1st. That the hyosnas, 

 bears, mammoths, and other animals, the bones of which had 

 been found, had occupied the cave in pre-giacial times, and that 

 the stratum in which their remains lie buried, was protected 

 from the grinding of the ice sheet, which destroyed nearly all 

 the surface accumulations in the river valleys, by the walls and 

 roof of rock, which has since to a great extent been weathered 

 away. 2nd. That from the position in which certain remains 

 occurred, it is obvious that a neolithic tribe, that is, a tribe of 

 the new or later stone age, had at one time occupied the cave, 

 and that the date of this earlier occupation by man was about 

 five thousand years ago ; and 3rd, That reasonable grounds exist 

 for believing that the cave was inhabited by man during the fifth 

 century, or afterwards, at a time when the withdrawal of the 

 Eoman Legions had left the colony of Britain a prey to barbarian 

 invaders. 



It is quite impossible, within any reasonable limits, to give 

 the arguments on which these conclusions are based. 



Mr. Boyd Dawkins thus concludes his account: — ''The ex- 

 ploration of the Victoria Cave, which has hitherto yielded such 

 interesting evidence of three district occupations, first by hysenas, 

 then by neolithic men, and lastly by the Brit- Welsh, is by no 



