XCiv PKOCEEDIXGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [^SY 1 898, 



northern coast of the Bristol Channel. The cavern is situated 

 in a Carhoniferous-Limestone hill, abont 2 miles south-west of 

 Laugharne, and the entrance is about 250 feet above sea-level. The 

 orifice -was low and narrow, and when we first entered it was almost 

 hidden by talus. From it a low tortuous channel extended inward 

 for about 20 feet, through parts of which it was difficult to pass in a 

 creeping position. A moderately lofty chamber was then entered, 

 and this led to another and larger chamber, about 20 feet wide by 12 

 in height. Branching from here were two compartments, one extend- 

 ing in a northerly and another in a westerly direction. The former 

 extended inward for about 70 feet, and the latter for about 50 feet, 

 where they terminated in narrow fissures. The entrance-channel, 

 the two chambers, and the westerly compartment were covered with 

 a very thick floor of stalagmite, quite untouched. The northerly 

 compartment was more thinly covered, hence more easily explored. 

 On breaking through this thin coating, we came to a reddish earthy 

 soil, in which the bones were embedded. The bones were submitted 

 to Prof. Boyd Dawkius for examination, and in my paper in the 

 Geological ITagazine for 1867, p. 307, ' Discovery of a Hyaena-den 

 near Laugharne, Caermarthenshire," the following list of the animals 

 then found in it is given : — Hycena sj^eJcea, RTiinoceros iicTiorhiniis, 

 Eleplias jprimigenius^ Cervus tarandus^ and ^5'?<?<s, with the following 

 statement from Prof. Boyd Dawkins. He says : — ' All these remains 

 were derived from a hyaena-den, and were introduced by those 

 animals in every case. The lower jaws are in every case without 

 ano-le or coronoid process, and the rhinoceros-humeri, tibiae, and 

 radii are gnawed in exactly the same manner as those from Wookey 

 Hole. The teeth, also, of the hyaenas indicate every variety, from 

 the whelp to the adult in the decline of life. A lower jaw belonging 

 to Mr. Hicks shows remarkably the results of the diet of the hyaenas 

 on their teeth. The first of the two conical bone-crnshers is broken, 

 and the fragments of bone gliding down upon the unarmed gum 

 have caused inflammation of the periosteum. One of the hyaena's 

 last lower molars exhibits the accessory cusp, which is but seldom 

 developed. The remains of the rhinoceros are most abundant.' 



The cavern was afterwards more fully explored by Mr. Edward 

 Laws, F.S.A., of Tenby, whose careful and important researches 

 among the caves of "Western "Wales are well known. 



In his ' History of Little England beyond "Wales,' George Bell & 

 Sons, 1888, he says at p. 7: — '"Without doubt the most interesting 

 ossiferous cave in "West "Wales is the Coygan, near Laugharne, in 



