32 



TiriO BONE-OAVH OH, I'MSfiirUE 01' OUItDHAM DOWN. 



fossil bonos were found in some fissures which were dis- 

 closed in working a limestone quarry on Durdham Down. * 

 These were first noticed by Dr. K/iley, and subsequently by 

 Mr. Stutchbury. The following is the full repoi't of a com- 

 mimieation by Mr. Stutciibury to the Bristol Institution, 

 whicli appeared in Felix Fai/loy's Bristol Journal for 

 Deecmhor .'Jlst, 1842, with the omission of a portion of 

 the author's introductcny remarks and some of the kvss 

 valuable of his thooi'ctical deductions : — 



" At the fourth private meeting of tlio I'liilosophical 

 Society, held Thursday, 28th inst. (28th Dec., 1842), Mr. 

 Stutchbury described the nature and contents of the Bono 

 Cavern lately opened on Durdham Down. The first notice, 

 of this discovoi-y was made about ton montlis ago by Dr. 

 liiley, to whom some bones wore tlion bi'ought. No further 

 discoveries appeared until the month of November, when 

 excavations wore being made near the position of the 

 cavern. After a consultation amongst some members of 



was mndo by Mr. Miller about the year 1820. This early find, which 

 consisted of a portion of the hind limb of a horse, hold together by a ; 

 stalactitic cement, is mentioned by Bucldand. It cannot, liowcver, bo 

 considered a discovery of any particular value, and does not appear to bo 

 in any way connected with the later discoveries of Messrs. liiley and 

 Stutciibury. Indeed there is good reason for thinking that the fissures 

 were quite distinct, or, at any rate, that the points of discovery were 

 widely separated from one another. 



* Mr. B. Etheridgo, P.ll.S., who was, I believe, resident in Bristol at 

 the date of this discovery, and who speaks from personal recollection, 

 informs us that " the cavo or fissures occurred in ono of the largo 

 quarries on the Down, between the Clack Boy inn, or corner of the 

 Down, and Cook's Folly, in direct lino." Is not this tho large quarry 

 which onco existed in the middle of Durdham Down, near tho reservoir, 

 on the south side of the Htoko Bishop road, and which was eventually 

 filled up with tJie material taken from the excavation for tho Cumberland 

 basin ? 



