586 J. MAGENS MELLO ON THE BONE-CAVES OF CRESWELL CHAGS. 



composed of dark-brown earth with blocks of limestone in it, firmly 

 cemented together by stalagmite ; the lower portion was of a softer 

 texture, and passed gradually into the next bed. 



The breccia contained a good many fragments of charcoal, together 

 with worked flints and teeth of Hyaena &c, with numerous bones of 

 the Hare and of some other animals. 



4. The Cave-Earth.— The cave-earth of this cavern, where de- 

 veloped to its fullest extent, was found to consist of three divisions, 

 the uppermost, 1 foot thick, being a reddish loamy earth (No. 2) with 

 fragments of charcoal, and in one place a layer of the same, flint 

 implements, a fragment of ruddle, and bones &c. of the Hare, Rein- 

 deer, and Hyaena. This dark bed was only found for a short dis- 

 tance ; at 42 feet from the door it had disappeared ; and here also 

 the breccia was absent, except at the sides of the cave. A thin crust 

 of stalagmite formed the surface. 



A bed of lighter earth (No. 3) succeeded the red bed, and was 

 present everywhere in the cave, varying in thickness from 1 foot to 2 

 feet. The usual bones and teeth of the Pleistocene Mammalia, 

 including the Bear, Wolf, Woolly Rhinoceros, and Reindeer, were 

 found in the cave-earth. In one place, 6 inches below the stalagmitic 

 crust, a ramus of the lower jaw of the Hyaena, with its condyle and 

 coronoid process intact, occurred: and near to it, under a large block 

 of stone, were found part of the lower jaw of Cervus megaceros and a 

 fine quartzite flake ; fragments of charcoal were in contact with all 

 these specimens. 



The cave-earth here was only 1 foot thick. Somewhat further in 

 the cavern, beneath 2 inches of breccia, a small circular bronze 

 brooch was found ; and not far from this point a small ivory counter 

 or ornament, presumably of Roman or Romano-British workman- 

 ship, was dug up close to the surface. 



5. The Mottled Bed. — The next bed we come to is a mottled one, 

 very similar to that which has been described in connexion with the 

 Robin-Hood Cave, — a bed of reddish cave-earth remarkably mottled 

 with small angular fragments of very friable cream-coloured lime- 

 stone, which at once suggested to us visions of almond-cake on a 

 large scale. At about 50 feet from the door this bed was subdivided 

 (fig. 13) — an upper layer with a brown matrix (No. 4 a), 9 inches 

 thick, resting on the red bed (No. 4 6), which here was 3 feet 

 in thickness. We found this to continue for a short distance only, 

 when the mottled bed resumed its normal character (fig. 14). 

 Bones, teeth, and implements, especially those of quartzite, were 

 numerous in this mottled bed ; amongst them were the pelvis of 

 Rhinoceros tichorhinus, the scapula of the Mammoth, and teeth of 

 Hyaena, Wolf, Bear, Rhinoceros, Horse, and Hare. In it also two 

 or three fine bone implements were found, a perfect bone needle, 

 some awls, and a kind of gouge — the awls being made from Hare- 

 bones, the gouge from Reindeer-antler. The majority of the imple- 

 ments of stone were quartzite flakes and hammers ; but there were 

 also found with these some flint flakes and chips. The mottled bed 

 was absent at the far end of Chamber A, at 120 feet from the dooi\ 



