PEESli)El\^T'S ADDKESS. 13 



which formed the ouce well-known Heathery Burn Cave, the 

 abode at least for a time of human beings with foreheads vil- 

 lainously low, who used instruments of bone and weapons of 

 bronze, who have left behind nothing but these scanty memorials 

 buried in sand beneath inches thick of stalagmite to puzzle us 

 and excite our curiosity and ingenuity to explain who they were 

 and how long ago they lived. The cave itself, which was at the 

 lowest part of this fissure near the burn side no longer exists, 

 having being removed in 1861-2 by the quarrymen engaged in 

 working the limestone. A very interesting and faithful account 

 of the excavation of this cave and its contents is to be found in 

 the " Geologist" for 1862, by the late Mr. John Elliott of Stan- 

 hope, who was not only much interested in the geology and an- 

 tiquities of the place, but was well acquainted also with the 

 local Flora. Like many other caves in "Weardale and Mountain- 

 limestone districts, this appears to have been excavated in the 

 fissured limestone solely by the agency of running water carrying 

 at times, no doubt, considerable quantities of sand and gravel 

 with it, which would aid its excavating power. In this case the 

 water has been derived from the drainage of the lofty steep side 

 of the burn, and from water diverted from a small tributary burn 

 not far distant. Snail shells, bones of Foxes and other animals, 

 were frequently found by the workmen partially embedded in or 

 wholly covered up in calc-sinter on the sides of the fissure, and 

 stalactites of considerable size, and still in process of formation, 

 were met with plentifully. Our time passed rapidly away, and 

 having taken a glance at the Smelting Mills, we began to retrace 

 our steps down the bed of the burn for the special purpose of 

 examining the Four-fathom Limestone, the main object of our 

 visit, in the hope of finding some specimens of Saccamina Carter i, 

 a small fossil supposed to be a Foraminifer, and also asserted to 

 be a characteristic fossil of the Four-fathom Limestone of J^orth- 

 umberland. In search of this fossil though we spent some hours, 

 though we sought long and diligently, and though the limestone 

 was well exposed and as much weathered as could be desii'ed, 

 we were not successful. On a former visit to Stanhope wc were 

 more fortunate, as we found some unmistakeublo specimens in 



