270 



BONE CAVE AT PORT KENNEDY. 



either obliterated or traversed, leaving their contours exposed on the escarpments, as 

 bifurcations of an extensive cavern, undercutting the present Schuylkill water level, 

 and hence draining at their formation into a lower water shed. A study of the 

 topography, and the accounts of workmen present at previous blastings, showed 

 furthermore that the bone fissure just exposed was identical with, or a bifurcation 

 of that explored, as above noted, in 1871, when Mr. Charles Wheatley, Professor 



Fig. 1.— THE PORT KENNEDY BONE CAVE. 

 (Not drawn to scale for the purpose of clearness.) 

 East and west cross-section of the south end of Erwin's quarry showing in the shaded parts C. C. D. D., the 

 position of the bone-bearing fissure with its contents at the time of our first excavation in 1894. 



The cross-shaded portion 0. C. represents roughly the amount of fossil-bearing debris removed by us in 1894. 

 1895 and 1896. 



The dotted shading D. D. represents the fossil-bearing debris still (1898) remaining in the fissure. 



E. D. Cope and Dr. George H. Horn had described the fossils obtained by the former 

 at the place. 4 



The old fossil-bearing site, by no means fully excavated in 1871, and subse- 

 quently covered up in the quarrying process and forgotten, had been, it seemed, 

 again encountered by a recent lowering of the quarry floor which had notched the 



incumbent limestone stratum, then about 30 feet thick, had originated from the overplaced layer of decomposed 

 triassic shale. (6) A long open passage, about five feet high and eight feet wide, had been exposed by blasting, 

 along almost the entire north face of the quarry. Beginning on the west about 15 feet below the top of the lime- 

 stone, it had, at its exposed termination on the east, enlarged into a chamber, the contour of which was still 

 visible, about 6 or 7 feet high and 20 to 30 feet in diameter. 



(7) Another open chamber or gallery was said to have been opened, and purposely closed again with large 

 flat stones, near the middle of the present quarry area, when sinking the floor level during our absence in 1896. 



4 In the. Journal of Science, 3rd series, vol. i, p. 237, and Proc. Am. Phil. Soc, April 7, 1871. According 

 to Wheatley, as quoted, Dr. Quick of Phcenixville, first noticed the fossils in the quarry dump heaps in 1871, 

 which fossils Wheatley continued to gather there and to excavate from the bank. Described later by the latter, 

 they were restudied and fully described by Professor E. D. Cope and Dr. G. H. Horn in the Journal of Science 

 above noted and in the Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, as the remains of at least 91 indi- 

 viduals, representing 52 species (85 individuals and 42 species by Professor Cope, recent correction given later), 

 11 neotropical, 3 neartic, 11 still common and 27 uncertain. 



