282 



BONE CAVE AT PORT KENNEDY. 



epoch called pleistocene, and of that alone. 1 There was no mixing of geological 

 time intervals, no down-washing of new into old deposits in the deep chasm. The 

 minor variations noted between the water bandings were fully weighed, such as that 

 the vegetable and minute animal remains common in subdivisions 1 and 3 were not 

 observed in subdivision 2 ; that turtle remains were only found in subdivision 3 ; 

 that the bones from subdivision 4 were much harder than those elsewhere found ; 

 that the remains from subdivision 2 were yellow in color, while those from subdi- 

 vision 1 and 3 were black. On the other hand, the small animal remains noted in 

 subdivision 1 were common in subdivision 3, while the large remains of subdivision 

 2 occurred also in subdivisions 3 and 4. 2 



When all is considered, the distinc- 

 tions observed, as illustrated in the ap- 

 pended chart, fig. 9, seem of secondary 

 importance. As in the case of the stones 

 of varying size and frequency, as in the 

 differing thickness and quality of the 

 bandings themselves, the winnowing of 

 material characteristic of water action 

 best and easiest explains the differences. 

 One or a series of closely successive in- 

 undations occurring in pleistocene time 

 had probably deposited the remains in 

 their present position. 



The Fate of the Animals. 



Obliterated as the original situation 

 was by blasting, the topography of the 

 quarry clearly precluded the supposition 

 that the bones marked the site of an 

 eddy in an ancient water course. Had a 

 narrow canyon, once the bed of a stream, 

 traversed the hill top its trough-like ends 

 would have been presented in cross-section against the quarry walls. But no 

 such channels have been revealed, and there seems no reason to question the 

 general features of Mr. Wheatley's description of the fissure given in the accom- 



1 Since the age of the limestone rock is ordovician, the cave galleries might have been formed (by the 

 erosion of rain water charged with carbonic acid or otherwise) in any geological time since then. But the 

 vertical chasm in question could not have been open if existing in triassic time, else the horizontal bed of 

 triassic shale immediately overlying it would have filled it. 



If older than the pleistocene, however, we might have expected to find the remains of prepleistocene 

 animals in its deeper debris. But in signalizing the fact that no sign of such a discovery was made here, we 

 remember that no such evidence has been reported, strange to say, from any cave. 



2 Regarded horizontally it seemed worth noting that though the turtle carapaces continued common 

 through subdivision 3, at all points, the fine hollow bones (of birds or small mammals) seemed to grow much 

 scarcer on the left. 



Fig. 10.— THE PORT KENNEDY BONE CAVE. 



Rough sketch drawn by Wheatley in 1871. His de- 

 description is as follows: 



"M rnesozoic shale; A L auroral limestone. Width at 

 top 20 feet. Below expands to 30 feet. At depth of about 



40 feet (B) it is ten feet wide. Black clai/ I! teitli leu res. 

 stems, etc.. 18 in. thick. In red toiujh clay underneath for six 

 to eiijlit i)t. in depth, fossils. 



