CAE OtWYN CAVE, NORTH WALES. 565 



to the south of the opening. It was found near one of the large 

 angular blocks occurring in the bone-earth, but it is an entire mistake 

 to say that it was itself covered by a block. Indeed, nothing could 

 be clearer than the evidence of its position, for we had made a clean 

 face to the section just before, to show how the sandy bands and the 

 laminated clay passed in under the shelving rock, and we were bur- 

 rowing under those bands when the flake was found. Some portions 

 of the rock at the edge of the entrance, which were rather loose, were 

 removed just before ; but the flake was well outside these and in the 

 bone-earth under the deposits in regular sequence in the section. 

 The material in which it was found was exactly like that occurring 

 at this horizon throughout the cavern — a reddish sandy clay, with 

 here and there fragments of stalactites, stalagmites, and angular 

 blocks of limestone. With regard to these angular blocks of lime- 

 stone, it is necessary to say that although they were more numerous 

 outside the entrance than in the cavern, yet similar blocks were 

 constantly met with in the cavern, and even at the entrance to 

 chamber C (see Plan, p. 573) they were so large that they had to 

 be blasted before they could be removed. Nothing could be more 

 incorrect than to say that they formed a barrier at the entrance, 

 giving evidence of a broken side to the cavern. These blocks 

 (except those removed at the sides, which happened to be loose, 

 although in their original position as forming part of the limestone 

 cliff) were all under the laminated clay and the sandy bands, and 

 could not be removed without disturbing the latter deposits at every 

 point examined. The very few blocks found higher in the section 

 were of the character of boulders, and, as could be made out in most 

 cases, had been derived from beds at a different horizon from those 

 at the entrance. 



At the close of our work in 1886 it was thought advisable to slope 

 the upper portion of the section around the pit, to prevent falls into 

 it during the winter, and the sides were carefully timbered for the 

 lower 12 feet, except at the south angle. Here a few steps were 

 placed to enable the cavern to be reached from that end, and an 

 excavation was made in the field to a depth of about 8 feet on that 

 side leading to the steps. As has already been stated, there was 

 not the slightest sinking of the ground until after the rains and a 

 very heavy fall of snow in the winter ; and when the pit was dug 

 out in June, only the part immediately above the central portion 

 of the opening into the cavern was found to have sunk in, leaving 

 the section at each end of the opening perfectly undisturbed. The 

 materials found in sinking the shaft were exactly in the order in 

 which they could be traced in the undisturbed deposits, and it was 

 clear beyond the possibility of doubt that each band had extended 

 right across, before that portion had been depressed during the 

 previous winter, and that the dip of the beds was everywhere away 

 from the cliff face and from the entrance to the cavern. When 

 it is considered what an immense quantity of material had been 

 removed from the cavern before the pit was dug out, it becomes 

 -^t once evident that it could not have been carried in through 



