566 DE. H. HICEIS ON THE 



a swallow-liole which had left no evidence whatever of its exist- 

 ence. It must not be forgotten also that the various sediments 

 in the cavern retained their relative sequence throughout ; more- 

 over this sequence continued uninterruptedly from the cavern inta 

 the drift section on the outside. I have taken some pains to make 

 a calculation of the amount of material (not taking into considera- 

 tion the blocks of limestone, &c.) which had been removed from 

 the cavern before we reached the new entrance, therefore before 

 any of the deposits in the pit had been touched, and I find that it 

 could not have been less than about 150 cartloads, consisting of 

 gravel, sand, laminated clay, and sandy clay. This must have been 

 conveyed into the cavern before the entrance or entrances were 

 blocked up by the glacial deposits which extended across the valley. 

 That the deposits in the cavern were conveyed in by marine action 

 seems to me, after constantly watching the conditions exhibited 

 throughout the explorations from the commencement, to be beyond 

 the possibility of doubt. The position of the caverns shows that 

 they could not have been under the influence of any other force 

 (since they had been occupied as dens by the animals) of a sufficiently 

 powerful nature to break up the thick stalagmite floor which had 

 at one time covered over the remains (as was abundantly evident by 

 finding bones attached to the under side of broken pieces) and to 

 have thrown large masses of this, frequently over a foot in thick- 

 ness, into all positions in the deposits. Large bones were also thrust 

 into fissures and tilted up at all angles. In the sand also some frag- 

 ments of marine shells were found, as mentioned in my previous 

 papers. I believe the main entrance to the cavern to have been the 

 one recently discovered under the drift section. It is the widest and 

 most lofty entrance, and there are indications that the one first found, 

 which had been exposed by quarrying operations, must have gradu- 

 ally ended, before the portion in the quarry had been removed, in a 

 fissure, somewhat like that in which the tunnel on the east side of 

 chamber C (see Plan) has been found to end. The vertical brecciated 

 face, which evidently formed one side of the portion of the cavern 

 removed by quarrying, tends strongly to show that this was not the 

 main entrance, even if there was an opening here into the cavern 

 trom the limestone-cLLff at the edge of the valley. 



Eesearches in 1887. 



A further grant having been obtained from the British Association, 

 work was resumed on June 6th, under the superintendence of Messrs. 

 Luxmoore, Pennant, Morgan, Morton (who was added to the Com- 

 mittee), and myself, and a few days afterwards we were joined by 

 Prof. Hughes. Mr. Morton stayed at the inn close by, so that he 

 might be constantly present at the excavations. 



Tip to this time no objections had been raised to the notion which 

 we had, as we thought, established beyond the possibihty of doubt 

 during the explorations in the previous year, that the deposits from 

 the drift-section passed directly into the cavern, and that the bone- 



