BEACHES, ETC., OF THE SOUTH OE ENGLAND. 319 



Ilfracombe and Berrynarbor, which is of interest from the circum- 

 stance of its showing the relation of the Rubble-drift to the reversed 

 edges of the outcropping strata. 



(15) Plymouth. — The connexion of the Eubble-drift with the 

 Caves and Ossiferous Breccia of the Plymouth district is not so ap- 

 parent as in Gower, though there is reason to suspect its existence. 

 It is difficult to say how far some of the ossiferous fissures of Oreston 

 and Cattedown may have served as caves, but there can be little 

 doubt that the rock-fragments and bones now filling them were 

 carried in from the outside at a time subsequent to the habitation 

 of the Caves, if these ever existed. There are differences of 

 opinion as to the manner in which the filling-in was effected, yet 

 all observers agree in the essential points, namely, that the con- 

 dition of the bones is very different from those found in Caves, and 

 that they were brought in with the Bubble by natural causes, not 

 by hyaenas or other beasts of prey,^ 



The materials filling the fissures are all of local origin — limestone, 

 clay, and sand. The limestone is in pieces and blocks of various sizes, 

 which are all angular ; a few fragments of slate and quartz-pebbles 

 are also occasionally met with. There has since been a large infiltra- 

 tion of carbonate of lime, which has often cemented the whole into 

 a hard compact breccia. The bones are found from time to time 

 in patches, both in the consolidated and unconsolidated portions. 

 Many of them are uninjured, and those which are broken have 

 sharp unworn fractures. None are rolled, and none show traces of 

 gnawing. Some are very much decomposed and fragile, others re- 

 tain a good deal of animal matter. The fissures in the limestone 

 are sometimes vertical, at other times they are inclined or hori- 

 zontal, and often extremely irregular. Owing to this, cavities were 

 occasionally left in the mass of the breccia, some of which still 

 remain open, while others have been filled by the intrusion of sand 

 and clay, or calcite. The remains of the animals found in these 

 fissures belong to — 



Elephas primigenms. 

 Hippopotamus major. 

 Ekinoceros tichorhinus. 



megarhiniis. 



Eqtius caballiis. 

 Bison priscus. 

 Bos longifrons. 



■ primigenius. 



Cervus capreohis. 



Cerviis tarandus. 

 Sits scroja. 

 Fells leo (F. spelcsa). 

 Canis lupus. 



vidpes. 



Hycena crocuta {spelcea 

 Mustela erminea. 

 TJrsus arcfos. 

 - — —ferox. 



Similar fissures occur near Chudleigh, and in other limeston 

 districts. 



^ A full account of these ossiferous breccias, and of the papers thereon, i 

 given by Mr. Pengelly in 'The Literature of the Oreston Caverns,' Trans. 

 Devon Assoc, vol. v. (1872) p. 249. See also Mr. E. N. Worth, ' On the Bone 

 Caves of the Plymouth District,' ibid. vol. vii, (1879) p. 87, and another 

 paper by the same author on a subsequent find of bones, with parts of 

 reputed human skeletons, ibid, vol, xix. (1887) p. 419. These so-called ' Caves ' 

 vFere originally described geologically by Buckland in 1824, in his ' Reliquiae 

 Diluvian^.' 



