R. PENNINGTON ON THE CASTLETON BONE-CAVES. 241 



little of tlie ordinary cave-earth, or of the yellowish subsoil (" fox- 

 earth "). The floor consisted principally of blackish mould, con- 

 taining a few limestone fragments and pieces of chert. It Contained 

 some bones, of which a portion were broken as though by man. 

 They were bones of goat and pig, with those of the fox and rabbit. 

 Two pieces of prehistoric pottery were also turned out ; the orna- 

 mentation was unusually rude, even for this period, being simply 

 punctures made in the clay, before baking, with a sharpened stick, 

 without any regard to regularity. 



II. Pleistocene Caves and Fissures. 



Gelly or Hartle Dale. — Some time ago, in taking a stroll in com- 

 pany with Mr. Boyd Dawkins and Mr. John Tym, we entered the 

 dale known as Gelly or Hartle Dale. Whilst examining some little 

 caves and rock-shelters we picked up a milk-molar of a young woolly 

 rhinoceros. It had been thrown up to the surface by rabbits 

 burrowing in the floor of the small cave at the mouth of which it 

 was found. 



In an adjoining cavern there lay on the rock a tooth of a boar, 

 evidently washed out of some fissure within. 



The first-mentioned cave we dug out thoroughly, finding bones of 

 rhinoceros and aurochs (Bison prisons) , with a carpal of mammoth. 

 There was no stalagmite present ; all lay in the yellow earth mixed 

 with angular limestone fragments, usually found in the small caves 

 and fissures thereabouts, and which is evidently of subaerial origin. 

 No trace of the hyaena appeared and I think there is no doubt the 

 bones had been carried to their resting-place by water. Could the 

 rock have been quarried away, it is highly probable that more bones 

 would have been discovered in hidden fissures behind; that such 

 existed was plain from the fact that the smoke of the fire lighted to 

 boil our kettle at the mouth of a cave some 5 or 6 yards away found 

 an exit in our cave, although no visible passage or communication 

 existed. 



Windy-Knoll Fissure. — In October 1870 I was in the Windy- 

 Knoll quarry, in the Mountain-limestone near Castleton, when I 

 noticed a large bone (a tibia) projecting from some of the angular 

 debris which clothed the rock and filled the fissures. 



I carried it and two or three other bones away, and showed 

 them to Prof. Boyd Dawkins shortly after, when he determined 

 them as belonging to the urus (Bos primigenius) and of Pleistocene 

 age. 



I accordingly examined the place carefully, and came to the con- 

 clusion that it was worth while to explore it. This it was impossible 

 to do then or for long after, inasmuch as the debris was exposed in 

 a fissure some distance up the side of the quarry, and could not be 

 got at to any great extent without removing the rock behind which 

 it was supported. This would have interfered with the working of 

 the quarry, and would, in addition, have caused a great fall of earth 

 upon broken stone lying below, to its no small detriment. However* 



