92 Chronicles of Science. [Jan., 



etruscus, Eh. leptorliinus\ (extinct); Equiis, Sus prisons (extinct); 

 Sus scrofa, Cervus el'aplius, var. barbarus^, Cervus dama\, Bos (a 

 large form), and Bos taurus\. Two forms of Ibex, Oapra 

 2£goceros\\; and also the common goat, Capra hircus; Lejnis 

 timidus, Lejms cuniculus\\, Mus rattus. Of the carnivora were 

 determined Felis leopardus, Felis pardina, Felis served, Syssna 

 hrunnea, Canis vuljjes, Ursus sp. Eemains of the common dolphin, 

 numerous genera and species of birds, a species of tortoise, and 

 numerous remains of fishes, of which the tunny is most prominent. 



The remains are imbedded in red cave-earth, and also in a 

 black layer similar to that noticed in the caves of France and else- 

 where. In many instances the organic remains have been carried 

 down from one cavern to another at a lower level through long 

 fissures, by the heavy autumnal floods which pour from the higher 

 grounds down upon Windmill Hill plateau (where many of these 

 ossiferous caves are situated), bringing with them the remains of 

 the various animals which at an earlier period inhabited the thickly- 

 wooded heights, now entirely destitute of trees and only covered at 

 places by^he little Cliamserops humilis. 



Many human and animal remains attributable to modern periods 

 have been also met with ; but the older human remains are distin- 

 piished by peculiarities in the thigh-bones, which closely resemble 

 those met with in the Cro-Magnon Cave.* 



Mr. Boyd Dawkins gives a resume of what is known on the 

 subject of ' The Antiquity of the Iron Mines of the Weald. 'f In 

 the middle of the Wealden formation are two thin bands of iron- 

 stone, from which all the iron was obtained. The mines are 

 scattered throughout the district : the method was to sink a shaft 

 through the superincumbent clay to the ironstone, and remove 

 as much ore as was within reach ; then fill up and sink again a little 

 farther on, so that the shafts he very close together. They vary 

 in depth from about 7 or 8 to 40 feet, and in diameter from 3 to 

 6 feet. The first historical notice is in a grant of Henry III. 

 to the town of Lewes ; but Samian and other Roman ware, bronze 

 fibulae, coins of Xero, Vespasian, &c, having been found at several 

 localities scattered amongst the scoriae at depths varying from 2 to 

 10 feet, tend to show that they were worked during the Eoman 

 period. These Eoman remains were associated with flint flakes 

 and rude unturned pottery identical with that termed Keltic, in 

 some places, and in others alone, which, together with the passage 

 in Caesar's ' Commentaries ' describing the inhabitants of the mari- 

 time part of Britain, " utuntur ant sere aut taleis ferreis ad certum 



* See our Chronicle of Archaeology for July last, p. 411. 



t Mr. Boyd Dawkins made careful notes of these workings during Iris stay in 

 the district whilst engaged on the Geological Survey of the "Wealden ; and" he 

 also refers to Mr. Lower's papers in the ' Sussex Archaeologia.' 



