Vol. 59.] PLIOCENE CAVERN AT DOVEHOLES. 125 



found in the cave at Wirksworth, also contrast with those under 

 consideration. There, as Bucklaud pointed out in his ' Keliquiae 

 Diluvianae,' the animal had undoubtedly fallen down an open swallow- 

 hole, and was buried in the clay and loam introduced by a stream 

 flowing into it in ancient times. 



From all these facts it may be concluded that the fragmentary 

 remains in the cave at Doveholes were derived from a den of 

 hyaenas belonging to the Pliocene age. 



It is, however, obvious that they were not introduced by those 

 animals into the chambers where they were discovered, but that 

 they were conveyed from a higher level into it by water. My 

 reading of the riddle is simply that they were originally accumulated 

 in a hyaena-den open to the surface, and that afterwards they were 

 conveyed into lower chambers, where they were protected by the 

 limestone from the denudation which has destroyed nearly all 

 traces of the original surface, leaving the cave A (figs. 2, 3, & 4, 

 pp. 108, 110), the mass of clayey debris B, and the swallow-hole C, 

 as the only signs of the former existence of streams plunging into the 

 rock at this place. The blocks of limestone embedded in clay, shown 

 in the photograph (fig. 9, p. 124), obscuring the northern end of the 

 cave, appear to me to be the ruius of a cave or of a ravine which 

 had formerly been filled with clay, like those portions of the cave 

 which we examined. The presence of the clay in which they are 

 embedded cannot be explained by the slip which is now going on, 

 resulting from the working of the quarry down to the layer of 

 Carboniferous clay (figs. 2 & 3, p. 110). This occurs at a depth 

 of 9 feet below the floor of the cave : it could not have come from 

 anywhere, except from a higher level. 



Helln Pot (figs. 6 & 7, p. 112), and the associated caves opening 

 upon it, on the flanks of Ingleborough, illustrate the probable con- 

 ditions under which the contents were introduced. Here the surface- 

 waters passing over the Yoredale Shales of the upper slopes pass into 

 a series of caves, and ultimately plunge into the great pothole, at 

 various levels beneath the surface, carrying the drainage of the Yore- 

 dale Shales more than 300 feet deep into the rock. At the present 

 time the passages to still lower levels are open, and consequently 

 there is no deposit of clay in the great chamber some 300 feet 

 below the surface, explored by Mr. John Birkbeck, myself, and 

 others in 1870. 1 There are, however, blocks of stone, great and 

 small, which have tumbled from the roof and sides. Had the 

 accessible caves at the surface, as for example the Long Churn Cavern 

 (figs. 6 & 7 a), been haunted by hyaenas, the remains of the victims 

 would from time to time have been swept down into the chasm, and 

 if the water-passage became blocked, would have accumulated in the 

 great chamber. In other words, we should have conditions similar 

 to those under which the cave at Doveholes was probably filled with 

 its contents. 



1 Dawkins, ' Cave-Hunting ' 1874, pp. 41-44. 



