94 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



feet to 5 feet 8 inches in thickness or depth, and contained com- 

 paratively few small pebbles ; indeed, on searching the cut sides 

 of the excavation, scarcely one could be detected. Below the sand, 

 however, a bed of rough gravel was reached, consisting of stones of 

 various sizes, from the large boulders of more than a yard across, 

 evidently derived from the neighbouring boulder-clay, to the 

 smaller-sized pebbles of ordinary gravel, little or no sand being 

 intermixed. This bed of gravel measured about 5 feet in thick- 

 ness, and was found to overlie the solid rock, a stratum of hard lime- 

 stone being exposed below ; the stratum was broken and uneven on 

 its surface, and dipped slightly towards the south, thus causing 

 the bed of gravel to vary in thickness, in different parts, to the 

 extent of nearly a foot. The whole gravel was then gradually 

 cleared away, to allow the foundations of the chimney to be placed 

 on the solid rock. It was when some large stones were being 

 removed from the west side of this gravel bed, about 6 inches or so 

 from the bottom, and nearly 11 feet from the surface of the ground, 

 that the bronze implement (now exhibited) was discovered, on 

 Friday, the 27th of June last. Mr Bruce kindly informed me of 

 its discovery, and I visited the place shortly after, and had pointed 

 out to me the exact spot where it was found. It was lying in the 

 closely-packed gravel, behind several large stones, which lay to the 

 west of it — up the course of the old current or stream. 



Bones of Ox and Dog found. — A few broken pieces of bone were 

 also found; and Mr Bruce, at my request, had a strict watch kept, 

 to see if anything else could be discovered, especially any teeth, 

 which, from their hardness and density, are occasionally found well 

 preserved in gravel; only a few more bones, however, were found 

 as the excavation went on, lying in different parts of the gravel- 

 bed, and especially towards the east side of the pit ; these were 

 principally fragments, broken probably from their friction in the 

 gravel ; and they split and crumbled so much when touched, from 

 their age and absence of their gelatinous constituents, that it was 

 necessary to steep them in glue before they could be handled. 

 These pieces consist of various bones of the ox, part of the left 

 hip-joint or acetabulum, with a portion of the pubic bone attached ; 

 lower portions of the tibia or leg-bone, and cannon or metatarsal 

 bone of the same side ; and the condyles or lower part of the femur 

 or thigh-bone of the right side. All these bones belonged to an 

 ox of moderate or rather small size. Another bone was, however, 

 picked up, a radius from the right fore-leg of a moderate-sized 

 dog. (The bones were exhibited.) 



