On a Bone Cave at Loiver Warburton. 369 



congregated in heaps, so that a spadeful could easily be 

 obtained without the slightest admixture of earth or foreign 



matter We were rewarded by the discovery 



of an inner cave on a level with the entrance of the first. 

 This cave was of small dimensions, and had, before the 

 deposition of the bony debris (?) been closed by a detached 

 piece of rock from above. In this small chamber we could 

 find no traces of bones — a slight unctuous slime covered its 

 floor, stuck full of Buccinum, Mytilus, and Patella. The only 

 indications of humanity discovered in the bony debris was 

 a vertebral bone of an ox, which bore evident traces of being- 

 sawn or ground flat ; also an amulet, formed rudely from the 

 leg-bone of an ox." 



At the meeting of the British Association in Aberdeen in 

 1859, the late Mr William Beattie of Montrose read a short 

 notice of the Warburton Cave, from which I extract the fol- 

 lowing statements : — "The entrance to the cave," Mr Beattie 

 says, " is through a hard compact rock of trap, and measures 

 12 feet wide by 5 feet high. On entering, the cavity suddenly 

 widens out to 20 feet, with a height varying from 20 to 30 

 feet — the whole having been crammed to the roof with a 

 deposit of fine, dark, loamy soil, containing a variety of 

 organic remains. The bottom or floor consisted of round 

 stones or sea-beach ; in some places mixed or covered with 

 stalagmitic concretion several inches thick. The lowest 

 stratum, 3 feet deep, was composed of dark loam, with ad- 

 mixture of decayed shells, principally of Mytilus edulis. 

 Above this, extending round the cave, was a remarkable layer 

 of Patella vulgata, varying from one to three feet deep, all 

 in the finest state of preservation and of a large size, many 

 of them measuring two inches across. This extraordinary 

 deposit of shells contained no admixture of sand or earthy 

 matter, but lay pure and clean, as if hea/ped together by 

 human agency. A few examples of Turbo littorea were since 

 picked up. About eight feet from the floor we found a 

 stratum of decayed animal matter, about a foot deep, with 

 a layer of bones extending throughout the whole width of 

 the cave. The teeth and bones were discovered in this 



VOL. III. 3 B 



