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Bones in Caves, SfC* 



BONES IN CAVES, &c. 

 Extract of a letter from the Rev. DR.BccKiAifD to the Editor, dated Aug. 23, 1831. 



" I HAVE, not long since, had in my custody a fine meteoric 

 stone about four pounds weight, that fell in Oxfordshire at 

 Launton, near Bicester, in the spring of 1830 ; it is the property 

 of Dr. Lee of Aylesbury. An account of it has been published in 

 Loudon's Magazine of Natural History for March last. Since 

 that time a piece of it has been examined by Farraday, and 

 found to contain chromium., as usual. [This was doubted.] 



" My expedition to Llandilo was in consequence of a report I 

 received from W. Long Wrey, Esq., who resides at Llandebie, 

 near Llandilo, stating that he had found a cave containing hu- 

 man bones mixed with those of other animals. This is the cave 

 mentioned in my Reliquiae,* and on my arrival I found, as I had 

 expected, that the bones are of two distinct aeras. First, at the 

 top, and enveloped in stalagmite, were the human remains — pro- 

 bably of Celtic inhabitants that used this cave as a place of 

 sepulture. Second, between the stalagmite, in diluvial sand and 

 mud, the bones of bears, elks, and smaller deer, in the usual 

 state of cave bones, just like those at Torquay. 1 saw none that 

 had been gnawed, and too few of them had been collected to 

 enable me to say whether it was a den or pitfall ; and the deposit 

 was so buried under the rubbish of the lime burners, that it was 

 impossible to examine further, until the lime burning ceases, 

 which will be in the autumn, when Mr. Wrey will again pro- 

 ceed to search. The whole of the rock that covered over the 

 spot in which these human skeletons lay, has been removed. 



" I have just received intelligence of the arrival in London of 

 five cases of bones for me, from the cave at Wellington valley, 

 collected by Mr. Henderson, (a surgeon) for Col. Dumaresque, 

 who has forwarded them to me. I have not yet seen them, but 

 am anxious to compare them with those sent to the Geological 

 Society by Major Mitchell : the abstract published in the pro- 



* " The other case occurred in 1810, at Llandebie, in Caermarthenshire, where a 

 square cave was suddenly broken into, in working a quarry of solid mountain lime- 

 stone, on the north border of the great coal basin. In this cave lay about a dozen hu- 

 man skeletons in two rows, at right angles to each other. The passage leading to 

 this cave had been entirely closed up with stones for the purpose of concealment, and 

 its moutli was completely grown over with grass. — Reliquise Diluvianae, 2d ed. p. 166. 



