436 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



embodying Mr. Wliidbey's statement, read before the Royal Society, February 

 27, ISiZ, and printed in the " Philosophical Transactions" for that year. 



In November, 1820, Mr. Wliidbey discovered a second ossiferous cavern, 

 and sent up the bones found in it to Sir- Everard Home, stating that they 

 " were latel;^ found in a cavern one foot high, eighteen feet wide, and twenty 

 feet long, lying on a thin bed of dry clay at the bottom ; the cavern was sur- 

 rounded by compact limestone, about eight feet above high-water mark, fifty- 

 five feet below the surface of the rock, one hundred and seventy-four yards 

 from the original face of the quarry, and about one hundred and twenty yards, 

 in that direction, from the spot where the former bones were found in 1816."* 



He then goes on to repeat, almost verbatim, his reasons for believing that 

 the cavern never could have had any connection with the surface. 



The bones in this second consignment were, like their predecessors, described 

 by Sir Everard Home before the Royal Society, Eebruary 8, 1821, and his 

 paper was printed in the " Philosophical Transactions" for that year. 



In 1822 a third bone-cave was found at Oreston, and the fossils sent to 

 London ; on this occasion Mr. Whidbey forwarded them to Mr. John Barrow, 

 with a plan and statement descriptive of their situation. 



Surface of Country. 



ijL-vc) ui c.rouud at Uic i'XnA the i„jc!:. 



High-water at S^jring-tide. 



Scale of 40 feet. 



Lign. 1.— Longitudinal Section of the Caverns discovered at the Breakwater Quarries, at 

 Oreston m 1822, by Joseph Whidbey, Esq., F.R.S. Reduced from pi. vi., "Philosophical 

 X r3,nscictioiis, 1823. 



[The dark tint in the section marks the places were the bones were found.] 



"The height," he says, "of the rock, or quarry, is about ninety-three feet 

 above the top of high-water of spring-tides, which is shown in the sketch, to- 

 gether with a section of the caves where the bones were found. The part 

 where they lay is tinged with red in the caves marked a and b. The cave a 



* Philosophical Transactions, 1817, pp. 176-7. 



