214 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



corps at Montreal, upon the subject. That gentleman immediately 

 visited the spot, examined the cave, in which were found a number 

 of bones ; and these, by favour of Dr. Wilson of Perth, were all 

 brought to Montreal. 



The description of this cave is given by Dr. Bigsby in the Amer. Jour, 

 of Science (vol. ix., June, 1825, p. 354) in two letters to the editor, 

 dated Philadelphia, February and March, 1825. His information 

 was derived from Lieut. Kobe. The cavern is ten feet below the 

 surface, with which it communicates by a sort of shaft or passage 

 leading downwards, just large enough to admit the entrance of a 

 man, being two feet three inches wide, by one foot nine inches broad. 

 The cave is twenty-five feet long by fifteen broad, and is five feet 

 high in the middle, gTadually lowering at each end. At that part of 

 it the most remote from the entrance, there is a fissure two feet by 

 six inches, and therefore too small to permit of further penetration. 

 The floor was covered with fragments of dark coloured granular lime- 

 stone, of which the cave itself is formed ; whilst the sides and roof 

 were coated with small mamillary concretions of calc-spar. The 

 entire township of Lanark consists of the Laurentian rocks, consist- 

 ing of gneiss and interstratified bands of crystalline limestone, and I 

 have no doubt whatever that it is in one of these bands that the cave 

 is developed. If it has not been further investigated since its dis- 

 covery, it might be worth while to enlarge the fissure at its extremity, 

 particularly if it is found on examination to extend much fiirthur in- 

 wards. 



A quantity of very large bones, in a state similar to that observed 

 in gi'ave yards, were found chiefly in a heap near, but not under, the 

 aperture from above, many others were scattered among the debris 

 of the floor. Mr. Robe conjectured that the animal to which these 

 remains belonged, must have been too large to have entered the cave 

 alive or whole. As no mention was made whether the bones were 

 encrusted vdth stalagmite, or formed a breccia, it is presumed such 

 appearances did not exist. In June, 1859, Dr. Bigsby related to me 

 that the bones were transmitted by Lieut. Robe to Dr. Buckland for 

 examination and description ; but although they were received, not 

 any published notice of them ever appeared. It is probable, however, 

 that they were those of a deer, which Dr. Bigsby seems to think must 

 have fallen in. If any remains of the antlers were among them 

 when discovered, there could be no doubt of its being the animal 

 supposed. 



23. — QuAETz Caveex, Leeds. 



This cavity is perhaps hardly deserving of a place in this paper, 

 but as it illustrates, to a certain extent, the formation of caverns by 

 explosions in p^-ritous veins, it is not passed over, although its exis- 

 tence may noAv be quite forgotten. It is described in "A Sketch of 

 the Topooraphy and Geology of Lake Ontario," by Dr. Bigsby in the 

 " Philosophical Magazine" for 1829. He describes a district thirteen 



