414 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



Clausilia nigricans, with bones of an Arvicola and birds ; (2) a thin layer of 

 stalagmite ; (3) two feet or less of blackish sand, containing a mass of bones of 

 Mephas a7itiquus, with remains of Meles taxus and Putorius (vulgar us ; (4) 

 one to two feet of ochreous cave-earth, limestone-breccia, and sandy layers, 

 with remains of Elephas antiquus, Rhinoceros liemitoechus, Hymia, Canis lupus, 

 Ursus spelmis. Bos and Cervus ; (5) irregular stalagmite, partly enveloping a 

 hugh tusk of an Elephant embedded below it ; (6) limestone-breccia and stalag- 

 mite, from one to two feet thick, with bones of Ursus and Bos ; (7) irregular 

 beds of stalagmite, one foot or more, with JJrsus ; (8) dark-coloured superficial 

 earth, kept soppy by abundant drip, with bones of Bos, Cervus, Ca?iis vulpes, 

 horns of Reindeer and "Roebuck, together with shells of Patella, Mijtilus, 

 Purpura, Litorina, (probably brought into the cavern as food by birds), and also 

 pieces of ancient British pottery. The marine sand at the bottom of "Bacon 

 Hole" was analogous to that on the rocky floor of the San Giro Cave, near 

 Palermo ; but containing fewer species of Mollusca. The uppermost layer of 

 stalagmite is about thirty feet above high water. The Elephant remains belong 

 to. at least three individuals, one of which was adult, and one young with milk- 

 dentition. 



" Minchin Hole," the grandest and most spacious of all the Gower Gaves, is 

 170 feet long, 70 feet where widest, and 35 feet high at the entrance; the 

 section gave — (1) Loose limestone-breccia, three feet ; (2) Yellow cave-earth, 

 nine inches ; (3) Sand, one foot ; (4) Blackish sandy loam containing abundant 

 remains of Rhinoceros, Elephas, cmdiBos, two and a half feet ; (5) Greyish-yellow 

 marine sand, varying in thickness from one to four feet, and resting on the rocky 

 floor. Some of the lower jaws of Rhinoceros from this deposit exhibit Lit or in (B 

 and comminuted shells imbedded in the encrusting matrix : and the black sand 

 yielded Helix hispicla, similarily attatched. In the interior, the cave-earth was 

 thicker, and the black sandy loam more unctuous. The mammalian remains 

 were closely analogous with those from Bacon Hole ; but the Elephant remains 

 {E. antiquus) were fewer, and those of Rhinoceros hemitoechus were more numer- 

 ous, and better preserved. No remains of Eleph. primigenius or of Rhinoc. 

 tichorhinus were met with in Bacon Hole or Minchin Hole. 



"Bosco's Den," a cavernous Assure, between ''Bacon Hole" and "Minchin 

 liole," is about seventy feet high. Gol. Wood, having succeeded in reaching a 

 hole called by the quarrymen "Bacon's Eye," found it to be an angular opening, 

 two and a half feet in diameter, at the top of one the the great vertical fissures 

 in the limestone, and leading into a fine cavern. Beneath it the fissure was 

 filled up with a mass of angular fragments of limestone, with bones, teeth, and 

 laud shells, impacted in ochreous loam, about twenty feet in height, resting on 

 a solid platform of breccia, beneath which, the fissure had to a great extent 

 been washed out by the sea. On enlarging the aperture, by underminmg the 

 projecthig mass of loam and breccia, a cavity was found extending seventy-six 

 feet backwards, with a width of from seven to sixteen feet, and a general heiglit 

 of about fifteen feet. A line of fissures runs along the angle of the roof, and 

 towards the outer part of the cavern the crack widens into an irregular flue, 

 V hicli had evidently communicated with the surface ; here the cavern rises to a * 

 height of forty feet. The eastern wall only of the cavern was found to be coated 

 M itli stalagmite. The floor was tolerably smooth and shelved down gradually, 

 from the mouth to the extremity, the deposits being thicker outwards. The 

 llo(^r having been excavated down to the hard breccia, there were observed. — 

 (1) at tlie top, a bed of sandy peat or turf, formed chiefly of bits of sticks and 

 coiiiuiiiuiicHl vegetable matter, about one foot thick, except under the flue, 

 M luM\> it lornuHl a low conical heap. In or on tliis peaty covering were bones 

 ol 0\ and A) oil", and bones and broken sliod antlers of Deer, of species or 

 varieties allied to the iveindecr (Cervus Gueltardi and Cerv. priscus), (2) 



