COEEESPONDENCE. 



65 



Corner, and at Cooloodee. It is about fifty miles due-east of Adelaide, 

 and about 35° south latitude, and 139° 20' east longitude. I found it 

 while making my surveys for the direct eastern line of railway from 

 Adelaide to the E^iver Murray (see Council Paper, No. 47, Septem- 

 ber 10th, 1858, S. A.). 



The Biver Murray and its tributaries drain an immense district 

 in 'New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia, discharging it- 

 self into the Lake Alexandria in South Australia ; thence to the sea 

 it is navigable for 1500 miles. 



[Our readers are referred also to the Journal of the Greological 

 Society, No. 63, August, 1860, pages 252-261, for some account of 

 the geology of the South-Australian district above referred to. — 

 Edit. Geologist.] 



COHEESPONDENCE. 



The Accumulation of Cave Deposits. 



Dear Sie, — Without offering any opinion on the Hev. H. Eley's spe- 

 culation, in the December Number of the Geologist, on the mode of " The 

 Accumulation of Cave Deposits," I presume it is quite safe to conclude 

 that it could only apply, at most, to caverns which were inhabited by 

 animals. 



Now, though we have satisfactory evidence that some caverns — Kent's 

 Hole near this place, for example — were the homes of carnivora, others^ 

 and some of them very famous, are entirely destitute of any such indica- 

 tions, whilst their distinctly stratified deposits were certainly due to the 

 i long-continued action of water. 



( Amongst the numerous caves near the sea-level which occur in the lime- 

 I stone cliffs between Berry Head and Mudstone Bay, near Brixham, there 

 I is one into which the sea only enters at spring-tide high-water, or during 

 very heavy gales. It is only accessible from the sea, and is situated at 

 the apex of a small cove, the mouth of which is a passage, probably about 

 twenty feet wide, between two walls of limestone ; within it is somewhat 

 wider. Except at high-water, a small, steep, terraced, shingle beach lies 

 between the sea and the mouth of the cavern. The cove is simply a gallery, 

 at least eighty feet long, about four feet wide, in some places not more 

 than three feet high, but commonly high enough for a man to stand erect. 

 In fact, it is nothing more than one of the north and south joints, or lines 

 of fracture, so common in the district, eroded into a tunnel. 



A considerable drip of water, apparently free from earthy matter, enters 

 through the roof. 



When recently visiting it, I found the floor, consisting of fine sea sand, 

 more or less covered with fresh seaweed, which was most abundant at the 

 inner end. About halfway in, I picked up several disjoined bones, pro- 

 bably parts of the same animal, undoubtedly a terrestrial mammal, and, 

 judging from the state of the epiphyses, a young individual. I have still 

 some of them by me. With one exception they are quite free from all 

 marks of abrasion. 



The sea had also carried in some evidences of the existence of man ; 



YOL. Y. K 



