GBINDLEY — GEOLOGY OE THE ISLE Of MAJN^. 



171 



tites from the roof ; the various round bosses of stalagmite undu- 

 lating over the floor; the gurgling of the cave-stream; and the 

 momentary droppings of water from the crevices and joints of the 

 rock, gave the place a very solemn and enchanting aspect. What 

 changes in the manners and customs of the human race have taken 

 place since the date of the cave-men ! Were we to take a poetical 

 or an imaginative view of the case, and picture to ourselves a few 

 naked or half-naked human beings in the gloomy cavern, standing 

 or sitting round a fire made of wood, and enveloped in its stinking 

 smoke, with perhaps an animal's skin flung round their bodies and 

 secured by one of these very bone-pins we have found ; making their 

 rude repast of a boar which they had hunted down in the surround- 

 ing forest, and the flesh of which they may have boiled in one of 

 their coarse earthen pots, of which we have found such numerous 

 fragments, — flayed too, probably, with those bone-knives which have 

 thus strangely come down to us ; poor creatures, who lived and died 

 so long ago, that no Hume has chronicled the career of their race, and 

 who probably had perished ere Caesar came to conquer : picture their 

 condition of want, privation, and hardships, as compared with the 

 plenty, the luxurious mode of living, and the high state of civiliza- 

 tion which ive now enjoy. What a contrast there is ! But science 

 does not sanction the play of the imagination, which is ever an un- 

 safe guide. Well-ascertained facts and reliable observations are the 

 data on which science rears the structures on which she plants her 

 standards. But one can scarce refrain from speculation on a theme 

 like this. 



In conclusion, I beg to tender my warmest thanks to W. H. 

 Ware, Esq., Ashes House, near Stanhope, who kindly permitted me 

 to have the use of the relics until their history was made out, as far 

 as can be done ; and also to thank Mr. Kichard Cordner, Crawley 

 House, near Stanhope, for the interest he took in the matter, in 

 generously sending men to carry on the explorations.* 



JTest Croft, Stanhope, March 29M, 1862. 



GEOLOGY OE THE ISLE OE MAN. 



By Thomas Getndley, Esq.. or Glossop. 



While almost every week increases our knowledge of the geology 

 of distant parts of the earth, there is one small island in the British 

 seas, famed for its picturesque beauty, and peculiarly interesting on 

 account of its historical associations, of the geological features of 

 which very little is known, and even that little scarcely ever referred 

 to in geological treatises. This may have arisen mainly from the 



* These furtlier most interesting discoveries were kindly forwarded to me by Mr. 

 Elliott with this letter, accompanied by plans. — Ed. Geol. 



