11 
pendulous incrustations under railway bridges as a proof of quick forma- 
tion, and he also inferred that floods or large volumes of water must have 
at times entered the cave to produce the results discovered. 
After reading the MS., Mr. Pease, on behalf of the author, submitted 
to the inspection of the meeting several of the bones, teeth, flint-flakes, 
coins, &c., found in the cave, which Mr. Smith had forwarded in order to 
illustrate his paper. 
The President, in commenting upon this paper, spoke of the great 
interest excited by this subject, not only among professed geologists, but 
among educated persons generally, and observed that, treating the anti- 
quity of man as a purely scientific question, it was difficult to estimate 
aright the value of such evidence as this. He exhibited some flints from 
the valley of the Somme, and also some early British spear points, arrow- 
heads, &c., found in 1835, by Mr. Francis and Mr. Gwyn Jeff"ries, at 
Paviland, under a thick coat of stalagmite, and presented by them to the 
Institution Museum. The evidence regarding the length of time required 
for the formation of stalagmite was very conflicting. Men of moderate 
views, accustomed to observe carefully, and who were looked-up-to, had 
come to the conclusion that these flints, &c., were contemporaneous with 
extinct animals, as well as with animals believed to be far more recent. 
Though the evidence from the gravel beds might be conclusive, as shown 
by Mr. Prestwich's researches, that from caves was not so. 
Mr. H. K. Jordan, F.G.S., enquired whether the Mollusca found in 
the cave were Fresh- water or Marine. He described the evidences of a 
depression of about 40 feet in the land round Tenby, and suggested that 
many of these bones might have been washed into the cavern by the sea. 
The speaker also mentioned instances known to him of the varying rate of 
formation of stalagmite. 
Mr. S. H. S WAYNE, in reply to Mr. Jordan, read an extract from a 
paper in The Geologist, for October, 1 865, in which the shells alluded to 
were described as Marine, and their species named. 
Major Gib ERNE (a visitor) spoke of the rapidity with which stalag- 
mites were formed under railway arches, and also of the quickness with 
which porous limestone used for filtering water became choked. He 
described a singularly regular oscillation in the level of a portion of land 
in India during periods of 70 years. 
Mr. Leipner explained that the stalagmites under arches arose from 
the hydrate of lime, which was used in the mortar, and which was many 
times more soluble in water than the carbonate, being dissolved by the 
water which trickled through, and that this solution absorbed carbonic 
acid from the air, forming a stalagmite very diff^erent in structure from 
that which was produced naturally from carbonate of lime. 
Mr. Atchley thought, from observations made among the chalk hills 
