UPHILL BONE-CAVES. 
153 
land-mark for sailors. The earliest account of them is that 
given by John Rutter in his History of Somersetshire (p. 79), 
published in 1829, and a somewhat similar account is given by 
Phelps in his History of Somersetshire, published in 183(). Both 
these authors reproduce an interesting section, which shows 
a large lower cave excavated in the limestone and communi- 
cating by several irregular vertical pipes or fissures with the 
surface. This cave, which lies almost immediately beneath 
the church, was discovered in 1826 by some workmen quarry- 
ing stone, who found bones which were recognized by tlie Rev. 
Mr. WilKams, vicar of Bleadon, as " belonging to a country 
and chmate different from ours." These bones were found at 
the mouth of one of the vertical pipes or fissures which here 
expands to form a small chamber, and was closed lower down 
by blocks of hmestone firmly wedged together. The bones 
were so firmly imbedded in detritus as to be only with difficulty 
extracted by the aid of the pickaxe. They included hyaena, 
elephant, rhinoceros, ox, horse, bear, hog, fox, and polecat. 
The big lower cave measured forty feet from north to south 
by eight to twenty feet from east to west, and had a very 
irregular roof full of hollows, and showing weathered fossils 
of the Carboniferous limestone projecting from its surface. 
Fair stalactites occurred, but not such good ones as are often 
met with. On the floor of the cave was a thin deposit of mud 
overlying a thick deposit of sand, with numerous bones of 
sheep, bones of birds — chiefly gulls — -a cuttle bone, and human 
remains in the form of pieces of pottery and a coin of the 
Emperor Julian. Dr. Buckland considered that the cave 
had been a foxes' den, and detected their gangway, where at 
their ingress and egress they had pohshed the irregular points 
of rock at the entrance. Dr. Buckland also considered that 
the bird bones had been brought in by foxes, but Rutter 
remarks that to judge by their unbroken state they had some 
other method of introduction. Loam containing birds' bones 
was also found in some of the vertical pipes. 
