GRINDLEY — GEOLOGY OF THE ISLE OF MAN. 
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 tlie 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 we 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 ou a theme 
like this. 
In conclusion, I beg to tender my warmest thanks to W. II. 
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. Eichard Cordner, Crawley 
House, near Stanhope, for the interest he took in the matter, in 
generously sending men to carry on the explorations.* 
West Croft, Stanhope, March 29M, 1862. 
GEOLOaY OF THE ISLE OE MAN. 
By Thomas Getndley, Esq., of Gtlossop. 
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 treatiseo. This may have arisen mainly from the 
* These further most interesting discoveries were kindly forwarded to me hy Mr. 
Elliott with this letter, accompanied by plans. — Ed. Geol. 
