374 Proceedings of the Boyal Physical Society. 
many other important objects might have rewarded a more 
careful search. 
No Kjokken-moddings have been found on the coasts of 
Angus and Mearns ; but it is not likely that the early inha- 
bitants would adopt the open air pic-nic habits of their con- 
temporaries on the flat shores of Denmark or the Moray 
Firth, when they could get the shelter of a cave like that 
of Warburton, so well suited for human occupation, facing 
as it does due south, sheltered from the north and easterly 
blasts, and elevated above the surrounding land, so as to 
afford good drainage. On these cliffs the primrose, the 
violet, and ihQ Ranunculus ficaria bloom several weeks earlier 
than in the surrounding country ; good water can be got at 
a few yards distance ; while the proximity of the sea, river, 
and forests, would afford the means of supplying the wants 
of a primitive race. 
The occurrence of human bones raises the question of 
cannibalism ; but I do not think that the facts before us 
are sufiicient to enable us to answer it one way or other. 
The mere presence of these bones is strong presumptive 
evidence ; but it is quite possible that the cave may have 
been used for the concealment of the victim of some modern 
murder. 
After it was deserted as a human abode, the gradual 
decay of the rock, the filtering of water with soil through 
cracks in the roof, and the eddies of wind carrying in the 
debris scattered round its entrance, are sufficient to explain 
how the cave happened to be filled to the roof, as it was on 
its discovery in 1847. 
Mr Bryson found, at the entrance of the cave, some iron 
bolts, and the remains of an iron harpoon or spear. If these 
were in such a position as to convince us that they were 
contemporaneous with the bones, the date of the cave would 
be brought down to a much more recent period than the 
Kjokken-moddings ; but I think, with this single exception, 
all the evidence goes to prove that the occupiers of the cave 
had similar habits, and were in a similar stage of civilisation, 
with the constructors of the Danish middens. 
