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POULTOX : DOWKERBOTTOM CAVE. 
Dowkerbottom Cave is situated about a mile S. of Hawkswick, 
and a mile -and -a -half N.W. of Kilnsey. It is 1250 ft. above the 
sea, on a terrace of the steep slope of mountain limestone, which 
to the N.E. descends to form the moraine-covered S.W. bank of 
the R. Skirefare, while to the S.W. it rises higher to an extensive 
moorland from 1,500 to 1.600 ft. above the sea. The cave itself 
opens on a level terrace, covered by grass, and sheltered on 
nearly all sides by rising walls and slopes of weathered lime- 
stone. Even on part of the slope towards the river is an outly- 
ing mass of rock which rises far above the level ground on which 
Dowkerbottorn Cave opens. The present mouth of the cave is 
very remarkable. At the bottom of a hollow in the terrace, with 
gently sloping sides covered with turf, and invisible until one is 
standing almost on its edge, is a narrow cleft in the limestone, 
almost filled with angular blocks which form irregular steps 
downwards at either end of the fissure. At a depth of about 
30ft. each of these flights of rocky steps ends in a cave. This 
mouth is obviously secondarily formed and represents a fall in the 
roof at some point where the rock thinned away above by succes- 
sive smaller falls. Such falling in of the roof must be expected to 
occur again, and in one place especially, where very few feet of 
rock intervene between the turf and a spacious chamber nearly 
40ft. in height. 
At York I expressed the opinion that the true mouth of the 
cave would be found in a slope 250 ft. S. of the present opening 
and terminating the western and smaller division of the cave. 
We were enabled to verify this conclusion before leaving the 
work. The physical features of the cave are as follows. (See 
Fig. 1.) 
From the steps at the E. end of the fissure, a slope of debris 
leads into a chamber about 50 ft. long and 25 ft. high. There is 
a sudden turn to the left at the end of this chamber down a short 
and narrow passage which opens into a far finer and loftier 
chamber 70 ft. long and 37 feet high in one place, 36 ft. over a 
