POULTOX : DOWKERBOTTOM CAVE. 357 
western side, where the water in wet weather drains from the 
third and second chamber to disappear in the first passage. 
These superficial changes in the course of the currents appear to 
be due to falls from the roof. 
The direction of the W. division of the cave is at right angles 
to the slope in which it opens, and is marked by a longitudinal 
depression, so that the slope is less steep at that point. The 
roof at one time must have extended to the slope (and much 
earlier, probably to the pot-hole) and since then it has been gradu- 
ally removed by successive falls, while the side walls remain as 
the ravine. The debris of the roof are not visible in the section 
exposed, and they probably exist at a lower level. All the stones 
observed in the accumulation in the ravine, were rounded. Many 
very interesting facts have yet to be investigated concerning this 
true opening ; especially as to the time when it was used relatively 
to the present or secondary mouth, and also as to its extension 
towards the pit-hole. In the latter case we may expect to find 
cave deposits beneath the grass of the hollow, between the cave 
and the pot-hole. 
With regard to the use of either opening, nothing is yet 
certain, except the fact that the human occupiers of the cave in 
Roman and post-Roman times used the present mouth. This is 
proved by the abundance of remains indicating the presence of 
man in the upper layers of the first chamber on the E. and W. 
side, and their absence as far as I have observed in the W. side, 
past the first passage. 
Thus Dowkerbottom Cave, when it opened at the slope had 
six chambers ai d five passages. Since then this mouth has been 
blocked up and a new one has been formed by the falling of one 
of the passages. 
I will now give a short account of the evidence borne by the 
cave itself as to former explorations. 
The first chambers on both sides -have been thoroughly 
