POULTON : DOWKERBOTTOM CAVE. 
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condition, and often covered by stalagmite ; teeth were also 
abundant. The animals were those usually found accompanying 
deposits of this age, but I think it likely that identification 
of the specimens may shew some more exceptional, or older forms. 
The intermixture of remains in these upper layers may be 
due to the stream which once flowed across the chamber, and 
must have brought down remains from the higher parts of the 
eastern division. In favour of this view is the conclusion arrived 
at after working the Victoria cave at Settle : that the older and 
newer remams are intermixed in the innermost parts of the cave, 
although separated by a great thickness of intervening deposits 
towards the entrance. It is also noteworthy that many of the 
remains, especially pottery, are distinctly waterworn, and that the 
stream in wet weather comes down with force enough to bring 
any of the remains found in these upper lavers. 
I may add, that it is chiefly because of the impossibility of 
confirming these conclusions that I am obliged to make this paper 
a preliminary one. 
The comparison and identification of the remains fouud in the 
upper layers must be a work of months, but I have given above a 
short account of what I believe will be the conclusions arrived at 
by the work. 
Indications of fires were found commonly in the black layer 
and the pit, chiefly as fragments of charred wood. Pot-boilers for 
heating water in vessels that would not stand the fire were found 
in these layers. A fine example of these round stones of 
micaceous sandstone, covered by stalagmite, was taken from the 
bottom of the pit ; a slab of sandstone also covered by stalagmite 
and used for baking cakes, as Professor Boyd Dawkins kindly 
informs me, was found in the pit. The limestone so abundant 
around could not have been used for these purposes, as it would 
not stand the fire, therefore the dwellers in Dowkerbottom cave 
probably brought their pot-boilers from the bed of the Skirfare, 
