364 
P0ULT0X : DOWKERBOTTOM CAVE. 
nearly 600 ft. below. A small piece of baked shale is also 
interesting-, as I believe none occurs nearer than the summit of 
the other side of the valley of the River Skirfare, although 
the brown clay of the deeper layers in the cave may have burnt 
into a laminated mass like that found. Fragments of charred bones 
are also common. 
The distribution of the black layer containing- these remains 
is very variable, sometimes being on the surface, sometimes 1 ft. 
below soft trodden stalagmite. In some cases it had been carried 
down into small pipes in the soft stalagmite beneath, caused by 
the drip from the roof. In one place a perfectly vertical, circular 
hole, 3 in. in diameter, and 1 ft. deep, had been drilled for some 
unknown purpose in the soft stalagmite, and became filled with 
the black layer (See Section in Fig. iii) : in another instance, 
a still larger and deeper hole was found. 
At first, in the centre of the chamber (parallel K, squares 4, 5, 
6, Fig, ii) we dug below the black superficial layers ; first we 
passed through a layer a few inches thick, of hardish stalagmite, 
easily yielding to the pick : then through a few inches of soft 
stalagmite, and again of hardish, and then of soft stalagmite. 
This character was maintained over a large area, and stretched 
from one side of the cave to the other (See Fig. iii and iv). The 
soft stalagmite could readily be dug out with the spade. The first 
three of these layers were thin, the last, the lower soft stalagmite 
is far thicker, and carried us down to a depth of 4 ft. Here large 
blocks of limestone appear, incrusted with hard stalagmite ; below 
this horizon all chemical deposits cease, and those of mechanical 
origin alone succeed. In fact, the second chamber appears to 
have resembled, on a far larger scale, the present condition of 
chamber iii. For a depth of 10 ft., and probably more, there 
succeeds an extremely tough, stiff, brown clay, in which huge 
blocks of limestone are abundant — rough and angular, and uncover- 
ed by stalagmite (See Fig. iii). This combination of the huge 
heavy masses imbedded firmly in an adhesive flexible cement, was 
