48 
learned (?) and critical essay on the extraordinary similitude of 
pre-historic and modem metallic articles of decorative art. 
The Kelko Cave, near Giggleswick, which has only been 
partially explored, rewarded Mr. Jackson's labours by similar 
relics of ancient art as the Victoria, though fewer in number. 
The Dowkabottom Cave or Caves, near Arncliffe, are not 
situated like those near Settle, on the sides of a precipice, but 
on a lofty plateau of the rocky crags of the Kilnsey range, 
1,250 feet above the sea, from which you descend into a 
lofty chamber, from whose roof hang ponderous masses of 
stalactite. Turning by a narrow passage to the left, you 
enter a larger and very much loftier cave, a considerable 
portion of the floor of which is covered with stalagmite, 
owing to the constant flow of a rapid stream of water 
through it, from the extreme end of a narrow gallery of 
considerable extent.* 
The greater part of the floor of the first cave is covered 
with loam, charcoal ashes, clay, and soft stalagmite, of 
* Whitaker, in his History of Craven, thus describes it : — " Dowkabottom 
Hole is about two miles north from Kilnsey Crag, high up in the hills, and 
surrounded by cliffs of limestone. The entrance is an oblong chasm in the 
surface, overhung with ivy and fern. At the south end is a narrow but lofty 
opening into a cavern of no great extent. The view downward from the 
north is tremendous. On this side it is very lofty, and extends to a consider- 
able distance. The rocks at the top, and particularly near the entrance, hang 
down in the most picturesque shapes, and both these and the sides are 
covered with petrified moss, richly tinted. The bottom, at first, is rugged, 
but afterwards changes to a brown clay, which has been found to answer the 
end of Fuller's earth, and is in some places petrified in masses as hard as 
marble, with a pellucid stream running over it, from which this deposit is 
formed. A sudden turn to the left at once changes the scene ; the cavern now 
becoming very spacious, and forming a set of magnificent Gothic arches, 
composed of petrified matter, white as new-fallen snow. After gaining a 
rugged ascent, the incrustations on the sides continue, but the roof changes 
to a flat ceiling of dark blue rock with white seams, from which depend 
stalactites of various hues, rugged all over, and sharp as the points of lances. 
Beyond, the rocky ascent leads to a narrower part of the cavern, where the 
water becomes too deep to admit of any farther progress. When Bishop 
Pococke had seen Dowkabottom, he exclaimed, — ' This is Antiparos in 
miniature, and except that cavern, I have never seen its equal.' " — Whitaker's 
Craven, p. 492. 
