416 
would call on a coin patina, and had all the appearance of 
extreme age. Here were also bones and fragments of horns 
of the red deer, and a portion of the second tyne of the left 
antler of the gigantic Irish deer — which is the second 
instance of the remains of this noble ruminant that has 
occurred in Yorkshire. 
The nature and superposition of the deposits just enume- 
rated deserve attention, as also the situation of the deer's 
skeleton, which appears to suggest the idea that the animal 
must have entered the cave by some other inlet than the one 
known, and before the fissure or break which now forms the 
entrance had been caused, and in consequence of which the 
cave is divided into two compartments. From the size of 
the animal it could not have got in alive by the present 
entrance, neither could it have been washed in when dead 
and entire; as, if this had been the case, there would have 
been clay, earth, and rubbish associated with it, carried in at 
the same time. The skeleton lay on hard stalagmite, which 
would seem to have been deposited under different circum- 
stances from those connected with the deposition of soft 
stalagmite. It appears certain that there must have been 
periods when great changes, and various in character, took 
place. At the present level of the cave, the presence of 
such a vast body of clay, stones, and gravel cannot be easily 
accounted for. Can it be attributed to the action of glaciers, 
and that by such agency the valley beneath has been scooped 
out; or to some great river or submarine current in remote 
times ? 
In the absence of any better solution of the causes which 
may have operated, I venture to suggest the following as 
what may possibly, at least, have occurred; though so many 
difficulties arise that I feel very diffident as to the soundness 
of my inferences, which, however, I venture to throw out in 
the hope that they may be the means of eliciting some more 
satisfactory explanation : — Originally, I conceive, this cavern 
