JONES: EXPLORATION OF A CAVE AT ELBOLTON, NEAE THORPE. 89 
Since this paper was read, the following interesting letter has 
been received from Mr. Jones : — 
RoCKViLLE, Embsay, October 29th, 1888. 
Dear Mr. Davis, 
Since I wrote last to you 1 have visited the Cave on Elbolton 
two or three times. Once I went with Messrs. Hartley and Wilkinson, 
in an endeavour to explore the further chambers, and to take photo- 
graphs of the interior. AVith great difficulty Mr. Hartley got into a 
small chamber at the bottom of the hole in the long passage, but 
further progress was barred by debris. The photogTaphs were 
failures. 
Then I had two miners with me for two days, working at the 
trench. The w^ork was very difficult, and after reaching 9 feet from 
the old level we had to discontinue as we had nowhere to dispose of 
our material. We were still in similar stuff as at first, composed of 
angular fragments of hmestone, pieces of stalactites most likely fallen 
from the roof, interspersed with bones, but no signs of a bottom, nor 
of rolled boulders or gravel. The next step that I think we shall 
Ijave to take will be a thorougli clearing out of the cave, by means 
of buckets and a roller at the mouth of the cave. The material can 
be more carefully examined at the surface than in the cave. The 
finds have been so far very interesting. We have proofs of a number 
of persons having died or been buried here. I have a large quantity 
of human remains, including three right femurs, wliich indicate three 
individuals. From negative testimony I think the bones are very 
old, as we have not found any object of metal, either ornament or 
tool. The only things that have yet turned up are the pieces of pot, 
all of rude workmanship, with two or three simple patterns, and the 
bone bodkins that you saw at your last visit. At the lowest point 
that w^e have reached we found a quantity of charcoal, with some 
charred bones and the skull of a little bird ; at this level the stones 
at the sides of the cave were cemented with stalagmite. In working 
towards the north end, about 4 feet from the surface, we came to 
about a square yard of hard flooring, that required the pickaxe to 
break it up. We found on it only a jaw of either a dog or wolf. In 
the clay near by a well-preserved human fibula was found. The 
