308 
JONES: EXPLORATION OF A CAVE AT ELBOLTON. 
markings correspond with a plan of the cave in which the whole 
.surface is divided into square feet. As the excavation proceeds the 
floor alters in shape, and so other plans, at various depths, say five, 
eight, and twelve feet will be made. In this way any special object, 
or any alteration in the material w^orked, can have its exact position 
noted. 
When all the loose material that had been worked in the trial 
operations of last year was hauled out of the cave, the regular and 
more orderly excavation commenced. The greater part of the 
material worked has been made up of loose angular fragments of 
limestone rock fallen from the roof, keeping constant in character 
throughout, without evidence of stream action, of rolled stones, or 
gravel. This is interspersed with abundance of bones and fragments 
of pottery. All the human remains have been found in this deposit. 
It is of varying thickness, from four feet at the east end, where it rests 
on stalagmitic breccia, to more than 15 feet at the west end of the 
chamber. At the west we have not yet pierced through this stratum. 
Human remains, with pieces of pottery and some charcoal, have been 
found at this end, at a depth of 12j feet from the original level ; 
though in the other end the human remains were only covered to the 
depth of three to five feet. At the west end the bones are scattered 
as if the ground had been disturbed by either former explorers or the 
bones scattered by dogs or wolves, while we have numerous evidences 
of gnawing of animal bones. I have not noticed such markings 
on human bones. 
At twelve feet south from the datum, a skeleton nearly com- 
plete, was found ; in a recess three feet further another was seen ; 
and in the middle of the floor a third was obtained. These had not 
been disturbed, and were seen in the position of burial. The one in 
the recess and the one in the middle of the chamber had been buried 
in an upright sitting posture, the knees being close to the skull, the 
thigh bones still inserted in the sockets of the pelvis. The 
skeleton of the first was similarly bent so as to occupy little space, 
but the body had evidently been laid sloping and not erect. The 
skull of the one that w^as buried in the middle of the floor was 
crushed by the overlying debris, while the other two being better 
