306 
CAVE EXPLORATIONS. 
narrow gallery of considerable extent. Wliitaker, in liis " History of 
Craven," thus describes the scenery in which Dowkabottom Cave is 
located : — Dowkabottom Hole is about two miles north from Kiln- 
sey 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 con- 
siderable 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." 
In the first chamber of the Dowkabottom Cave some very large 
stones occupied the surface ; on the removal of these was found a 
layer of charcoal ashes nearly 2 feet in thickness, amongst which 
was a fragment of a bronze fibula?. Mr. Hodgson, who excavated 
this spot along with Mr. Farrer, of Ingleborough House, discovered 
the remains of three human skeletons laid in the bed of clay about 
a foot deep. Underneath the clay was a layer of soft stalagmite, 
and at the base of this several skulls and bones of the wolf and goat, 
and the horns of a deer were found. On the first examination of 
these difterent caves by Mr. Jackson, the bones and teeth of animals 
were found, with relics of human art scattered indiscriminately over 
the floor, or just below the surface in the charcoal ashes previously 
alluded to, and the first specimens obtained, consisting of various 
articles of British and Roman art, coins, bones and teeth of the tiger, 
hyaena, bear, and wild boar, (the latter identified by Dr. Buckland), 
were deposited in the British Museum, and a description was read 
before the Society of Antiquaries of London, by Mr. C. R. Smith. 
The number of personal ornaments and implements of various kinds 
indicated that the several caves were for a considerable period the 
abode of human beings. The investigations of Mr. Jackson had 
resulted in the accumulation of a considerable number of these 
objects. He found about 24 fibula? of bronze, and five of iron, of 
various sizes and appearances, many in fine preservation and highly 
ornamented, some apparently plated with silver. Two bronze armlets 
and four fragments of others, two rings, and bronze articles like studs, 
