37G 
rorULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
of the earth, and long before the formation of the present sta- 
lagmite pavement. They are remarkable for their hard crys- 
talline structure, and in one or two cases they have yielded 
fragments of very dense mineralised bone. In a portion of the 
cave, called the gallery, there is evidence of the undisturbed 
portion of the crust, in “ a ceiling” or uppermost floor, that 
extended from wall to wall, ‘^without further support than that 
furnished by its own inherent cohesion. Above it there is in 
the limestone rock a considerable alcove. This branch of the 
cavern, therefore, is divided into three stories or flats— that 
below the floor occupied with cave earth, that between the floor 
and ceiling entirely unoccupied, and that above the ceiling also 
without deposit of any kind.” From its being stained with 
cave earth, as well as from its position, the ceiling at the time 
of its deposition must have been supported by a layer of cave 
earth, and therefore the inference becomes necessary that, while 
it was being formed, the cave must have been fllled up to its 
level. It would, indeed, be as impossible for a solid calcareous 
sheet to be formed in mid air as it would be for a sheet of ice to 
be formed without resting on the water. From some cause or 
other this ancient stalagmite has been in part broken up, and 
the materials by which it has been supported have disappeared. 
That, however, even prior to its formation, animals dwelt in the 
cave, is proved by the bones which are imbedded in the large 
fallen masses. Moreover, there is reason to believe that certain 
fragments of bone and splinters of teeth, remarkable for their 
mineralisation, that have been found in the earth now occupying 
the cavern, were derived from this more ancient deposit ; for 
they differ essentially from the remains with which they are 
now associated, being heavier and of a more crystalline struc- 
ture. Some splinters have assumed the fracture of green-sand 
chert. So hard, indeed, was one of the canines of bear, that it 
has been splintered by the hand of man into the form of a flint- 
flake, and has evidently been used for a cutting purpose. Its 
fracture proves that it was mineralised before it was splintered; 
and as it was found in the present cave earth, it must have been 
fashioned while the cave was being inhabited by palaeolithic 
man, prior to the accumulation of the earth. For these reasons 
the evidence in favour of these denser remains having belonged 
to the deposit wliich once supported the ancient floor seems to 
me incontrovertible. This view opens up an entirely new field 
fnr investigation as to the discovery of the sabre-toothed tiger, 
for it is very possible that this pliocene mammal may really 
belong to the older cave earth, and not to the more modern, in 
wliich the remains of the jiostglacial mammoth, woolly rhino- 
“ Tlritibh Association Reports,” 1800, pp. 45. 
