182 
there was a layer of bones and teeth about twelve inches 
thick, while in the overlying mass of stones and red earth 
they were somewhat rare. 
When the systematic exploration began, the contents of 
the cave were undisturbed except a very small area close to 
the entrance, where curiosity hunters had been looking for 
teeth and some of the workpeople had been setting traps 
for badgers. Mr. Boyd Dawkins gradually dug his way into 
the cave, and then proceeded to clear out all the deposits in 
the great chamber or antrum close to the entrance. It 
proved to be about thirty feet in width and eight feet in 
height, and about forty feet in length. It was filled with 
red earth conveyed in by water, stones that had fallen from 
the roof, and large quantities of bones and teeth of animals. 
These, for the most part, formed two or three bands gradu- 
ally coming together that evidently indicated the position 
of the old floors on which they were dropped. The frag- 
mentary and gnawed condition of the remains pointed to 
the fact that the animals to which they belonged had fallen 
a prey to the hy senas. The large quantities of coprolites 
also that occurred in the layers of bone, indicated that 
these animals dwelt in the cave. Underneath these layers 
there were flint flakes and well fashioned implements of 
flint and chert, which showed that man had been in the 
cave, to say the least, during the time that the hyaenas 
were living in the country. Numerous fragments of burnt 
bone showed that he had been kindling his fires close to 
the entrance. One fragment, which belonged to the woolly 
rhinoceros, was carbonised in such a way as to indicate that 
the bone had been burnt while it contained its gelatine. 
These traces of man were found in the undisturbed earth, 
and by no possibility could have been placed into the cave 
after it had been filled. 
As the workmen cut their way inwards the chamber 
gradually narrowed into a passage about eight feet wide, 
