3 
was but an opening into a rock basin lying still farther to 
the north. There was no appearance of a cave, and certainly 
none connected with the fissure has ever existed to the 
south, that is, where the rock has been quarried away. This 
ba,sin and the fissure were filled with a reddish coloured 
loam, such as usually occurs in mountain limestone fissures. 
Capping this was a quantity of rubbish, derived from pre- 
vious workings of the quarry. This loam has been described 
by Mr. Plant as “ drifts originally derived from the washing 
and wearing of the shales and sandstones of the great escarp- 
ment of Mam Tor,” and as “drifted loam.” There is no 
appearance whatever of the characteristics of drift, or glacial 
action of any kind. All the fragments included in the loam 
are angular, unrolled, and of limestone. Not a trace of any 
foreign rock, even of Yoredale origin, was present. 
After clearing out the fissure, we began, in May, a sys- 
tematic exploration of the basin behind, blowing down the 
rock which formed its southern wail. We had four men at 
work for a fortnight, Mr. John Tym superintending. The 
rubbish at the top contained no pleistocene animals, and the 
loam in its upper portion afforded but few bones. But at 
about 4 feet below the surface where we first commenced 
was a truly wonderful agglomeration of mammalian relics. 
Bones and teeth of bisons, reindeer, bears, and wolves were 
turned out in the greatest abundance. Lying as they did 
in a thick, sticky loam, the work was necessarily slow, as 
great care had to be taken not to break the bones. The 
depth of the ossiferous portion of the basin averaged about 
12 feet, and about 22 cubic feet were got out. Near the 
top the specimens were rotten and ill preserved, lower down 
they were much firmer and more perfect. At the bottom 
of the fissure and near the sides of the basin, they were 
welded into a mass with included limestone fragments by 
stalagmite such as the specimens on the table. This had 
evidently been derived from the dripping of water charged 
