241 
himself cut the head of it off to lay down a sleeper for the tramway, he said,— 
‘ The man was sent for, and on his arrival he declared that the tree pointed 
out was the one he had cut.’ Professor Owen goes on to say— and we 
should mark this, — ‘ It was endeavoured to be explained that that was im- 
possible, as the place had not been excavated before ’ (it had got covered up 
again since its first excavation), ‘but looking,’ said Professor Owen, ‘with 
supreme contempt upon the assembly of geologists and engineers, the man 
persisted in the identification of his own work, and exclaimed, “ The top of 
the tree must be somewhere ; ” upon which,’ says Professor Owen, ‘ I offered 
half-a-crown to the first navvy who would produce it. Away ran half a 
dozen of them, and in a few moments they returned with the top. Never,’ 
said Professor Owen, ‘had I so narrow an escape from introducing “a new 
discovery ” into science, and never had I a more fortunate escape.’ ” 
The Chairman. — Perhaps Mr. Mello would not mind pointing out what 
he wishes us to remark in the specimens he has brought here. 
Mr. Mello. — These rude implements of quartzite [showing them] 
are from the very lowest deposits. They are quartzite pebbles that were 
taken into the cave by the men who resorted to it, and were used, some as 
scrapers, very similar to those now used by the Esquimaux for cleaning 
skins, while others were used as hammers, probably for crushing bones, in 
order that the marrow might be extracted, there are a few flakes struck off 
the pebbles, and other marks of bruising on the face of them produced 
either by fracturing bones or breaking other stones — probably the 
latter. The marks are very fresh in appearance ; this one [holding it 
up] bears marks as fresh as if they were done yesterday. This [show- 
ing another] is one of the stone implements of a material similar 
to the iron ores that are now being smelted in Derbyshire. These 
[showing others] are the higher type of the flint implements. All 
these high-class implements, together with the bone implements, are 
from the breccia, or the upper cave-earth ; in fact, the breccia and upper 
cave-earth are one and the same : where the cave-earth is thin the breccia is 
thick, and vice versa. W hile the breccia was accumulating there can be little 
doubt that the thick part of the cave-earth was forming, and above that we 
get the Eoman remains. This [producing it] is a solitary bit of Samian ware 
that I got, and then there were fragments of ruder Roman pottery of a very 
rough character. This [showing it] is the jaw of one of the devourers 
of the other animals, — the lower jaw of a young hyaena, — and I have proof 
that it was not imported from a great distance, but must have actually lived 
in the neighbourhood of the cave, for I have the jaw of a young hyaena 
showing the canine teeth coming through the jaw. Here [showing the jaw] 
you have the permanent teeth coming through, and the deciduous teeth on 
the point of being pushed out, while in the old grandfathers of the hyaenas 
visiting the cave we have the teeth worn down to mere stumps. We have 
the same evidence of other extinct animals breeding in this country, for in the 
same cave we find the teeth of the baby mammoth not bigger than the top of 
my thumb, with other teeth 20 inches long [exhibiting them]. The Neolithic 
