and the open Fissure in Buncombe Park. 223 
rise from the bottom of the quarry to the surface of the land, 
and are entirely filled with diluvial loam of the same kind as 
that in the caves both here and at Kirkdale, and the Manor 
Vale. It was in the upper part of one of the fissures that se- 
veral human skeletons were found and taken out in the year 
1786 , but the spot on which they occurred has been destroyed 
in continuing the workings of the quarry : they were probably 
bodies that had been interred here after a battle.” 
Open Fissure in Buncombe Park. 
u The newly discovered fissure in Duncombe Park differs from 
those we have been last describing, in the circumstance of its 
being of postdiluvian origin ; it contains no diluvial sediment 
and no pebbles, and has within it the remains of animals of ex- 
isting species only, and these in a much more recent and more 
perfect state of preservation than the bones at Kirkdale. It is a 
great irregular crack or chasm, in the solid limestone rock, 
which forms a steep and lofty cliff on the right side of the val- 
ley of the Rye, being in that most beautiful valley of denuda- 
tion which descends from Rivaulx Abbey through Duncombe 
Park to the town of Helmsley, and on the left bank of which 
are the magnificent terraces of Rivaulx Abbey, and of the 
gardens at Duncombe Park. The crack has probably been 
formed by a subsidence of part of the cliff towards the valley, 
and terminates upwards near its edge in a small aperture, about 
twenty feet long and three or four feet broad, which is almost 
concealed and overgrown with bushes, and which being nearly 
at right angles to the edge of the cliff, lies like a pitfall across 
the path of animals that pass that way. It decends obliquely 
downwards, and presents several ledges or landing places and 
irregular lateral chambers, the floors of which are strewed over 
with loose angular fragments of limestone, fallen from the sides 
and roof, and with dislocated skeletons of animals that have 
from time to time fallen in from above and perished. One of 
Mr Duncombe's game-keepers had been for many years aware 
of the existence of bones in this chasm, but had never mention- 
ed it till my second visit to Duncombe Park, when we examined 
it, descending by means of a rope, and found it to contain the 
skeletons of dogs, sheep, deer, goats, and hogs, lodged at van- 
