•SVrEvERARD Home's account , & c . 177 
Mr. Whitby began to quarry here, 100 feet had been quar- 
ried into the cliff, so that i6>o feet was the distance between 
the cavern and the original edge of the cliff ; in all other 
directions the quarries consist of compact lime-stone to a 
great extent. The workmen came to this cavern by blasting 
through the solid rock, and at the depth in the rock at which 
it was met with, the surrounding lime-stone being every 
where equally strong, and requiring the same labour to 
quarry it; Mr. Whitby saw no possibility of the cavern hav- 
ing had any external communication, through the rock in 
which it was enclosed. 
The cavern was quarried within about a foot of its bottom, 
the lower clay was not all cleared out, but the bottom was 
sounded by an iron crow, and rock was every where met 
with. 
Many such caverns, Mr. Whitby says, have been met 
with in these quarries, and, in some instances, the rock on 
the inside was crusted with stalactite ; but nothing of that 
kind was met with in the cavern in which the bones were 
found ; so that there is no proof that any opening in the 
rock from above had been closed by infiltration. 
The quarry in which this cavern was met with, is directly 
opposite the place where Mr. Whitby lands, every time he 
visits the quarries, and therefore his attention was more natu- 
rally drawn to it than to any of the others ; and as, in the 
contract of quarrying, there are two prices, one for rock, 
another for clay-earth and rubbish, and two officers attend, 
one, for the crown, and the other on the part of the con- 
tractors, who measure the contents of all caverns that contain 
clay, or other soft materials, it is only necessary to mention 
mdcccxvii. A a 
