10 ACCOUNT OF FOSSIL TEETH AND BONES 
lodged in their cavities, at periods long subsequent to the formation 
and consolidation of the strata in which these cavities occur. 
On entering the cave at Kirkdale (see Plate IT. fig. 2), the first 
thing observed was a sediment of soft mud or loam, covering entirely 
its whole bottom to the average depth of about a foot, and concealing 
the subjacent rock, or actual floor of the cavern. Not a particle of 
mud was found attached either to the sides or roof; nor was there a 
trace of it adhering to the sides or upper portions of the transverse 
fissures, or any thing to suggest the idea that it entered through 
them. The surface of this sediment when the cave was first 
opened was nearly smooth and level, except in those parts where its 
regularity had been broken by the accumulation of stalagmite above 
it, or ruffled by the dripping of water: its substance is an argillaceous 
and slightly micaceous loam, composed of such minute particles as 
would easily be suspended in muddy water, and mixed with much cal¬ 
careous matter, that seems to have been derived in part from the 
dripping of the roof, and in part from comminuted bones. At about 
100 feet within the cave’s mouth the sediment became more coarse 
and sandy, and partially covered with an incrustation of black man¬ 
ganese ore. 
Above this mud, on advancing some way into the cave, the roof 
and sides were found to be partially studded and cased over with a 
coating of stalactite, which was most abundant in those parts where 
the transverse fissures occur, but in small quantity where the rock is 
compact and devoid of fissures. Thus far it resembled the stalactite 
of ordinary caverns ; but on tracing it downwards to the surface of 
the mud, it was there found to turn off at right angles from the sides 
