8 
account of fossil teeth and bones 
In its interior it divides into several smaller passages, the extent of 
which has not been ascertained. In its course it is intersected by 
some vertical fissures, one of which is curvilinear, and again returns 
to the cave; another has never been traced to its termination; whilst 
the outer extremity of a third is probably seen in a crevice or fissure 
that appears on the face of the quarry, and which closes upwards 
before it leaves the body of the limestone. By removing the sedi¬ 
ment and stalactite that now obstruct the smaller passages, a farther 
advance in them may be rendered practicable. There are but two or 
three places in which it is possible to stand upright, and these are 
where the cavern is intersected by the fissures; the latter of which 
continue open upwards to the height only of a few feet, when they 
gradually close, and terminate in the body of the limestone; they are 
thickly lined with stalactite, and are attended by no fault or slip of 
either of their sides. Both the roof and floor, for many yards from 
the entrance, are composed of regular horizontal strata of limestone, 
uninterrupted by the slightest appearance of fissure, fracture, or stony 
rubbish of any kind; but farther in, the roof and sides become irre¬ 
gularly arched, presenting a very rugged and grotesque appearance, 
and being studded with pendent and roundish masses of chert and 
stalactite; the bottom of the cavern is visible only near the entrance; 
and its irregularities, though apparently not great, have been filled up 
throughout to a nearly level surface, by the introduction of a bed of 
mud or loamy sediment, the history of which, and also of the stalac¬ 
tite, I shall presently describe*. (See Plate II. fig. 2.) 
* For a full explanation of the terms stalactite, stalagmite, and breccia, which 
I shall frequently make use of, I beg to refer my readers to Dr. Kidd’s Outlines of 
