4 
ACCOUNT OF FOSSIL TEETH AND BONES 
extending from near this town down to Kirkham, the stoppage of 
which would at once convert the whole vale of Pickering into an 
immense inland lake; and before the excavation of which, it is pro¬ 
bable that such a lake existed, having its north border nearly along 
the edge of the belt of limestone just described, and at no great 
distance from the mouth of the cave at Kirkdale. 
The position of the cave is at the south and lower extremity of 
one of these dales (that of the Hodge Beck), at the point where it 
falls into the vale of Pickering, at the distance of about a furlong 
from the church of Kirkdale, and near the brow of the left flank of 
the valley, close to the road. This flank slopes towards the river at 
an angle of 25°, and the height of the brow of the slope above the 
water may be about 80 feet. (See Plate II. fig 1.) 
The rock perforated by the cave is referrible to that portion of 
the oolite formation which, in the south of England, is known by 
the name of the Oxford oolite and coral rag: its organic remains are 
identical with those of the Heddington quarries near Oxford, but its 
substance is harder and more compact, and more interspersed with 
siliceous matter, forming irregular concretions, beds, and nodules of 
chert in the limestone, and sometimes entirely penetrating its coral¬ 
line remains. The most compact beds of this limestone resemble the 
younger alpine limestone of Meillierie and Aigle in Switzerland; they 
alternate with and pass gradually into those of a coarser oolitic tex¬ 
ture, and both varieties are stratified in beds from one to four feet 
thick. The cave is situated in one of the compact beds which lies 
between two others of the coarser oolitic variety ; the latter vary in 
colour from light yellow to blue; the compact beds are of a dark 
