THE CATTEDOWN BONE CAVE. 
15 
The sketch annexed, from a photograph by Mr. D. Koy, shows 
this northern chamber with the loose material removed and the 
stalagmi tic-breccia exposed. 
Under the direction of Mr. Eobert Burnard a hole was bored 
in the rock at the back of this mass to blast it out, and was 
charged and fired in my presence on the 29th of April, 1887. 
A great many bones were then exposed to view, coated with or 
imbedded in stalagmite, but mostly fragmentary. The stalagmitic 
floor was found to have varied in thickness from an inch to a foot, 
and while the walls of the fissure were for the most part coated 
with stalactite (which at one point had cemented a mass of stones 
firmly to the side), the rock immediately beneath the inner edge of 
the floor was perfectly clear. The breccia therefore was, at least 
in part, of older date than the stalactite, as well as the stalagmite, 
with which it was associated ; while the copious flow of stalactitic 
matter on all accessible portions of the walls was another proof 
that after the bones had been deposited the cavern had remained 
a cavity. The integrity of the breccia was clear. 
Immediately after the blast I myself took out from what had 
been the heart of the stalagmitic mass, portions of a human skull, 
and a human molar tooth with a fragment of jaw attached, asso- 
ciated with the remains of the hyaena, wolf, red-deer, and roe-deer. 
Other fragments of the skull were subsequently found imbedded 
in the stalagmite. 
When this breccia had been removed to the quarry level — which 
left, as was afterwards found, a small quantity beneath at the 
inner end of the fissure — a trench was dug two feet deep at the 
entrance of the northern chamber, and the material removed to 
this depth right away to the back. The outer part of this section 
was wholly distinct in character to the stalagmitic-breccia, consist- 
ing of small angular stones and chocolate-coloured clay — a cave- 
earth — so tightly compacted as to resemble concrete. Hence it 
obtained the casual name of the "concrete-floor." In the end this 
in part gave place to the more open breccia, infiltrated with stalag- 
mite. A small portion on the same level next the eastern side 
consisted, however, of a close granular stalagmite, with angular 
fragments of stone ; and this gradually thickened and broadened 
northward, and eventually occupied the extreme northern end of 
the fissure almost to the lowest point excavated. 
