THE CATTEDOWN BONE CAVE. 
17 
clayey, but not compact — quite distinct from the spoil, and a 
genuine cave-earth; and though the walls of the fissure were 
coated with stalactite, no stalagmite was seen. With the excep- 
tion of a fragment of a human humerus and some teeth, only 
bones of ox and hog were found in the lower excavation; and 
these in small quantity. 
The filling in the intermediate part of the fissure, connecting 
the two chambers, was next dug out to a depth of two feet, where 
it narrowed to a mere crack, and with somewhat better fortune — 
remains of ox, deer, wolf, hyaena, and man being found, with a 
coprolite. Fragments of what had the appearance of being 
coprolitic matter had been noticed in the breccia, but nothing 
clearly identifiable. 
A return was then made to the entrance of the northern 
chamber, and sinking resumed, this time with important issues, 
in material generally resembling that of the concrete-floor, which 
was indeed only its upper and more consolidated portion. 
The fissure was quickly found to open into what at first 
appeared a lower chamber. It did not narrow so rapidly or 
so much as elsewhere, and at a depth of four feet began to expand, 
eventually widening on the east, where the rock overhung, to 
a width of eight feet. Instead of a lower chamber, it was in 
reality a continuation of the upper on the dip of the strata. This 
was then excavated to a depth of fifteen feet below the quarry 
floor, without reaching the bottom. Southward it was found 
to be closed, save for the jointing ; but that an open crevice 
continued to the sea was evident from the fact that at spring tides 
the water found its way into the excavation. The total depth of 
material excavated from the top of the fissure to the bottom 
of this chamber was twenty-seven feet, and of this twenty 
were more or less ossiferous. 
A noteworthy fact about this chamber was, that while the 
upper part of its southern portion was filled with closely-compacted 
cave -earth, there was a considerable space unoccupied next its 
eastern or undercut side. The reason of this was perfectly plain. 
The material gradually falling from above had formed a talus, the 
upper part of the slope of which had closed the aperture before 
the space below was filled. The free face of this talus was covered 
with a thin coat of stalagmite, and at nearly the lowest depth 
VOL. X. C 
