THE BONE CAVES OF THE PLYMOUTH DISTRICT. 
101 
had bones, such as of Elephant, Rhinoceros, Ox, Horse, Hyaana, 
and abundant coprolite, denoting that they had been the dens of 
Carnivora. Among them we detected the upper portion of a 
humerus of man, which was immediately thrown away upon being 
pointed out to the possessor." And he adds in a note, " This is 
not the only instance of the kind. Collectors, in the plenitude of 
ignorance and prepossession, determined that human bones were of 
no consequence."* 
Who this scientific heathen was Col. Smith does not say ; but 
the event must have happened before 1848, when the book was 
published. Mr. Bellamy and Mr. Cottle both aver distinctly, that 
up to the time when they wrote no human bones had ever been 
discovered in this connection. 
We now come to the Hoe. It is doubtful whether, in the 
ordinary acceptation of the phrase, the Hoe limestone has any 
ossiferous caverns of consequence. Caves have occurred on the 
Western Hoe, the most important of which was described by the 
Rev. R. Hennah in a communication to the Geological Society. 
He spoke of it as abounding in stalactites ; but as containing no 
bones of importance. 
There are connected with the Hoe two forms of recent deposits 
— one occurring in fissures, the other lying on water-worn shelves 
in the sea- face of the cliff. The first is clearly alluvial, due to the 
action of water which formerly flowed over the plateau, t It varies 
in character between clay, sand, and pebbly gravel, and is in the 
main clearly a detritus of Dartmoor origin. It is found on the 
very summit of the plateau, and in some of the fissures extends to 
an unknown depth. The other deposit, J now in the main removed, 
though doubt has been cast upon its character through a confusion 
of the two, was clearly a raised beach, and occurred at an average 
elevation above sea-level of about thirty feet. The contents of the 
fissures, and the materials of the raised beaches, have really nothing 
in common beyond certain casual exterior resemblances ; but these 
* pp. 95-96. 
f Vide my descriptions : " Devon. Assoc. Trans.," vol. vii. pp. 150-3 ; 
" Plym. Inst. Trans ," vol. v. pp. 472-4 ; " Quar. Jour. Geo. Soc," Aug. 
1876, p. 237. 
X Described and figured by Mr. Bellamy, "Nat. Hist. South Devon.," pp. 
lli-119. It contained marine shells, and the shells of pholades still 
remained in their borings on the shelf. 
