THE SETTLE CAVES, YORKSHIKE. 109 
theatre of limestone rock facing south led Mr. Dawkins to suspect 
that a rock -shelter may have existed where the old inhabitants 
would have cooked their food. The following strata were met 
with: — 1. Two feet of dehris of limestone rock; 2. A blackish 
bed, henceforth called the relic-bed, 18 inches thick at the entrance, 
and thinning off irregularly to nine inches as it was followed into 
the cave ; 3. A layer of debris of limestone fragments 7 feet thick j 
4. A bed of tenacious red clay. A trial hole sunk in this stratum 
within the cave passed through 13 feet without finding bottom. 
The cave, so far as it is at present explored, consists of two 
principal chambers running north and north-east. There are other 
smaller chambers, and indications of other chambers entirely filled 
up to the top, which are now being examined. The lowest stratum 
of red clay so far has been destitute of any remains at all; but 
lying on it, and between it and the 7 foot stratum of debris^ have 
been found bones of bos longifrons, the horse, red deer, and brown 
bear. Traces of human habitation are found in three small pieces 
of flint, one of them flaked by an expert hand ; these must have 
been brought from a distance : a piece of hematite, probably for 
paint : the head of a bone harpoon of a form unique in Britain, 
hut similar to some found in the Swiss lake dwellings, and to 
those used in IN'ootka Sound, there being in addition to the barbs 
two cuts like barbs in the shank pointing the opposite way to the 
barbs, probably for the purpose of more securely attaching the 
head to the wooden shaft. A few human teeth of an adult were 
also found here. The 7 foot layer of debris is quite destitute of 
remains, and soon runs out, the red clay and relic-bed being found 
inside the cave in juxtaposition. This latter, the relic-bed, con- 
tains bones of the bos longifrons, horse, pig, dog, wolf, fox, badger, 
water rat, red deer, roe deer, sheep, goat, domestic fowl, and grouse, 
and a few teeth of a child. There were also found in it a number 
of coins, some illegible, some however bearing the names of Con- 
stantine, Carausius, and Tetricns ; numerous fragments of ordinary 
Komano-British pottery ; a few fragments of Samian ware, and of 
a very coarse pottery, not made on the potter's wheel, like that 
still used in the Hebrides; a ring and bead of jet; bone and glass 
beads ; fragments of sheet glass ; a heavy ring of bronze, forming 
a bracelet, of an Irish type ; bronze finger rings ; a number of 
fibulae, some of them of common Roman types, others enam- 
elled, and others formed of spirals ; these two last being of a 
p 
