504 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
ON AN OSSIFEROUS FISSURE IN THE BATTERY 
HILL, STONEHOUSE. 
BY MR. R. N. WORTH, F.G.S5. 
Read October 9th, 1879.* 
In my paper on the bone caverns of the Plymouth district, read 
before the Plymouth Institution in February, 1879,} I recorded the 
occurrence within a few weeks previously of fragments of bone 
from the remaining portion of a cavern in the Battery Hill, Stone- 
house, which in the year 1865 had yielded to Mr. C. Spence Bate, 
F.R.8., remains of rhinoceros, horse, ox, and deer. Since then, at 
intervals extending in all over about two years, other finds have 
been made of a peculiarly interesting character. A full series of 
the most important specimens has been presented to our museum ; 
and the object of this paper is to place upon record the cireum- 
stances under which the remains were found, and to give a brief 
description of their nature. 
For many years past there had been visible on the southern face 
of the quarry a huge fissure extending from the surface of the hill- 
top to the bottom of the workings—a depth of some sixty feet— 
and probably much further. It ran at first approximately north 
and south, on the line of the north and south joints which are 
so well marked in this portion of the Stonehouse limestone, and 
was nearly perpendicular, but with a slight western underlie ; 
subsequently it turned to the north-east, with an eastern underlie. 
It varied in width at different poimts from two feet up to ten or 
twelve. It was wholly filled with earth of a surface character, in 
parts of a stiff clayey nature, of which, in the course of working, 
* This paper has been supplemented by the discoveries made since the 
above date, the full details of which are now incorporated to May, 1881. 
t+ Vide Zrans., 1878-9, pp. 87-117. 
