OSSIFEROUS FISSURE IN THE BATTERY HILL, STONEHOUSE. 505 
many hundred cartloads had been removed. Adjoining to it, and 
opening into it, on the east, were sundry cavities—the largest 
about midway on the face of the artificial cliff, which were partially 
filled with earth evidently derived from the fissure, but which 
were partially empty—these cavities being apparently independent 
caverns, that, long subsequently to their formation, became side 
chambers to the main fissure by the removal of the rock partition 
between. | 
Concerning the length of this fissure I have no information ; 
but it extended far to the southward, if not to the face of the 
original hill-slope bounding Millbay, which is at least probable. 
Its termination northward would be about midway in the hill. In 
the fissure and in the chambers at the side, principally in the 
largest, the remains described in this paper were found. It is not 
the cavern investigated in 1865 by Mr. Spence Bate, nor had it 
any connection therewith. 
The leading characteristic of the discoveries in connection with 
this fissure has been the occurrence in small quantities, and spread 
over a comparatively long period of time, of the fragmentary 
remains of a fauna singularly varied for its quantitative extent, 
and the addition thereby to the cavern fauna of Plymouth of at 
least one species hitherto unrepresented in this locality. 
With the exception of some of the smaller bones of the ex- 
tremities, almost every bone found was more or less imperfect, and 
the bulk a mass of obscure or utterly unidentifiable fragments. 
But for the fact that teeth have been found in what by comparison 
may be termed considerable quantity, and that these for the most 
part are in a very perfect condition, little scientific value indeed 
would attach to the fissure and its contents at all. 
Not only are the bones commonly mere fragments, but to a great 
extent they are also in such a decayed and friable condition, that 
it is very easy to account for the disappearance of the major part 
of the skeletons to which they belonged. Moreover, the earth in 
places was full of minute osseous particles. 
There has been in many cases an association of remains which 
would show that the bodies of the animals originally found their 
way into the fissure intact, and that while there has been subse- 
quent disturbance and redeposition after decay, it has not been so 
extensive as to scatter the relics of individuals very far apart. The 
term “individuals” is used advisedly, for in some of its more 
