Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 31.djvu/837

Rh a yard or two; and the other can only be pursued by a sidelong motion, being little over a foot wide. At several points large masses of rock have slipped and are wedged between the roof and the floor; and at other parts the roof is filled up with stalactite. At about 40 yards from the entrance progress is barred by a mass of stalagmite or rock partly closing the fissure, which here gets extremely narrow. A vertical section shows that the fissure inclines at a low angle from west to east from the top downwards. The floor slopes gently upwards and is tolerably smooth, especially near the mouth. With the kind and



able assistence of a non-geological friend, Mr. C. White, of Chesterfield, I began a thorough examination of the contents of the floor of this fissure; the result of this, as far as it has been at present carried out, I will now proceed to give.

The cutting was commenced near to the entrance of the cave; and after three days' work the following section was obtained (see figs. 3 and 4):—

The layer of surface-soil is some 6 inches thick or more at the entrance, but gets very thin further in, until a point is reached about 23 feet from the beginning of the cutting, where two large projections of rock contract part of the fissure. Behind these this layer is considerably thicker, and about 4 inches below the surface it contained a fine flint flake. All the other contents of this layer hitherto found are quite recent, being mere fragments of brown and white earthenware, bits of pipes, &c. The underlying bed of red sand proved to be very rich in bones; this I have carefully removed throughout a space 25 feet long by about 2 feet wide (being the full width of the fissure), and to its entire depth, viz. about 3 feet. There were no traces of