Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 1 (1877).djvu/390

364 of rock cemented, as sometimes happens, into a breccia as solid as the original rock, and overgrown with grass" (Phil. Trans. 1822, pp. 171–240). The conclusion I arrived at, after studying so much of the roof of the cavern of 1858 as remained intact, was that Dr. Buckland's opinion was fully borne out by the facts; that, in short, the Oreston Caverns were Fissure Caverns, not Tunnel Caverns. The cavern of 1858 was an almost vertical fissure, extending a length of about 90 feet from N.N.E. to S.S.W. It commenced at about 8 feet below the surface of the plateau, continued thence to the base of the cliff, but how much further was not known, and its ascertained height was about 52 feel. It was 2 feet wide at top, whence it gradually widened to 10 feet at bottom. The roof, judging from that part which had not been destroyed, was a mass of limestone-breccia, made up of large angular fragments, cemented with carbonate of lime, and requiring to be blasted as much as ordinary limestone. The cavern was completely filled with deposits of various kinds. The uppermost 8 feet consisted of loose angular pieces of limestone, none of which exceeded 10 tbs. in weight, mixed with a comparatively small amount of such sand as is common in dolomitised limestone districts, but without a trace of stalagmite or fossil of any kind. The 32 feet next below were occupied with similar materials, with the addition of a considerable quantity of tough, dark, unctuous clay. Between this mass and the outer wall of the cavern was a nearly vertical plate of stalagmite, usually about 2 feet thick, and containing, at by no means wide intervals, firmly cemented masses of breccia identical in composition with the adjacent bed just mentioned. The bones the cavern yielded were all found within these 32 feet; and were met with equally in the loose and the coherent breccia, as well as in the stalagmite. A somewhat considerable number of ellipsoidal balls of clay, from 1·5 to 2·5 inches in greatest diameter, occurred in the clay of this bone-bed, but not elsewhere. Still lower was a mass of dark, tough, unctuous clay, containing a very few, small, angular stones, but otherwise perfectly homogeneous, and known to be 12 feet deep, but how much more was undetermined. The osseous remains found at Oreston prior to 1858 have been described by Sir E. Home, Mr. Clift, Dr. Buckland, Prof. Owen, Mr. Busk, and others. The animals represented were Ursus priscus, U. spelæus, Weasel (?), Wolf, Fox, Cave Hyæna, Cave Lion, Rhinoceros leptorhinus, Equus fossilis, E. plicidens,