2. THE SEPULCHRAL CAVE.

While the cairn was being explored my attention was attracted to a fox-earth at the base of a low scarp of limestone 141 feet to the south-west of the cairn. It occupied a position which I have almost invariably found to indicate the presence of a cavern used by foxes, badgers, and rabbits as a place for shelter. I therefore resolved to explore this, with the assistance of Mr. P. G. Pochin. The fox-earth led us into a cave completely blocked up at the entrance by earth and stones (Figs. 4, 5, 6) and large masses of limestone, which had fallen from the ledge of rock above. This accumulation of débris occupied a space 19 feet in width, and extended along the whole front of the cavern (see Fig. 4).

We began operations by cutting two driftways, down to the surface of the rock. We then proceeded to clear out the whole of the interior of the cavern, which was filled very nearly up to the roof with débris. It consists of a wide rock-shelter, passing into a narrow passage at the north-eastern and north-western ends. It faces very nearly due south. It contained deposits of various kinds and of widely different ages, the two lower being pleistocene, while the two upper yielded remains which prove that they belong to the prehistoric period. I shall consider these in some detail.

A.-The Pleistocene Strata.

On the rocky floor of the interior of the cave, strewn with large blocks of limestone, was a stiff yellow clay, No. 1 of Sections (Figs. 5, 6) from 1 to 2 feet thick, containing angular stones and pebbles, some of which are derived from rocks foreign to the district, and occurring only in the boulder clay, which lies in irregular patches on the hillsides in the neighbourhood. It contained neither the remains of man nor of the fossil mammalia found in the caves in the Vale of Clwyd.

Above this, and also within the cave, was a layer of grey clay, No. 2 of Sections, containing stones, angular and water-worn, and some of foreign derivation as before.

In addition to these there were water-worn, and in many cases perfect, remains of the following animals :

Some of these, and more especially the antlers of the reindeer, bore the teeth marks of hyænas, and had evidently belonged to animals which had fallen victims to those bone-eating carnivores. They did not, however, occur in layers on the floors, occupied at successive times by the hyænas, as I have observed in other caves, such as Wookey Hole near Wells, and the Creswell caves near Worksop. They appear to have been washed out of the original hyæna floors by the action of water, and to have been redeposited at a time later than the occupation of the cave by hyænas.

B.-The Prehistoric Accumulations.

The upper surface of the grey clay, No. 2 of the Sections, Figs. 5 and 6, passed insensibly into the accumulation above, in which the interest principally centres, as it marks the position of the ancient floor of the cave in prehistoric times. It extended nearly horizontally inwards, from a little beyond the entrance to the inner walls of the cave, composed either of limestone or of breccia. On this rested a mixed layer of red earth, broken stalactites, and stones, No. 3 of Sections, containing a mixture of refuse bones of prehistoric age together with those of pleistocene animals such as reindeer and hyæna, obviously derived from the layer below. Pieces of charcoal were scattered through its mass, together with pot-boilers and fragments of pottery. These were, however, less abundant in the lower portion (No. 3 of Sections), which was about 3 feet thick, than in the upper (No. 4 of Sections), where in some places there was sufficient charcoal to blacken the accumulation. This upper layer was about 4 feet thick at the entrance of the cave, shown in section Fig. 5,