pe I found that the water was very transparent but unfit to drink,
having a disagreeable, brackish flavour.

This lower cavern is much contracted by stalactites and stalagmites.
After having broken through some hollow-sounding portions (at O and N) we
entered two small lateral caverns and in one of these, after cutting
through (at I) about eight inches of stalagmitic floor, we discovered the
same reddish earth. We dug into this deposit also, but discovered no
pebbles or organic fragments; but at the depth of two and a half feet met
with another stalagmitic layer which was not penetrated. This fine red
earth or dust seems to be a sediment that was deposited from water which
stood in the caves about 40 feet below the exterior surface; for the
earth is found exactly at that height both towards the entrance of the
first cavern and in the lateral caverns. (See Plate 44.)

That this cave had been enlarged by a partial sinking of the floor is not
improbable, as broken stalagmitic columns, and pillars like broken
shafts, once probably in contact with the roof, are still apparent. (See
the view of the largest cavern Plate 43.)

OF THAT CONTAINING OSSEOUS BRECCIA.

Eighty feet to the westward of this cave is the mouth of another of a
different description. Here the surface consists of a breccia full of
fragments of bones; and a similar compound, confusedly mixed with large
blocks of limestone, forms the sides of the cavity. This cave presents in
all its features a striking contrast to that already described. Its
entrance is a sort of pit, having a wide orifice nearly vertical, and its
recesses are accessible only by means of ladders and ropes. Instead of
walls and a roof of solid limestone rock we found shattered masses
apparently held together by breccia, also of a reddish colour and full of
fragments of bones. (Plate 45.) The opening in the surface appears to
have been formed by the subsidence of these rocks at the time when they
were hurled down, mixed with breccia, into the position which they still
retain. Bones were but slightly attached to the surface of this cement,
as if it had never been in a very soft state, and this we have reason to
infer also from its being the only substance supporting several large
rocks and at the same time keeping them asunder. On the other hand we
find portions of even very small bones, and also small fragments of the
limestone, dispersed through this cementing substance or breccia.

FIRST