DISCOVERY OF BONES.

The pit had been first entered only a short time before I examined it by
Mr. Rankin, to whose assistance in these researches I am much indebted.
He went down by means of a rope to one landing-place and then, fixing the
rope to what seemed a projecting portion of rock, he let himself down to
another stage where he discovered, on the fragment giving way, that the
rope had been fastened to a very large bone, and thus these fossils were
discovered. The large bone projected from the upper part of the breccia,
the only substance which supported as well as separated several large
blocks, as shown in the accompanying view of the cave (Plate 45) and it
was covered with a rough tuffaceous encrustation resembling mortar. No
other bone of so great dimensions has since been discovered within the
breccia. (See Figures 12 and 13, Plate 51.)

From the second landing-place we descended through a narrow passage
between the solid rock on one side and huge fragments chiefly supported
by breccia on the other, the roof being also formed of the latter and the
floor of loose earth and stones.

SMALL CAVITY AND STALAGMITIC CRUST.

We then reached a small cavern ending in several fissures choked up with
the breccia. One of these crevices (K. Plate 44) terminated in an
oven-shaped opening in the solid rock (Plate 50) and was completely
filled in the lower part with soft red earth which formed also the floor
in front of it and resembled that in the large cavern already described.
Osseous breccia filled the upper part of this small recess and portions
of it adhered to the sides and roof adjoining, as if this substance had
formerly filled the whole cavity. At about three feet from the floor of
this cavity (Plate 50) the breccia was separated from the loose earth
below by three layers of stalagmitic concretion, each about two inches
thick and three apart; and they appeared to be only the remains of layers
once of greater extension, as fragments of stalagmite adhered to the
sides of the cavity as shown in Plate 50. The spaces between what
remained of these layers were filled with red ochreous matter and bones
embedded partially in the stalagmite. Those in the lower sides of the
layers were most thickly encrusted with tuffaceous matter; those in the
upper surfaces on the contrary were very white and free from the red
ferruginous ochre which filled the cavities of those in the breccia,
although they contained minute transparent c