4 and 5, attained a depth of nine feet in places, and con-
tained angular fragments of the parent limestone. Through-
out this deposit, chiefly, however, near its inner limits, and
even to within a foot of the surface, were strewn indis-
criminately fragments of bones and broken or entire molars
of the large and pigmy elephants, along with recent land-
shells, and the bones and teeth of great dormice.^

Below this superficial deposit we came on a shelf of
stalagmite, which at the entrance was only a few inches in
thickness (see Fig. 4, b), but at the farther extremity (Fig. 6,
b) presented large dependent pillars of stalactite.* In, but
chiefly below, them, the objects of my researches lay in the
greatest numbers. This mine of fossil treasures extended
from the entrance (ground plan, Fig. 5 a) throughout the
entire length, increasing towards the dU'de-sac, where they
attained their maximum as to numbers and perfection of the
specimens.
^ The exuvuB found here were not generally ao well preserved as in
the clay of the lower deposits. Many of the elephant molars, however,
becoming inorusted with a stalagmitic covering, preserved remarkable
freshness, whilst the snails seemed under the same conditions as if they
had been buried only for a few months.
2 These, and the finding of large masses of the rock among the over-
lying drift, disposed nie to think that the cavity had at one time been
either wholly or partially covered over— certainly not, however, altogether
when the animal remains were being conveyed thereinto.
