51. On some BONE-CAVES in CRESWELL CRAGS. By the Rev. J. MAGENS MELLO, M.A., F.G.S. With an Appendix by Professor Busk, F.R.S., F.G.S. (Read June 23, 1875.)

On the north-eastern border of Derbyshire a low range of hills, rising from the plateau of the Magnesian limestone, is somewhat abruptly cut through by a short ravine known as Creswell Crags (fig. 1). It is about a third of a mile in length, running nearly east Fig. 1.-View of Creswell Crags, looking east.

and west, and is bounded on either side by beautifully wooded cliffs, which in places are some 50 or 60 feet high. The limestone is the Lower Permian, and is very hard and massive here, with an easterly dip, which is rather difficult to trace. On either side of the ravine the crags are much fissured, the fissures now and then forming tolerable-sized caverns, opening some 15 feet or less above the level of a sheet of water that has been formed by the damming up of a small stream flowing between the crags from W. to E. Some years ago I had formed a strong wish to examine the fissures in this locality, but until lately could never find the opportunity. Last April, however, I was enabled to pay a preliminary visit to the spot. A very brief inspection sufficed to show me that it was one well worth careful exploration; and in answer to an application to His Grace the Duke of Portland, he very kindly gave me leave to carry on the work.

On the southern side of the ravine there is a cavern (Fissure C) with a large mouth; but it contracts at a very short distance in, where it has been walled up to keep out foxes, many smaller fissures being similarly protected in the locality. In this cavern, in a small hole I made for testing at the entrance, I obtained, about 3 or 4 inches below the surface, a fine piece of the leg-bone of Rhinoceros tichorhinus.

On the northern side of the ravine the fissures are more numerous and extensive. Some shallow openings at the western end have been in use quite lately, as cellars or pig-sties for some cottages recently pulled down; but a little to the east of these there is a fine fissure (A, fig. 2) with a large cavern-like entrance; this fissure, locally

called the "Pin-hole," I have begun thoroughly to explore. It penetrates some 40 or 50 yards into the hill-side, running nearly magnetic north, and is fairly horizontal. It is moderately lofty throughout a good part of its course; but a short distance from its entrance it bifurcates and becomes very narrow, the western fork being inaccessible beyond

Fig. 3.-Transverse vertical Section of the Floor of Fissure A, in Creswell Crags.

a. Surface-soil, containing fragments of recent pottery &c., 14-6 in. thick. b. Bed of red sand, with rough blocks of magnesian limestone, rolled quartz and other pebbles, and many bones, in great abundance at from 2 to 3 feet depth.

a yard or two; and the other can only be pursued by a sidelong motion, being little over a foot wide. At several points large masses of rock have slipped and are wedged between the roof and the floor; and at other parts the roof is filled up with stalactite. At about 40 yards from the entrance progress is barred by a mass of stalagmite or rock partly closing the fissure, which here gets extremely narrow. A vertical section shows that the fissure inclines at a low angle from west to east from the top downwards. The floor slopes gently upwards and is tolerably smooth, especially near the mouth. With the kind and

Fig. 4. Longitudinal Section of the Floor at the Entrance of
Fissure A, in Creswell Crags.

able assistence of a non-geological friend, Mr. C. White, of Chesterfield, I began a thorough examination of the contents of the floor of this fissure; the result of this, as far as it has been at present carried out, I will now proceed to give.

The cutting was commenced near to the entrance of the cave; and after three days' work the following section was obtained (see figs. 3 and 4):

1. Surface-soil, containing recent pottery, bones, &c.
2. Damp red sand, with rough blocks of magnesian limestone, quartz,
quartzite and other pebbles, and numerous bones

3. Lighter-coloured sand, consolidated by infiltration of lime. No
bones yet found

1-6 in.

3 feet.

(?)

The layer of surface-soil is some 6 inches thick or more at the entrance, but gets very thin further in, until a point is reached about 23 feet from the beginning of the cutting, where two large projections of rock contract part of the fissure. Behind these this layer is considerably thicker, and about 4 inches below the surface it contained a fine flint flake. All the other contents of this layer hitherto found are quite recent, being mere fragments of brown and white earthenware, bits of pipes, &c. The underlying bed of red sand proved to be very rich in bones; this I have carefully removed throughout a space 25 feet long by about 2 feet wide (being the full width of the fissure), and to its entire depth, viz. about 3 feet. There were no traces of regu

lar bedding in this sand; only here and there its character was modified by the decomposition of some of the limestone blocks. From the surface downwards bones were found in great abundance in all parts of this bed; but they were specially massed together at the bottom of it. The bones were much broken, and many of them very evidently gnawed by Hyænas, of which animals numerous teeth and fragments of the lower jaws were found. Many of the longer bones lay with their long axes parallel to the sides of the fissure, and with their heavier ends foremost. Other bones were wedged together close to the sides in masses consisting of vertebræ, parts of leg-bones, and of antlers. The bones are in various stages of preservation, some being very decomposed and fragile, others very fresh-looking, although lying side by side with them; in all probability there has been a certain amount of rearrangement of the bones at an early period by the flow of water through the fissure, which appears to have been at one time a hyæna-den. One large fragment of mammoth's bone partly extended from the sand bed into the surface-soil; and at some distance in, a fine molar of the same animal was found, about 1 foot below the top of the bed. Several very perfect molars of Rhinoceros tichorhinus and portions of antlers of deer were obtained at this point, together with some of the hyæna-jaws already mentioned; two large fragments of the leg-bones of the rhinoceros and a number of smaller leg-bones lay not very far apart near the same spot, where a huge block of limestone had apparently caused an obstruction. Where the fissure was contracted by projecting portions of rock which were partly undermined, the sand was of a very calcareous nature, being full of angular pieces of the limestone, many of which were of a soft and crumbly nature. There were not so many bones here, the few found being very fragmentary and friable; and at present very few bones have been met with at the back of the barrier. This is a thing difficult to understand upon the hypothesis of the bones having been carried into the fissure from the back, which was the opinion I had first formed, basing it upon the parallelism of the larger bones to the sides of the fissure. Professor Busk has very kindly examined and named the numerous bones found in this fissure (A), the list of which is appended to this paper.

Besides the remains of larger animals, great quantities of teeth and other bones of small rodents (Arvicola &c.) were disseminated throughout the sand, which also contained some cycloid fish-scales, and a few vertebræ of some fish.

The sand bed No. 3, on which the bone-bearing bed rests, is sharply defined from it, being much lighter in colour; it is highly calcareous and is consolidated into semiconcretionary-looking masses below the rocky barrier already alluded to. At this point I cut into it to a depth of 1 foot without finding any trace of the bones which were so abundant immediately above it. At present I have not been able to ascertain its thickness, and I have nowhere reached the bottom of the fissure.

Some hundred yards or so lower down the ravine a large cavern, "Robin Hood's Cave" (cavern B), is met with, containing four or five