Further Explorations in the Dowkerbottom Caves in Craven

Abstract

Being desirous of making some further explorations in the Dowkerbottom Cave, or rather Caves—for, in its present state, it is divided into two chambers, one being to the east and the other to the west—I caused fresh excavations to be made in these two compartments during the month of October, 1863; and as the results of these explorations were productive of some objects of more than ordinary interest, I shall briefly enumerate the specimens so obtained, as also the superposition of the deposits passed through. On the surface of the western chamber was a deposit of 14 inches of rubbish, composed of broken stones, earth, and charcoal, in which were found fragments of two kinds of pottery—one, of a coarse black earth, and very rude manufacture; the other, an apparently inferior Samian ware, and a bone needle, about 3 inches in length. Below this deposit was a bed of pure clay, 18 inches in thickness, at the bottom of which, and upon a stratum of very soft stalagmite 3 feet 2 inches thick, were the antlers and bones of the red deer, portions of skulls and bones of the short-horned ox, roebuck, wild boar, primitive dog, fox, &c.: this layer of soft stalagmite rested upon a bed of excessively hard stalagmite 8 inches in thickness, upon which lay the nearly perfect skeleton of a very fine specimen of the gigantic red deer, with antlers of great beauty. An excavation was next made to the depth of 6 ...