the work. He thinks archæological remains may be found here by a carefully investigating party, and also informs me of his strong conviction that this new cave is continued in the rock, upon the other side of the valley, which, by the way, is believed to have been scooped out by glaciers; but that the entrance is at present completely choked up with rock and débris. Should this assumption prove to be correct, the original length of this darksome and tortuous waterworn tunnel must be estimated by miles. Half-a-mile's perambulation, under such circumstances, having satisfied the visitor, he emerges with infinite gusto into the pure mountain air for a few minutes, when, having in the meantime gained a still more elevated position, in a quiet grassy nook among the rocks (one thousand two hundred feet above the level of the sea), he is suddenly appalled by the apparition of two black chasms, yawning at his feet, and apparently leading into unknown regions of mystery and darkness: in short, he has reached Dowkabottom Hole. A portion of this cavern's range having lain somewhat higher than the rest, the roof has here fallen in, leaving a cave on either hand. From Dr. Whittaker's descrip-. tion it would appear that in his time the entrances were far more picturesque than we now find them; but the occasional presence of a party of excavators, under the superintendence of Mr. Hodgson of Settle, on behalf of Mr. Farrer, for weeks at a time sufficiently accounts for the disappearance of most of the ivy and ferns, which, overhanging the openings, served effectually to heighten their naturally weird aspect. The eastern chamber is of no great size; but that to the westward is spacious, and it is here that most of the antiqurian and other relics have occurred. Since the last excavations, in the autumn of 1863, and the spring of last year, it has been supposed no chance remained of a visitor's securing aught but an odd fragment of a nameless bone, as a memorial of the spot; but the writer, accustomed to make the best use of his eyes in such a

suspicious locality, found, in a crevice, a small Roman bronze nail, with fragment of Samian ware, containing a couple of letters of the potter's name, in themselves patent proof of occupation during Romano-British times. The result of Mr. Farrer's last explorations, Mr. Denny informs me, consisted of an antler of the great Irish deer (Megaceros Hibernicus), only the second known occurrence of this fine species (which has usually borne the erroneous designation of elk) in Yorkshire; a perfect skeleton of the extinct red deer; horns and a frontal bone of the roebuck; with various remains of the wild boar, wolf &c. The archæological relics then found comprised a portion of a small flint instrument and a large brass coin of Antoninus Pius, with the interesting reverse struck in commemoration of his final victory in Britain and the complete subjugation of the northern part of the island. In a stratum of soft stalagmite, in addition to the bones of the red deer, charcoal and fragments of pottery appeared, below which, in a bed of hard stalagmite, was found the skeleton of a young child, of about two and a-half years of age. The approximate date of the deposition of the last named remains, though assuredly ancient, may be regarded as somewhat doubtful.

Eight miles to the westward of the Arncliffe caves, in the parish of Giggleswick, and about 900 feet above the pleasant little town of Settle, on the Ribble, our second group of caves is situate among the Langcliffe Scaurs, which rise, terrace above terrace, in some places to the height of 1460 feet above the level of the sea-their abrupt faces, broken and fissured vertically to such an extent as greatly to resemble basaltic rocks. These columnar portions again are frequently found cracked horizontally by frost and sun. Of the higher reaches. of the scaurs, a good idea may be obtained from the illustrative plate, reduced from a painting in oil by a local artist, Miss Burrow, of Settle. The locality depicted includes the site of many caves, a fine one having been found in recent times, in

the elevated scaur of the back ground. Occurring upon the very day of the accession to the throne of these realms by our beloved Sovereign, the discovery of this cavern,-an invaluable one to geologic and archæological science-is well commemorated in the name bestowed upon it by the loyal finder, Mr. Joseph Jackson, of Settle, viz. VICTORIA. To the same. gentleman I am indebted for the loan of the larger portion of interesting objects now exhibited in illustration of my remarks; but many procured by him are now in the Leeds Museum: others formerly in the possession of Mr. Farrer, have been presented by him to the British Museum. The objects in Mr. Jackson's valuable collection have been procured at an expense of labour and patience not one in ten thousand would devote to such an object. Many an hour in many a day has been spent by this gentleman, in damp and a darkness only relieved by a solitary candle, his toil, in a necessarily uncomfortable posture, remaining wholly unrequited, whilst at distant intervals some ornament or instrument of early use, has given some zest to labour perhaps for days only buoyed by enthusiasm. His various investigations here and elsewhere have now been prolonged over thirty years, during some of which, however, operations have been suspended though never relinquished, and during this period, as still, he has to contend with the ignorance and prejudices of small local proprietors.

The Victoria is the largest of the (known) Settle caverns, and consists of two main compartments, each exceeding one hundred feet in length. It possesses several entrances, all difficult of passage; that now used by visitors lies in a recess or angle of the elevated scaur facing the west. Within this portal the visitor is necessitated for a short distance to crawl downward (feet foremost), on hands and knees, carrying his allotted candle as he can, to the more spacious vaults beyond. Here, taking a survey of " the situation," he perceives in front and to the right, the roof of apparently a spacious chamber, but

examination shews it to be filled to within two-and-a-half to three feet of the roof, with solid and most desperately tenacious clay, of unknown depth, and containing animal remains of any or every past age, whilst remaining for future ages to examine should the present one decline the task. To the left lies the entrance, cumbered by masses of rock, into a fine chamber of great height and proportionate width, where Mr. Jackson found the natural deposition of the flooring to have occurred in the following order. Upon the solid rocky bottom appeared early animal bones mixed with clay; above, in succession, hard stalagmite, clay, softer stalagmite, earth, human relics, bones, charcoal ashes, and lastly, the surface of the floor, of a loamy soil, found strewed with loose stones and bones. In other caves the lower clay resting upon the natural rock was found in places to cover archæological remains and human bones, but usually such occurred on a higher level, in fact over any great depositions of clay, and generally in a mixed stalactitic mass or crust, wet from drip and very slimy to work even in the droughty months of summer, whilst the detection of small objects under such circumstances, and by the poor light of a candle, proves difficult in the extreme; yet Mr. Jackson found here the greater portion of his best objects, inclusive of the brooches illustrated.

The entrance to Kelco cave in Giggleswick scaur, in common with others here, faces the west and, being open and lofty, is of a very different character from any I have attempted to describe, the approaches lying through a wood or plantation skirting the side of the hill opposite the village, which is so thickly grown that strangers might, and in fact do, pass within a dozen yards of the entrance without suspecting the existence of any such recess. Formerly, when exposed to the neighbouring public road, it was too much of a resort; now it is by no means easy to find. It has been examined by the proprietor, and the clay and other soil have been removed, leaving the rocky floor

ing mostly bare. Consequently the antiquarian harvest may be considered as reaped, unless, through want of sufficiently careful manipulation of the soil and clay, the mixed mass should be yet found to contain small objects which have escaped the excavator's notice. Upon poking with the point of my umbrella into what little soil remained just within the entrance, I turned out a fragment of Romano-British pottery, with white raised ornamentation upon a brownish-lead coloured ground, evidently an example of the Durobrivan or Northamptonshire ware, and singularly enough it proved to be the first specimen of this remarkable national pottery (if it may so be termed) as yet noticed in these caves. Other cavernous recesses may be visited in this neighbourhood, but in only two or three of them have human remains been found. Like the unbottomed portions of the Victoria cave they are discouragingly full, almost to the roof, of clay, the labour attendant upon the removal of which would tax a Hercules; and it is to be feared, but little prospect exists of any thorough excavation even of caves suspected to contain remains of interest. For the easier comparison of the products of the Craven caves, a synoptical table is appended, by which it will be seen that whilst in those near Arncliffe, bones of two extinct species of deer with those of the lower order of beasts of prey appear with coins of early Roman Emperors, in the Settle caverns we find relics of much earlier mammalian inhabitants, in bones of the bear, tiger and hyæna, all identified by the late Dr. Buckland and other geologists; whilst after many geological changes ancient British and Roman fabrications are found, but yet all of these below the flooring of the caves, as discovered.