Fourth Report of the Committee, consisting of Sir JOHN LUBBOCK, Bart., Prof. PRESTWICH, Prof. BUSK, Prof. T. M'K. HUGHES, Prof. W. BOYD DAWKINS, Prof. MIALL, Rev. H. W. CROSSKEY, and Mr. R. H. TIDDEMAN, appointed for the purpose of assisting in the Exploration of the Settle Caves (Victoria Cave). Drawn up by R. H. TIDDEMAN, Reporter.

THE Committee have to report that work has been carried on at the Victoria Cave throughout the year, with the exception of the interval from the 24th December, 1875, to January 3rd, 1876, and that the Settle Local Committee have expended during the year ending August 13th, 1876, the sum of £90 13s. 3d., besides the grant of £100 entrusted to them by the British Association.

A considerable amount of work has been done in the course of the year in excavating the central chamber A and that which lies to the right of it, called D. These, though formerly separate chambers, are now seen to form one large one. They consisted at first of mere spaces between the roof and the cave deposits, which had not been filled up entirely by the latter, branching off from one another and merely communicating at the bifurcation. From the lowering of the deposits by excavation, they now form only one large and long entrance-hall to the remainder of the cavern, and the old line of demarcation can now only be distinguished on the present ceiling by the following circumstance. Chamber A cuts higher into the roof than chamber D, and is marked off from it by a line of joint, along which a thick bed of limestone has fallen down on to the floor in chamber A, but still forms the roof of chamber D. This huge block, which extended a distance of about 60 feet, from about Parallel 15 to 44, at the extreme end of chamber A, has given us great trouble in the course of the year, partly from its size, and also because, being fissured by cracks here and there and lying on a clayey layer, it was subject to successive slips. Considerable downfalls threatened from time to time, and these had to be anticipated by quarrying it away. The large body of laminated clay which has been described in former reports ended off for the most part against this block towards the north, and must have been deposited against it. This is the mass of laminated clay which overlay the bone-beds containing the older mammals Elephas antiquus, Rhinoceros leptorhinus, Hippopotamus, Hyæna, and others, with Man.

There can be no doubt now, to whatever agents the formation of that interesting deposit be due, that there are somewhat similar beds also underlying that Pleistocene bone-bed in places. From about 2 feet Parallel 10 as far as present workings inwards at Parallel 30 an exceedingly dark, tough, waxy clay lies below that layer. It varies much in thickness, from 7 or 8 feet on the right or east side of the cavern to lesser dimensions towards the west, and eventually loses itself amongst large fallen blocks of limestone on the left.

A thin layer of stalagmite, varying from 8 inches to a mere film, occurs at the base of the above clay. It is often very fibrous, and in some places it has a distinctly greenish hue. At the suggestion of the Committee, Dr. Marshall Watts kindly analyzed it; and his report is as follows:

"The mineral is as nearly as possible pure Calcium Carbonate. It contains no Phosphoric Acid. Its specific gravity is 2.879; that of Calcspar varies from 2.70 to 2·75, and of Arragonite from 2.92 to 3.28, so that for a noncrystalline deposit of stalagmite the agreement is sufficiently close.

(Signed) W. M. WATTS."

To return to our section. Here and there this stalagmite rises into small bosses, showing that its existence was mainly owing to the dripping of water from the roof. It forms a kind of dotted line of demarcation between the dark clay above and the layer next to be described beneath.

The bed beneath this stalagmite is somewhat like the dark clay above it in arrangement, but is not of so fine a texture. Its colour is much lighter, a yellowish brown. It is somewhat sandy, presents on digging a rougher section than the waxy lustre of the dark clay above, and is more clearly laminated, though the laminations in it are wider apart. This clay appears to follow the upper surfaces of the fallen blocks on which it rests, and is rudely parallel with them. We find that as these blocks rise in successive steps towards the south-west, so this clay rises on them, and covers them continuously at higher and higher levels.

There is one point about this lower light-brown laminated clay which is of much interest; channels appear to have been formed in it. Hollow troughs occur, which may perhaps be due to its subsidence through chinks in the rocks beneath, or they may have been formed by little streams of water cutting out channels subsequently to the formation of the main mass of it. However they were formed, the thin overlying stalagmite appears to have made a thin coating over their walls simultaneously with the like formation on the flatter surfaces between them. The overlying dark waxy clay, on minute examination, is seen to dip into these cavities sometimes at a considerable angle. It is only possible to see this lamination when the clay is cut with a clean knife; the spade obliterates the bedding. This arrangement of the layers at the sides of the trough would seem to point rather to our first hypothesis of their formation as being the more probable.

It has been suggested in former reports that the laminated clay which lies above the Hyæna-bed may possibly be the result of a deposit from glacier water at the time of the ice-sheet, it being now distinctly proved that the animals whose bones occur some distance beneath it existed in that district at a time prior to that cold period. The chief evidences for this last consist of (1) the superposition of the boulder-deposits at the entrance of the cave upon the edges of the bone-bed, and (2) the total removal of the remains of these animals from the open ground in those particular areas where direct evidence of the former extension of an ice-sheet exists.

We must not forget, however, that further south and east the same animals are found in the river-gravels under such circumstances as imply that a cold period occurred also previous to their ranging through the country, the gravels being of later age than certain glacial beds in the south and east of England. These facts imply that the animals whose bones are found in the lowest known bone-beds in the Victoria Cave lived in this country in the course of a well-marked interval between two periods of extreme cold, and that the earlier left traces of its effects further south than the later. It is therefore within the limits of possibility that this lower waxy laminated clay is a representative in time of some of the earlier glacial beds of the south-east of England. The subject, however, is an extremely wide one, and our present knowledge of the age and succession of the drifts must receive many additions before such an hypothesis can be either proved or disproved.

Bronze Objects.-The Romano-Celtic layer is probably now completely eliminated from Chamber A. That portion of the present large entrancehall which we used to call Chamber D was apparently never occupied by the folk who used the bronze articles. Chamber B, that to the left of

Chamber A, may still, perhaps, contain some relics of that period; but we have not worked in that chamber for some years; our finds of articles of that age are consequently rare and exceptional. On the 12th of February, 1876, whilst blasting and removing a portion of the huge fallen mass of limestone already referred to, a bronze harp-shaped fibula was found, in good preservation, with traces of its iron pin. It was in Parallel 16, 5 feet left of the datum-line, and at a depth of 9 feet, below a chink in the limestone block; and, as Mr. Jackson suggests, there is every probability of its having fallen down the crack from above. Whether dropped there by one of the cave refugees, or fallen down a crack which had been enlarged by the settlement of the blocks consequent on the explorations, is immaterial. It was certainly far below its natural level, and the block of limestone beneath which it was found extended up to the Romano-Celtic floor.

Another object in bronze was found during the year upon the old upper tip. It is in the form of an ovate leaf, with a broad midrib and rude veining; the apex of the leaf is broken off. Where the leaf-stalk would be is a quadrate expansion pierced with a rivet-hole. It is 1.5 inch long and 1.1 inch broad, and curved in the direction of its length.

Animal Remains.-Professor Busk has again kindly examined the bones, and given their determination in a register. He remarks:

"As usual, the collection is chiefly interesting on account of the large proportion of Ursine remains, some of which, as you will perceive, I am inclined to assign to Ursus spelaus; but most belong to the ferox type, whilst some few could not be well distinguished from Ursus arctos. Some of the bones are remarkably perfect, and have the same polish as that already recorded. The only addition to the former fauna, if I remember rightly, is Mustela martes. There is also a remarkably small fox, but not Canis lagopus.

(Signed) G. BUSK." Amongst the remains returned by Prof. Busk is a lower jaw of Weasel. This was found in the Lower Cave-earth, beneath the boulders; so that that is another addition, besides the Marten, to our list of animals from the early Pleistocene layer.

In speaking of the animals found, the place of honour necessarily falls to the Hyana--not by reason of the number of his remains discovered, but because to him we are indebted for by far the larger number of bones of other animals introduced. It is, indeed, singular to note that, notwithstanding the abundant evidence of his presence, from the characteristically gnawed and cracked bones of other animals, we have hardly any remains of him this year except teeth. There can, indeed, be scarcely a doubt that a dead hyæna was as acceptable to his survivors as the carcass of any other beast.

Of Bear we have found a fine series of tusks. We have already given Prof. Busk's remarks upon them. A very large humerus, which he attributes to the Grisly Bear, was found in Parallel 21, at a depth of 12 feet. From the way in which its proximal extremity has been gnawed off, and some of its more prominent ridges removed, there can be no doubt that it was coexistent with Hyæna. Some remains of very young Bears have been found-so young, indeed, as to make it doubtful whether they ever had an independent existence.

Of Rhinoceros we have a femur, found in Parallel 36, at a depth of 7 ft. 6 in. It has been gnawed, as such bones always are, by the Hyæna, and to the usual extent. Several exceedingly fine teeth of Rhinoceros have been found since the bones were submitted to Prof. Busk, and their determination must be for the present postponed. A lower premolar 4 of Rhinoceros, which was the

first of that animal found in the cave, together with the human fibula, and hitherto supposed to be R. tichorinus, is now considered by Prof. Busk to be R. leptorhinus.

Of Deer found this year we have several. One is a base of an antler with brow-tine (Cervus tarandus), but the species is marked as doubtful; another tine is doubtfully referred to C. elaphus; another is a fragment of a very large antler, and no species is assigned to it; also there is a patella of a very large deer, which was near the surface.

Of Goat several remains have been found; and it would almost seem possible, from the depth to which some of them occur, that this animal may have existed in Britain at an earlier age than has usually been assigned to it; but we cannot put forward this idea confidently without further confirmation. One humerus of an exceedingly small Goat has cuts upon it which are evidently human workmanship; but there are circumstances which render it desirable to reserve any further remarks upon it to a future occasion.

In our last year's report we called attention to the existence in the Victoria Cave of a "fauna which we may confidently assign to a cold climate, separated in some parts, by an accumulation of deposits 12 feet or more in thickness, from an earlier one, which is equally characteristic of high temperatures; whereas in another part of the cave not far off, where the material to separate them is wanting, we have animals from icy and tropical countries intermingled in a confusion which would be puzzling did we not get the clue hard by." We remarked that it was evident that the separation was natural and regular, the mixture abnormal and accidental. "As distinguished from the lower bed, the chief characteristics of the upper were the presence of the Reindeer, and the absence of Elephant, Rhinoceros, Hippopotamus, and Hyæna." These remarks were made solely on the evidence which passed through your present reporter's hands since he undertook to conduct the exploration of the cavern. Prof. W. Boyd Dawkins has kindly written to remind us that Reindeer was found in the lower cave-earth, below the laminated clay, when he had charge of the explorations, and he has no doubt that it was dragged in by Hyænas. The Hyæna-bed at that spot, viz. the mouth of the cavern, was at a depth of 16 feet below the laminated clay; and your reporter had an impression that the Reindeer-remains occurred at some height above the Hyæna-bed. Be that as it may, Prof. Dawkins's opinion is entitled to great weight, and is, indeed, the view generally held. At the same time, considering that Hyæna and Reindeer are not uncommonly found together in caves, when, as in this case, we see them mixed together at one or both ends of a section but separated through an interval of 70 feet in length by a thickness of deposits, we may regard the fact as at least an interesting one, and, when found, noteworthy.

The excavations still throw light upon how the Cave was formed. As far as we have yet worked at the present level, the right wall of the cave is seen to have been hollowed out by streams. Several grooves occur, indicating water-levels; but, except quite at the entrance, we have not got down to the ancient floor. We are already working in deposits which are probably of greater age than the older Thames gravels. The river is now running 900 feet below us. What earlier records we may disentomb we cannot tell; we must work on and wait.

Report on Observations of Luminous Meteors during the year 1875-76, by a Committee, consisting of JAMES GLAISHER, F.R.S., R. P. GReg, F.G.S., F.R.A.S., C. BROOKE, F.R.S., Prof. G. FORBES, F.R.S.E., WALTER FLIGHT, D.Sc., F.G.S., and Prof. A. S. HERSCHEL, M.A., F.R.A.S.

[PLATE IV.]

THE principal subjects of discussion in the present Report are, as they have been in former years, the descriptions of meteors and meteor-showers of which the Committee has received information during the interval of a year which has elapsed since the presentation of the last Report.

Of such materials a large supply has as usual been contributed to, or has been sought for by, the Committee. Most of the appearances described are fireballs of an occasional character, some of which have given rise to a good deal of remark and scientific discussion in the public journals of the day, both from the exceptional character of brightness and from the quick repetitions of their occurrence.

Large fireballs were seen on the 3rd, 7th, and 14th of September last, which were observed over such a considerable extent of country as to allow of their real heights and paths to be calculated with a somewhat unusual degree of accuracy. The paths of these meteors were calculated by Captain G. L. Tupman, of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich; and very satisfactory conclusions were arrived at as to the probable meteor-showers or systems to which these large fireballs, two of which were detonating, appear pretty certainly to have belonged.

Other instances have occurred where bright fireballs have been seen at several points in England sufficiently far apart, and have been observed with sufficient accuracy to lead to definite although not generally more than very rough determinations of their actual heights, velocities, and directions. One of the largest of these bolides was seen in bright sunshine on the 22nd of December, 1875; another of great brilliancy was noticed on the evening of July 25th, 1876: of these meteors, as only a few well-recorded descriptions were obtained, the probable real paths are only generally indicated, or have only hitherto been provisionally computed. Meteors of this conspicuous character appeared also on the 16th of August, 1875, and on the 15th of April, 11th, 13th, 15th, and 21st of August in the present year. Some heights of shooting-stars observed in the August shower in 1874, and described in the Catalogue of last year's Report, are deduced from the observations, and are here presented as completely as the accuracy of the observations would permit.

The occurrences of meteor-showers during the past year have been very slight and ill-defined, with the exception of the August-shower displays of 1875 and of the present year. The present year's recurrence of the August shower was, however, less plentiful than has been visible for several years past, and has amounted to a real minimum of intensity of its annual apparitions.

A new general catalogue of meteor radiant-points, with an accompanying key-map, compiled during the past year by Mr. Greg, appears in the Report, and a valuable contribution of reviews of the past year's records and examinations of aërolites (of which the many remarkable occurrences continue to increase in scientific importance year by year), by Dr. Flight, concludes its pages. One of the most interesting of such events, it will be recollected, took place this year in England, when a mass of iron weighing 7 lbs. fell at Rowton, near the Wrekin; and this, it may be observed, is only the seventh instance where a mass of metallic iron of meteoric origin, or an aërosiderite, has actually been seen to fall. This event took place in Shropshire, at 20 minutes to 4 o'clock P.M., on April 20, 1876.