There is one feature about Dadoxylon which has often struck me as being in singular contrast to what obtains in the higher cryptogams, such as the Sigillaria and Lepidodendra, and that is while in its woody structure it seems to be nearest allied to the Araucaria, which belongs to one of the lowest types of the Pine family; on the other hand, the structure of its contemporaries, the Sigillaria and the Lepidodendra, shows us that they belonged to a far higher type of cryptogams than any living at the present day. The vascular cryptograms of the Carboniferous age had already reached their climax, both in growth and in organization, from which they have. gradually dwindled down to their present lowly condition.

But if Dadoxylon was a true pine no such degradation has taken place in the Pine family, which must have remained very much in the same state of development from its first known appearance in the middle of the Devonian period through the vast length of the Carboniferous and Permian periods, and thence onwards through the great break at the end of the Carboniferous age into, and well nigh to the close of, the great Mesozoic ages.

This, however, seems to many Palæophytologists utterly incredible, and is opposed by most of the other known facts in connection with the life of the same periods; and of late years a considerable amount of doubt has arisen in the minds of some of our best fossil botanists concerning the affinities of our Dadoxylon. The weight of the evidence seems to me to be now in favour of the opinion that Dadoxylon and Cordaites belong to the same family, the cycads, and that they represent the highest type of that family, which, like the vascular cryptograms, have gradually dwindled away both in size and in organization until they have reached the insignificant forms of the present day.

Those noble Cycadean trees, Dadoxylon and Cordaites, had already reached their climax in the Carboniferous age, and appear to have gradually died out towards the end of that period.

Walchia imbricata, the first of the true pines, did not make its appearance until towards the end of the Carboniferous period. The first recorded specimen, according to Mr. R. Kidstone, F.G.S., was found a few years ago in the Upper Coal Measures. It is closely

related to the Araucaria, and first begins to hold a prominent position in the somewhat scanty flora of the Permian age. But during the Mesozoic ages the Araucaria held a similar predominant position. in the vegetable kingdom that the Dadoxylons held in the preceding Palæozic ages. So long as Dadoxylon was regarded as a true pine it appeared to afford a strong argument against the theory of evolution, but now it has been shown that its supposed affinity with the pines is based entirely upon the resemblance of its wood to that of the Araucaria, and that the structure of the whole stem, pith, wood, and bark being taken into consideration, it is seen to have more affinity with the Cycads, as seen in Cycas revoluta, than with the Araucaria; and it is found to occupy its natural place both in the vegetable kingdom and in the order of its appearance in geological time according to the theory of evolution.

EXPLORATION OF THE ELBOLTON CAVE. BY REV. E. JONES.

Exploration was continued until the end of December, 1890. The entrance to the Cave is through a shaft or pothole twenty feet in depth, situated at the foot of a small limestone scar on Elbolton, 1000 feet above sea level. The chamber, before the exploration commenced, was thirty feet long, and varied from seven to thirteen. feet in width. The floor was fairly level with the exception of a heap of stones under the entrance. On the surface nothing was observed but a few sheep bones of recent origin. The upper stratum, which varied in thickness from four feet at the east to seventeen feet at the west end of the chamber, is the only one wherein human remains have yet been found. It consisted of loose angular fragments of limestone, interspersed with large quantities of bones of the Celtic short-horn, the boar, dog, red deer, sheep, &c. The larger of the animal bones were split and broken, and were evidently used as food. Burnt bones and charcoal were found in three places. Three skeletons were discovered buried with the legs bent, and the knees close to the skull. The other human bones were more or less scattered. Most of the skulls were shattered, though two obtained from the east end are fairly preserved, and are good typical specimens of the long-head type. But the human remains obtained from the other end of the chamber and at a much lower level thirteen and fifteen feet below the floor (one lying but a few inches above the clay containing bones of the bear and reindeer) are not dolichocephalic but brachycephalic. The latter are more decayed than the others. Associated with the round-head was pottery of different character to that which was found in the other parts of the cave. It is thicker, ruder, and with a different ornamentation. The pottery found near the long-headed men was marked with straight lines, in some cases cutting one another and forming a diamond-shaped ornamentation, in others going in and out without intersecting, forming a "herringbone" pattern. Others had impressions made by some rounded bone tool. But the pottery found near the remains of the round-head is ornamented with wedge-shaped characters made with an angular

tool. Both kinds of pottery were made from clay similar to that found in the cave, and both kinds were hand-fashioned without wheel, and charred and burned from the inside. No flints or metal of any kind have been found in the cave. The only objects obtained have been bone pins and a few other worked bones. From the position where this brachycephalic skull was found and from the ruder kinds of pottery associated with it, it would appear that in Craven a roundheaded race preceded the long-headed one.

Nearly all of the upper stratum containing human remains had been cleared away before August last, and the next layer had been worked for some distance, especially in the second shaft, at the west end of the chamber. So far this lower stratum was composed of stiff clay with angular fragments of limestone, and at times a thin bed of stalagmite. No human remains nor any of the animals associated with them have been found. These are replaced mainly by bears, both Ursus feros and Ursus arctos, and great numbers of Alpine hares and foxes The bones in this layer show no evidence of having been guawed by other animals. They either perished in the fissure or their bones were washed down through pot holes into the cave. The bones from the lower layer are darker, much harder, and less porous than those from the upper one.

A pothole about ten This contained a few

After the meeting of the British Association at Leeds, in 1890, efforts were first directed to the careful examination of the lower clay bed in the centre of the chamber. feet deep and three in width was cleared out. of the limb bones of a bear. A great part of the rock floor at the foot of the first ladder was blasted. It consisted apparently of a quantity of rock fallen from the roof and cemented by stalagmite. We were hopeful that underneath it we should find an old deposit. So far however it is solid. Further west the excavation was continued, the difficulty of working in the soft adhesive clay increasing. The percentage of bones was small, and in the next six feet not a single bone was found, The cave has now developed into a deep fissure and is from four to six feet in width at a depth of about fortyfive feet from the original level of the cave floor. The attention of your Committee was next directed to find any possible entrance to

the cave in addition to the present one; the floor was tested along the sides of the cave east of the first ladder, but the miners report that there the ground was all solid rock,

Between the barren clay section and the second ladder there is a quantity of unexplored material. Huge blocks of fallen rock are wedged in the fissure, and it was found unsafe to remove them as they underpin an immense overhanging side of the cave sixty feet in height. The second ladder was then descended and a level driven beneath the fallen blocks at a depth of forty-five feet from the first floor. For the first six feet this level proved as ossiferous as any of the material yet examined and of similar character, containing bones of the bear and the hare. Beneath was a barren clay, followed by beds of sharp quartz sand, until the level is barred by solid rock. In the descent two or three stalagmitic floors were pierced but the material continued the same above and below the stalagmite. The new chambers that were opened last year are extensions of this fissure. The miners have put a steel rod eight feet lower than present level, forcing it through another stalagmitic floor. While the east part of this level is sand containing no bones, the western part, and the passage up to the new chambers, is a brecciated mass of bones and stalagmite.

At the further extremity of the new chambers, and about sixty yards from the foot of second ladder, there was a deep pool into which the roof dipped. In the floor of the passage leading to the pool a hole eight feet deep was dug. The material was comminuted limestone. Here also bones of young bears were found; they had evidently been washed down from the first chamber. By means of this last excavation the pond was lowered four or five feet. A ladder was placed across it and an entrance effected into a further passage leading to a large natural chamber.

So far the cave has been interesting. What may be entombed in the unexplored depths of the fissure is a matter of pure conjecture. Whether a repetition of the finds in the fissure at Ray Gill and in the lower cave earth of the Victoria Cave with the addition of palæolithic man may be obtained, must be left for further exploration to determine.