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which formed its floor were a human jaw-bone and fragments
of smaller bones. On excavating the floor of the cave we
found it to consist of a stiff pasty greyish-white marlclay,
abounding in small shells, amongst which were species of the
genera Patella, Fissurella, Chiton, and Calyptroea. On reaching
a depth of about one foot, we came upon a nearly complete
human skull of immature age, an otter skull with bones of
the same, and the tooth of an Echinus. The human bones
obtained were part of the skeletons of two individuals, one of
whom must have been young, for the epithyses of the long
bones were not quite cemented to the shafts. I noticed that
the skull presented a completely ossified frontal suture, although,
from the nature of the teeth and alveoli, the person to whom
it belonged could not have lived for more than twelve years
or thereabouts. A tibia found in the first depot bore marks
of having been chopped by some sharp cutting instrument.
From the fact of these bones being found interbedded with
marine deposits, coupled with what we know of these islands
having been elevated within recent times— I here refer to the
evidence afforded by raised beaches and old highwater marks
in the faces of cliffs— there is reason to believe that these
bones were deposited in the cave at a time when it was under
v/ater, that they thus became surrounded by and imbedded in
an ordinary marine shallow water deposit, and that eventually, on
the island being elevated so as to raise the cave to its present
position— thirty feet above sea level— the surface deposit was
reinforced by the percolation of lime-charged water from the
rock above, thus resulting in the formation of the marlclay
surface-layer above mentioned.
We made different attempts at dredging, but as the bottom
was everywhere very rocky and the dredge in consequence continually
getting foul, we were not successful in obtaining many
objects of interest. However, among them there were specimens
of a hydroid stony coral representing two species of the genus
Labiopora— one of which Mr. Stuart Ridley of the British Museum
has ascertained to be a species new to science— and a fine orange-
coloured Astrophyton of a new species, recently described by Mr.
F. J. Bell as A. Lymani.
On the north side of the Trinidad Channel we stopped for a
time at an anchorage near Cape Gamboa, which forms the north
headland of the entrance. A t Cape Gamboa the rock is a clay-
slate showing distinct stratification, containing concretions of a
whitish sandstone, and dipping to the N. F. at an angle of about 45°.
To the eastward of Cape Gamboa is a limestone similar to that
of the south shore. We did some dredging here on a smooth
sandy bottom, the principal results of which were specimens of
the Chimcera {Callorhynchus australis), and some curious Isopod
Crustaceans of the genus Serolis. Another day (March 28th)
when sounding across the entrance of the Channel, we made a
heave of the trawl in thirty fathoms with most fruitful results,
obtaining a magnificent specimen of the orange-coloured Astrophyton
{A. Lymani), several small rays and flat fish, large Actinia,
a new Crustacean of the genus Arcturus, starfishes, and a
Cephalopod Mollusc of the genus Rossia. On the evening of this
day we were fortunate enough to witness a most beautiful sunset
effect. As the sun disappeared from a western olive-tinted sky it
seemed to be followed in its descent by several horizontal bands
of delicate rose-tinted stratus clouds, which extended themselves
in parallel lines over an arc of 45°, and finally tapered away into
the most delicate threads of silvery light. In the east the dark
purple-tinted clouds melted upwards into the grey gloom of
approaching night, and foreshadowed to us the advent of another
day of sunshine in this the only really fine and summer month in
these western channels.
A t the h-ead of Francisco Bay— which was the name subsequently
given to this anchorage— at the outlet of a small river, we
one day made a very large “ take ” of fish in a somewhat singular
manner. A trammel net had been placed across the mouth of the
TIM
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