Britain, and allusion having been made to the probable introduction.of the worship of Isis through this source, we may also remember that many traces of such adoration exist in our local nomenclature; no less than three of our English rivers being named after this goddess, and as regards Yseur (subsequently the Roman Isurium and the present Aldborough, near Borough-bridge) where her symbol, the human-faced cow, was found, the name is itself a compound of Isis and Urus, the pre-Roman designations of the rivers now known as Ouse and Ure, which unite their historic streams a little below the ancient city of the Brigantes.

The traces likewise of Phoenician worship still linger in our midst, more especially in Scotland and Ireland in the Beltane games, and even one of its rites-that of passing through the fire-is yet, unknowingly, practised in certain localities, in fact, in this very neighbourhood. Again, Phoenician cabalistic or divining stones-often mentioned in Holy Writ-are found in ancient British, as well as Pagan Saxon cemeteries; and objects of this class continued in use by astrologers to within a couple of centuries of our own day. Of the favourite deity of Phoenicia,* Belisama, the early name of the estuary of the Ribble, Hill Bel in Westmoreland, and other geographical names in England and Ireland, bear unmistakable memorial, whilst Cor, Car or Kir-Phoenician and Hebrew for a walled or in other ways a fortified position -abounds in Cornish, Welsh and South Irish topography, appearing also in Carlisle, Cær-vorran in Durham, Car-dykes and other names of ancient places in England. The Rev. Thomas Stackhouse in his able Lectures on the Architectural Remains of Ancient or Pagan Britain, after dwelling upon some of the points just alluded to, remarks (p. 29):-" The abundance of these vestiges of Canaanitish idolatry and the

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* Belasamain" Queen of Heaven;" she was worshipped by the Cornarii and oher British tribes.

"remains of the Phoenician language in Cornwall confirm the 66 assertions of ancient historians, that the Phoenicians carried on the tin trade with this country centuries before any "other people participated in it. Mention is made of this "metal as being known in Palestine in the days of Moses, as "in the following passage only the gold and the silver, the "brass, the iron, the tin and the lead,' (Numbers xxxi, 22.) "From the metals thus enumerated, tin must necessarily be one, for the word brass either means copper only, or an alloy of copper; if the latter, it was an alloy (also) of tin, "for such was the ancient brass; therefore tin is not only "noticed singly, but is also implied in the word brass. This "carries the tin trade as far back as the fifteenth century "before Christ. Homer, who flourished a thousand years "before the Christian era, frequently mentions this metal (in "the Iliad) and the Grecians gave the name of Cassiterrides or the Islands of Tin to the Scilly Isles. There can be no "doubt with respect to the Phoenician origin of most of the "ancient erections of stone in Britain."

Mr. Wright attempts to make great capital from his acquaintance with old Cornish mines, where he has met with no traces of workings more ancient than those of Roman times, by which he would seem to mean the time of the Roman occupation of this country, but it is too loose an expression for such a discussion and apt to mislead, inasmuch as many arts might have been introduced here in pre-Claudian times, during which Rome, though effectually consolidating her power on the neighbouring continent, had made her influence but little felt as yet beyond the southern shores of Britain. Reverting to the Cornish miners, it would perhaps be difficult to find in all this country a more outlandish and ignorant set of men or one more likely at once to appropriate and turn to their own purposes any ancient tools they might find in the many early workings, which have undeniably been discovered, but

upon which no one who has not been long and thoroughly conversant in copper and tin mining operations, is likely to be a trustworthy authority.

Proceeding to the recognized Roman-British period, represented, in reference to the Craven caves, by a series of small objects of divers use, it may at once be admitted that a portion, perhaps the larger portion of them,-bear out the remarks of the several antiquaries quoted, their paternity being unquestionably due to the latter part of the Roman occupation, and the stormy and troublous ages immediately preceding, as well as succeeding, the ultimate withdrawal of the Imperial legions, in the beginning of the fifth century. Mr. Wright, however, goes further, insisting that all are of late Roman origin, seeking confirmation of this too hasty assumption, by reference to Kent's Hole, near Torquay, and Heathery Burn, near Stanhope, Durham, where he reports all the objects to similarly evidence the great decay in art attributable to this era. As regards the Craven caves I make bold to assert that such a conclusion is not borne out by late discoveries, or even by those long since effected, inasmuch as a fair proportion of the objects prove, upon examination, to be of good execution and equal to the products of many of the Roman stations. It is to be feared Mr. Wright has only made their acquaintance through the medium of Mr. Smith's plates in Coll. Antiqua, which, in this instance, by no means do justice to some of the objects in bronze. After a careful examination of those in Mr. Jackson's collection, with reports of others formerly in Mr. Farrer's possession, confirmed by a very fine fibula, broken but unworn, which I had the pleasure of finding last June, I can confidently affirm that many of the brooches and other bronze ornaments belong to a good artistic age, properly represented by the coins found here, in addition to those of the lower empire, comprising a silver denarius of Trajan,

and bronze pieces of Nero, Nerva, Hadrian and Antoninus Pius. The beautiful bronze brooches of our plate, probably unique in their precise variety of design, will, according to Mr. Wright's new dogma, be accounted by this gentleman as Roman; but here he is placed on the horns of a dilemma; for neither upon late Roman times (as he asserts all our cave objects of this class to be of), nor yet the succeeding still more barbarous eras, will either he or any other skilful antiquary venture to father these interesting ornaments. But early Roman manufactures have occurred in other caverns, as Kirkhead, in Cartmel, Thor's cave in Derbyshire and several in France.

Although nearly all the Craven caves still become, more or less, the beds of small watercourses during the winter season, and all are thickly floored by alluvial depositions, yet the favourite idea of certain geologists-that the antiquarian relics have all been washed in from above, is perfectly untenable. The caverns, as already stated, lie in very high and exposed situations, and consequently it could only be from the very summits of the hills, wherever level, that such removal by water could be effected, inasmuch as the sweeping of floods down the valley, so as to affect these caverns, within the last five thousand years, is out of the question. But even those few level hill-tops, from their bleak and yet far from commanding position, are wholly unsuited for the construction or maintenance of either early British villages or later Roman or Saxon camps, which we never find so placed. The only remaining neighbouring example of a camp lies nearly half-way down the valley, and, considering its elevation, in a comparatively sheltered location. No trace of such fortifications occurs upon these broken scaurs. The nearest Roman roads are somewhat distant (sixty miles), these being the one from Overborough (Bremetonacea) to Ribchester, and the other from Ilkly (Olicana) to the same place. Nevertheless, we can

admit no doubt as to the Victoria and Dowkerbottom caves having been occupied in Roman times, the presence of fragments of Roman sepulchral urns settling the question completely; for such, containing merely the dry ashes of the departed, were frequently retained by the nearest relatives in their residences. Again, the human relics (save a few primeval flints) are never found, where they assuredly would be if carried in by water, i.e., in the deep clay beds. They occur either in the soft or the hard stalagmite, evidencing human occupation whilst the cave was not subject to flood or other violent intrusion of matter, but during a perfectly quiescent state, essential to the free agglomeration of the stalagmitic bed in which the artificial remains invariably are found, when not upon the natural rock-floor, which, however, has rarely been the case.

Before concluding, further reference should be made to an interesting cave, found also in the limestone in this very county so lately as May of last year. I allude to that discovered in one of the most westerly outlying spurs of the limestone hilly region, viz., Kirkhead Hill, Kent's Bank, near Ulverston, which I am sorry not to have had the pleasure of personally inspecting; but the products, so far as known, remarkably confirm the conclusions to which I have arrived relative to the eastward group. Mr. J. P. Morris, of Ulverston, who is systematically exploring this recess on behalf of the Anthropological Society, writes me, relative to its main features, as follows:

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"The entrance is about eighty-five feet above high water mark. The floor is a compound of bones, earth, charcoal, "angular fragments of limestone, and water-worn pebbles "of blue slate. The human remains are very numerous, consisting of crania (in fragments), jaws with teeth, "arm and leg bones &c., several portions of pottery and "implements of stone, bone and iron. One of the implements "is the metatarsal bone of a young pig, with a very evenly "drilled hole through its centre. Professor Busk thinks this

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