A wide range of techniques was used to open up this small cave, 240 m long and 56 m deep, in the course of a dig lasting 9 years. Two sumps were removed, but the main obstacles to progress were massive deposits of mud tailings generated by Roman to 19th century lead working in the Blackmoor valley. The Mendip Hills Mining Company set up a waterfall in the entrance rift and, when the wheel became redundant, disposed of mud tailings into the swallet. Mudflows of mobilised tailings surged down the cave during this period.

Cox’s Cave was discovered by a workman employed by George Cox in 1837 and opened to the public in the following year. Since then only small extensions have been discovered, though the opening of the Lady Chapel in 1913 encouraged the making of a second entrance. The cave was lit by gas from about 1870 and electric lighting, partially installed in 1913, fully replaced gas in 1929. The Cox family attempted to sell the cave in 1884 but a High Court decision that it was not in fact theirs to sell prevented this, although they were granted a lease of the cave. The cave returned to the control of Longleat Estates in 1939. Roland Pavey’s underground activities nearby presented a potential danger to Cox’s Cave between 1890 and 1904. This account has been based on contemporary accounts as far as possible, including official documents, newspapers and travel guides.

In 1871 a quarry in Barrow-in-Furness broke into what was to be named Stainton Cavern. The cave became well known locally and several explorations by different groups and individuals were made. Of these, Thomas Cock and others propounded a theory for formation of the cave by water, whilst the geologist John Bolton countered it with one involving earthquakes. The resulting discussions of these early British theories of speleogenesis and the previously unreferenced explorations of the cave are given in detail. These explorations were some of the earliest examinations of a British cave, based upon several visits made for the purpose of discovery as well as science, to be published in detail. Background information about the pioneers, in particular John Bolton, is included.

The manuscript collection of the 18th century antiquary John Strachey, now in the Somerset Record Office, is a source largely untapped in local studies. This paper prints and comments upon some extractcs on caves and archaeological sites on Mendip. These include Wookey Hole, Goatchurch, caves at Cheddar, the camps at Dolebury and Burrington and an earthwork near Priddy.

Oluf Borch, the Danish Scientist, visited Wookey Hole in 1663. He described the speleothems there and also noted that the villagers were not specially susceptible to developing stones in the kidney etc., although they drank water from the cave. This led him to suppose that speleothems were not due to impurities but were formed from pure water. He explained the process by saying that the particles of water, if left totally undisturbed, would bind together because they were so similar (rather as ice forms when molecular movement is reduced by low temperature).

Although Bath Stone had been used since Roman times, underground mining for it is only known much later. A hitherto unnoticed early reference to this, by Borch (1680), is reproduced here. Other early accounts are also mentioned.

Late Pleistocene remains of saiga antelope Saiga tartarica (Linnaeus, 1766) have now been identified from four Mendip bone caves: Gough’s Cave, Soldier’s Hole, Sun Hole and Wolf Den. Only one other record of this species is known in Britain outside the Mendip area. The very specific environmental preferences of living saigas permit inferences to be made prevailing conditions during their incursion(s) to SW England.

Recently re-examined Pleistocene bird material from south-west Britain is summarised. The sites yielding material include sixteen caves, together with an early Holocene and five Iron Age/Roman sites to complete the record into the Holocene. The area covered is from south Wales to Wiltshire, with cave sites clustered in the Gower Peninsula, Mendip and south Devon areas. The sites are roughly grouped as Late Wolstonian Glaciation, Ipswichian Interglacial, Devensian Glaciation, End of Devensian, Devensian/Holocene Transition and Holocene. There are 136 species with a possible additional five where species-pairs cannot be separated on the specimens available. The possible significance of species occurrences is discussed within each group of sites. Comparisons are made with a list of species from the Pleistocene of south-east England. In general, in the range of species present, the variation between the warmer and colder periods is less marked than might be expected. Although data are sparse, correlations between a number of sites are apparent, notably in the occurrence of grouse species and the Common Shelduck.

In 1986 a sounding was dug to bedrock at the entrance to Saye’s Hole in order to assess its previously unknown deposits. Below a modern constructed floor and a diffuse archaeological layer probably only a few centuries old at most, two dense Late Iron Age levels were discovered. A preliminary discussion of the Iron Age finds is presented here; these comprise hearths, pottery related to Glastonbury ware, small metal objects (including iron nails and a possible copper alloy stud head), and butchered animal bones. The role of the cave within the Cheddar karstic system is also considered. It had previously been demonstrated that the cave communicates with the main system and a major post-Iron Age flood loam was recognised in the sounding. However, the bedrock uncovered in the sounding was blocky and angular, with no signs of water sculpting and it was immediately overlain by Late iron Age material; the origin of the present entrance chamber is thus obscure.

Incremental bands in the cementum and dentine of four teeth from horse (Equus ferus) and one tooth of red deer (Cervus elephas) from the late glacial site of Gough’s Cave were investigated with a view to deciding whether preservation of these tissues was good enough to permit estimation of the season of death of horse and red deer at this site. This report includes some background information on the principles and methods of tooth sectioning used in this preliminary investigation, followed by the results obtained. The results are encouraging and suggest that the method can be usefully applied to such material.

A swallet depression at Alveston, Avon, to the north of Bristol has been excavated. A natural shaft, roomy at first and completely filled with sediments, was cleared back to its solid rock walls to 6 m depth, where it became much more constricted. A narrow 6 m long passage was forced horizontally away from the foot of the shaft along the intersection of a joint and a bedding plane. In the course of excavating the mud and rocks which lay beneath the uppermost (very recent) soil infill, a small but unusual group of bones, including human bones, was recovered. Archaeologically the assemblage is uncommon in several respects and it is suggested that the bones were thrown into the swallet, then an open pit, during the mediaeval or post-mediaeval period.

The Giden Gelmez Dag region of the Western Taurus mountains near Seydeşehir, Turkey, was explored for caves. Seven new caves are described and a summary account is given of the other known caves. In the Tinas Tepe region, also near Seydeşehir, four previously unreported resurgences are described.

The headwaters of the Buyuk Menderes Nehri river are supplied by springs during the dry season, any rainfall moving directly underground. The springs are supplemented by surface flows during periods of heavy rainfall in the winter months when the ephemeral drainage channels become active. The resurgences are of two types. (a) Those fed by percolation waters from a very fractured and often thinly bedded area of limestone. (b) The one at Isikli fed by the surface river sinking gradually into its bed, plus water stored in alluvial floodplains and transmitted to the resurgence by a well-fractured aquifer in which a master conduit may have developed.