topic. Among the most valuable and suggestive of the many pamphlets which have been lately published on this subject is one by Mr. James Caird, in which he insists upon the curative influence of the lease of land for a term of years, as that which by its proved effect elsewhere is more likely than any other agency within our reach to be serviceable in Ireland. The Lothians of Scotland, which

are the very model farm of British agriculture, were a century ago as badly off as Ireland is at present. Since 1780, owing chiefly to enabling laws" affecting the condition of strictly entailed estates, the principle has become established, and the practice has become universal there, that the duty of the landlord is to provide the farm with buildings and other permanent improvements, and that the duty of the tenant is to find the capital for cultivation under the security of a lease for a fixed term of years. It is the influence of the lease for a term of years that has been so wonderfully illustrated in Scotland; and Mr. Caird would accordingly confine all Government assistance in land-improvement to estates and farms let on lease; and in other ways he would urge on Irish landlords and Irish tenants the acceptance of the lease, certain that it would create fertility and ensure industry and promote contentment in Ireland, as it has elsewhere.-A very striking picture of foreign agriculture has been drawn by Mr. James Howard, M.P., in a lecture before the London Farmers' Club. He has proved conclusively that the small-farm system prevalent in many continental countries is greatly inferior to our own plan of large holdings in almost every particular in which they admit of comparison. In the actual maintenance of a large population directly on the land we presume the former must be acknowledged superior; but the condition of both occupier and owner under such circumstances is shown to be below that of the English farm-labourer, while the labouring class in such a case are in a miserable plight indeed. The small-farm system, and still more the small-estate system, may possibly be defensible on other grounds of state policy, but for its power to turn the soil to the most useful account; and for its power, or rather want of power, to "stock" the country with an intelligent middle-class population, it admits of no defence. Mr. Howard's excellent paper is indeed a sufficiently convincing proof that English agriculture, in spite of our higher northern latitude, is on the whole more productive than that of such districts as he had visited; and that taking even Belgian farming with which to compare it, and with which it has been occasionally contrasted to its discredit, the agriculture of our country is on the whole superior, whether as to its produce of grain and of meat or as to its maintenance of an intelligent and wellconditioned tenantry.-The condition of the English agricultural labourer has lately occupied the attention of several Farmers' Clubs, and it seems proved that the mere labourer in the country is on the

6

whole better off than the mere labourer in town. The summary of the Agricultural Gazette' on the subject may be adopted as on the whole trustworthy:

"Probably the safest conclusion at which an outsider, patiently considering the various allegations, can arrive, may be stated thus:Both in country and in town great poverty and great misery exist; both in country and in town the provident and well-conducted man is able to rise in his position; whether in country or in town, there is no help, even for the 'helpless' classes, that can approach self-help for its power and efficiency. In the worst-paid agricultural districts the young unmarried agricultural labourer has plenty of pocket-money. He can squander it and acquire habits which will render comfort in after-life impossible, whatever be his earnings; or he can save it, and begin life with a good character, a houseful of furniture of his own, and the best girl in the parish for his wife.

"The possibilities of the agricultural labourer, whether for decent comfort or for utter misery, are at least equal to those of the corresponding class in town. And we feel sure that any considerate master who by the interest which he takes in the lads and young men upon his farm, shall retain them in his service, and thus keep them from the chances of town life, will at least have done them no harm. Paying them as much as possible according to their work, i.e. by the piece,' and interfering successfully by friendly advice in the alternative before them of saving or of wasting wages in their youth, he will have secured for them a place in the higher division of a class which contains a large proportion of individuals living in comfort and respectability."

The beet-sugar manufacture is prospering. Mr. Duncan's factory at Lavenham is answering his purpose, and it is also answering the purpose of the growers of sugar beet in that neighbourhood, so that in all probability we have at length secured the establishment among us of a new industry, from which, judging by its effect in agricultural districts of France and Germany, the best consequences may be anticipated. The results of the application of sewage manure to land have been reported at Lodge Farm, near Barking, and elsewhere, as having been this year satisfactory. It is impossible to doubt that this subject will soon rank with the very foremost in agricultural and social importance.

2. ARCHEOLOGY (PRE-HISTORIC),

And Notices of Recent Archeological Works.

IN vol. v. (No. xx.), p. 546, Oct. 1868, we gave a short account of the meeting of the International Congress of Pre-historic Archæology at Norwich. The papers read at that meeting have since been published, and now form a handsome volume, well illustrated by fifty-three plates and numerous woodcuts.*

It would be difficult to estimate the relative value of the contents of this volume, but one paper which, to us, appears a singularly important communication is by Mr. George Busk, "On the Caves of Gibraltar in which Human Remains and Works of Art have been found." This contribution, which is illustrated by twelve plates, maps, and plans, contains the most complete record yet published of those interesting limestone caves and fissures for which the Rock of Gibraltar is celebrated, but which, till lately, only served to gratify curiosity, or, by their illumination, to eke out the scanty amusements of an almost isolated garrison.

It was to the investigation of these caverns that the last efforts of the late Dr. Hugh Falconer's life were directed, in conjunction with Mr. Busk, the work being carried out upon the spot by Captain Frederic Brome, late governor of the military prison at Gibraltar, whose unwearied labours during the last five or six years have been devoted to their exploration.

The rocky peninsula of Gibraltar is a detached promontory, composed principally of limestone, about three miles long and threequarters of a mile in its greatest width, and lies nearly due north and south. The lower portion of the western side spreads out so as to form an irregular sloping surface, here and there interrupted by longitudinal cliffs and ravines, upon the gentle declivities of which the principal part of the town of Gibraltar is built.

6

The eastern face, on the contrary, is a nearly perpendicular escarpment of limestone rock rising up at Wolf's Crag,' or 'North Front,' in a cliff 1250 feet high; at the Signal Station,' or 'Middle Hill,' 1255 feet; and at 'Sugar-loaf Hill,' on which O'Hara's Tower stands, it rises to a height of 1408 feet above the A broad plain extends beneath 'Sugar-loaf Hill' to the south, called Windmill Hill Flats,' whilst at a still lower level Europa Flats' form the southern termination of the promontory. The mass of the rock consists of a Secondary Limestone of Jurassic age,

sea.

*International Congress of Pre-historic Archæology: Transactions of the Third Session, opened at Norwich, 20th August, and closed in London, 28th August, 1868. London: Longmans, Green, & Co. 1869. Svo. Pp. 419. Illustrated with numerous plates and woodcuts.

much fissured and dislocated, and dipping to the west, but towards the southern extremity the beds become nearly vertical.

As is well known, caves constitute a prevailing feature of limestone rocks in all parts of the world, and in no place are they more numerous within a similar compass than in the promontory of Gibraltar, which has, in fact, on that account sometimes been termed the Hill of Caves.'

The caves are of two kinds. 1. Littoral or sea-caves, scooped out horizontally by the waves at the sea-level; of which kind there are numerous instances all along the base of the eastern face; successive terraces, one above another, are also visible on the same face, each furnished with its line of sea-caves, exactly like those at present at the level of the water. It would seem, however, that most, if not all, of these caves owe their origin to their being situated in the line of a fissure or fracture of the rock of which the sea has taken advantage to begin its scooping action. 2. Inland caves, which do not exhibit any appearance of marine erosion, but may be described as ramified and intersecting fissures, descending more or less vertically to great depths, and enlarged by the action of rain-water charged with carbonic acid.

The principal littoral or sea-caves are:

'Martin's and 'Fig-tree' caves, 700 feet above the sea, in the eastern face of the rock below O'Hara's Tower; some caves just above the blown sands in Catalan Bay; Monkey Cave,' 100 feet above the sea; 'Beefsteak Cave,' in the cliff below Europa plateau; Genista Cave,' No. 4, 40 feet below the top of the eastern cliff of Windmill Hill plateau; 'Poca Roca Cave,' in the western face of the northern end of the rock; besides many smaller caves in the eastern face.

The principal fissure-caves are:

The famed 'St. Michael's Cave,' opening to the west, situated in the southern portion of the rock, at an elevation of 1100 feet above the sea; the 'Genista Caves,' Nos. 1, 2, and 3, all situated in the Windmill Hill plateau, where there is also a deep ossiferous fissure.

The four Genista Caves, Martin's Cave, St. Michael's Cave, and some others, have yielded evidences of early man, in the form of osseous remains associated with flint knives and flakes, stone axes, polished and chipped; worked bones, serving as skewers, arrowheads, needles, and gouges; anklets or armlets of shell, hand-made pottery, querns, rubbing-stones, and charcoal. With these were found remains of numerous animals, including:- Rhinoceros

*

[Those marked thus §, are abundant; and thus §§, very abundant.] A single molar of Elephas antiquus was obtained many years since by the late Mr. James Smith, of Jordan Hill, in an old sea-beach (now demolished) at Europa Point, the southern extremity of the rock.

etruscus, Rh. leptorhinus § (extinct); Equus, Sus priscus (extinct); Sus scrofa, Cervus elaphus, var. barbarus §, Cervus dama§, Bos (a large form), and Bos taurus §. Two forms of Ibex, Capra Egoceros ; and also the common goat, Capra hircus; Lepus timidus, Lepus cuniculus §§, Mus rattus. Of the carnivora were determined Felis leopardus, Felis pardina, Felis serval, Hyæna brunnea, Canis vulpes, Ursus sp. Remains of the common dolphin, numerous genera and species of birds, a species of tortoise, and numerous remains of fishes, of which the tunny is most prominent. The remains are imbedded in red cave-earth, and also in a black layer similar to that noticed in the caves of France and elsewhere. In many instances the organic remains have been carried down from one cavern to another at a lower level through long fissures, by the heavy autumnal floods which pour from the higher grounds down upon Windmill Hill plateau (where many of these ossiferous caves are situated), bringing with them the remains of the various animals which at an earlier period inhabited the thicklywooded heights, now entirely destitute of trees and only covered at places by the little Chamaerops humilis.

Many human and animal remains attributable to modern periods have been also met with; but the older human remains are distinguished by peculiarities in the thigh-bones, which closely resemble those met with in the Cro-Magnon Cave.*

Mr. Boyd Dawkins gives a résumé of what is known on the subject of The Antiquity of the Iron Mines of the Weald.'t In the middle of the Wealden formation are two thin bands of ironstone, from which all the iron was obtained. The mines are scattered throughout the district: the method was to sink a shaft through the superincumbent clay to the ironstone, and remove as much ore as was within reach; then fill up and sink again a little farther on, so that the shafts lie very close together. They vary in depth from about 7 or 8 to 40 feet, and in diameter from 3 to 6 feet. The first historical notice is in a grant of Henry III. to the town of Lewes; but Samian and other Roman ware, bronze fibulæ, coins of Nero, Vespasian, &c., having been found at several localities scattered amongst the scoriæ at depths varying from 2 to 10 feet, tend to show that they were worked during the Roman period. These Roman remains were associated with flint flakes and rude unturned pottery identical with that termed Keltic, in some places, and in others alone, which, together with the passage in Cæsar's 'Commentaries' describing the inhabitants of the maritime part of Britain, " utuntur aut ære aut taleis ferreis ad certum

*See our Chronicle of Archæology for July last, p. 411.

Mr. Boyd Dawkins made careful notes of these workings during his stay in the district whilst engaged on the Geological Survey of the Wealden; and he also refers to Mr. Lower's papers in the 'Sussex Archæologia.'