MAN AND THE GLACIAL PERIOD. 65 



mus; and, in the south, Mr. Godwin Austen, from a study of the same 

 remains in the valley-gravels. Direct evidence of great value lias heen 

 added by Mr. Tiddiman in his reports on the exploration of the Vic- 

 toria Cave, at Settle. He has shown that the cave-deposits lie be- 

 neath glacial clay, and, among the other remains, a human hbula has 

 been found. 1 In the Cefn Cave, in Denbighshire, Mr. Mackintosh has 

 also determined that the mammalian remains lie in and below a gla- 

 cial clay. 2 



All the lines of inquiry thus far pursued in this paper point to the 

 preglacial age of the remains in question, and some of the facts are 

 directly opposed to the post-glacial theory. How, then, is it that the 

 great majority of geologists write as if it had been clearly proved that 

 palaeolithic man was of post-glacial age ? Principally because it is be- 

 lieved that Prof. Prestwich has proved that at Hoxne, in Suffolk, the 

 implements and bones are found in deposits distinctly overlying 

 bowlder-clay. This is spoken of as if it were a truism in most general 

 treatises on geology ; 3 and both in Europe and America the presump- 

 tion is appealed to as being conclusive with regard to the age of the 

 remains. The general opinion held is concisely given in the statement 

 by Mr. John Evans in his presidential address to the Geological So- 

 ciety last year, that, at Hoxne, " the implement-bearing beds repose 

 in a trough cut out in the upper glacial bowlder-clay, which itself rests 

 on middle glacial sands and gravels." 4 



This opinion of the age of the Hoxne deposits is founded on the 

 elaborate memoir by Prof. Prestwich, published in the " Philosophical 

 Transactions of the Royal Society," for 1860. In this treatise the 

 author gives a diagram showing the deposits in question lying in a 

 trough cut out in the bowlder-clay. Though this section is confessed- 

 ly only theoretical, it was accepted by Sir Charles Lyell and others as 

 an actual one, and afterward the author himself wrote as if he had 

 proved his theory to be true, 5 which he may well be excused for hav. 

 ing done, when it had been accepted by so many eminent geologists. 



The writings of Prof. Prestwich are admirable in this, as in other 

 respects, that, although he indulges in wide-reaching theories, he in- 

 variably gives the evidence on which they are founded. Thus, in the 

 memoir in question, in addition to the theoretical diagram he gives 

 another, showing the actual facts observed, and also careful details of 

 the various sections observed by him. It is, therefore, possible to 

 check his theory by his facts, and in the present paper I shall do so, 



1 Nature, vol. ix., p. 14. " British Association Reports," for 1873, 1874, 1875. 



2 Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, vol. xxxii., p. 91. 



3 Sir Charles Lyell, " Antiquity of Man," p. 166. J. Geikie, " Great Ice Age," p. 474. 

 J. Croll, " Climate and Time," p. 241. W. Boyd Dawkins, "Cave-Hunting," p. 410. 

 Jukes's " Students' Manual of Geology," p. 736. 



4 Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, vol. xxxi., p. 74. 



5 " Philosophical Transactions," 1864, p. 253. 



VOL. XII. 5 



