250 ON RAINS CAVE, LONGCLIFFE, DERBYSHIRE. 



material for implements ; also that previous to this there was a 

 less well-defined stage known as the Neolithic Age, because stone 

 was the best available material for this purpose. These, however, 

 are to us but mere stretches of vague duration, for as yet there are 

 no reliable means of measuring them in years. The sepulchral 

 potsherds furnish a point d'appui for at least the earlier sepulchral 

 era of the cave. They so exactly accord with the well known pottery 

 of the British "round" barrows as to leave but little doubt as to their 

 contemporaneity. There are few prehistoric remains whose relative 

 position in time is better known than these barrows. They are 

 almost universally considered to belong to the earlier part of the 

 Bronze Age. The refuse layer was, of course, older, but whether 

 it reached back to Neolithic times is quite uncertain. The animal 

 bones of this layer, as also those of all the more recent deposits, 

 belong to that long, long period when viewed from the standpoint 

 of years, but which is as a minute to a day compared with the 

 life-history of the globe — the Recent Period of the geologist. 

 Throughout this aeon, the physical geography and the fauna 

 and flora of Europe have remained practically unchanged, 

 and civilisation and art, unbroken by any vicissitude of nature, 

 have slowly developed into the intricate human world of the 

 present. 



There is no reason to doubt that this cave contains deposits of 

 the Pleistocene period ; but whether considerably below our 

 lowest diggings or otherwise, the attempt to excavate them would 

 involve the removal of at least much of the great talus that still 

 chokes up the interior. And after all, there is no guarantee that 

 such deposits, assuming that they exist, are worth so great a labour. 



I hope to have a third paper, consisting of reports on the 

 pottery, the human remains, and the fauna and flora (which Pro- 

 fessor Boyd Dawkins is kindly investigating) ready for next year's 

 Journal. 



