176 ON RAINS CAVE, LONGCLIFFE, DERBYSHIRE. 



with any degree of exactitude, as to how they came to be where 

 they were found ; consequently, the history of these caves for the 

 period represented by this surface soil is little more than a mere 

 blank. But what was compressed into a foot or less in these 

 aves is represented in Rains Cave by several feet, at least, and 

 distinct stratification, which unfolds an orderly sequence of events ; 

 and detailed as this history is, it is very unlikely that it carries us 

 so far back as the Neolithic period. 



There is a lesson that should not be over-looked. Suppose 

 that the Refuse Layer had turned out to be of Pleistocene date, 

 and that the excavation had not been conducted on systematic 

 and precise lines, how easily might it have been concluded that 

 the human remains in this bed were contemporary with it, and, 

 therefore, Pleistocene ! In many cases where human bones have 

 been found associated with Pleistocene remains, the more recent 

 accumulations are so thin that it would be difficult to dig graves 

 in them deep enough to admit of corpses, without penetrating the 

 older beds. The evidence must, indeed, be strong— as the 

 presence of an undisturbed sheet of stalagmite between the older 

 and the newer beds — to place the Pleistocene origin of such bones 

 beyond dispute. 



