PRE-HISTORIC MAN IN HOLDERNESS. 73 
Now, according to the views of the most recent school of 
glacialists, the date of the final disappearance of the ice of the 
Glacial Period is not so far remote as has formerly been supposed, 
and by some of our leading geologists the approximate date has 
been fixed at about 10,000 years ago! By the same geologists it 
is in my opinion amply proved that man existed during, if nut 
before, the Ice Age. We have in Holderness as our oldest beds 
the very strata which in other parts of the world yield evidences 
of the dawn of human life.. .Unfortunately so far not the slightest 
trace of glacial man has been found in our area. I have during 
the last nine or ten years carefully examined over and over again 
almost every section in the drift which occurs there—the sands 
and gravels and clays—and no such indications are forthcoming. 
And what is more, so far as I am aware no trace of Paleolithic man 
has yet been found in all Yorkshire. Remains of the mammoth, 
and other animals known to have been contemporary with pre- 
historic man in other parts of the world, occur in Holderness in 
profusion, however. 
Seeing that our Glacial drift contains no relics of man, let us 
examine the deposits which have been laid down since; these, of 
course, are found resting upon the glacial beds. From the brief 
account of the geography of the district which has been given it 
will be understood that immediately following the departure of the 
ice Holderness would be a land of meres and marshes, with 
morainic hills of gravel standing as islands in the surrounding 
waters. At first the country would be a dreary watery waste, 
almost devoid of either vegetable or animal life. As time went on, 
however, and the climate became ameliorated, the conditions for 
the support of life became more favourable, though still not so 
satisfactory as they are to-day. And so we find in our oldest beds— 
that is, those lying immediately upon the boulder-clay—evidence 
of a colder climate than now prevails. Dr. Nathorst, an eminent 
Swedish geologist, has discovered? in the lower layers of some of 
our lacustrine deposits remainsof the dwarf Arctic birch(Betulanana), 
a plant which does not and could not now thrive on the samesite, Of 
course these relic-bearing beds have only accumulated in the hollows— 
they do not occur on the hills. We consequently have not very 
many opportunities of examining them. They are occasionally ex- 
posed during drainage operations, the construction of docks, etc., 
but the best sections are in the cliffs between Bridlington and 
Spurn. Here are successive deposits of sand, gravel, marl, clay, 
and peat, which by their composition and contents clearly indicate 
what was the state of things during their deposition. 
(1) Prof. G. F. Wright’s Man and the Glacial Period, 1893, pp. 332-364. 
(2) Ueber neue Funde von fossilen Glacialpflanzen, Englers botanischer Jahrouck 1881 p, 431, 
