136 THE CRESWELL CAVES. 



between the two cliffs was a level lawn of long grass. The streamlet 

 which had formed this charming rock-work was almost lost to sight as it 

 hurried along at the foot of the cliff on oar left. It furnished a good 

 illustration of the work capable of being performed by a tiny rivulet in a 

 hilly district ; indeed, to anyone but a geologist it must have seemed as if 

 the ravine was formed for the streamlet, and not that the latter had 

 scooped out the ravine. Once more threading country lanes for about a 

 mile, we came to a narrow dale, fringed with young trees on each side. 

 This was Markland Hollow. As we descended, water oould be heard trick- 

 ling deep iD the recesses hidden by the foliage on our right, and presently 

 we saw the stream emerging from among huge masses of fallen rock. 



Returning to Creswell, after a circuit of about four miles, the excur- 

 sionists were joined by a contingent who had come up by a later train, 

 the party now numbering something like eighty, including a good sprink- 

 ling of ladies. A move was then made towards Creswell Crag3, which, 

 through the labours of the Rev. J. M. Mello and Prof. Boyd Dawkins, 

 have recently proved so rich in the remains of Post-Pliocene animals and 

 of Palaeolithic man.* But what, and where, are Creswell Crags? Just 

 on the brow of the gentle ridge of limestone that hems in the vale of 

 Creswell on the east, an 1 at a spot about half a mile from the village, 

 a patch of dark green could be seen, while in the interstices of the 

 clustering foliage could be discerned the blaish-gray limestone that formed 

 the walls of a ravine. This was Creswell Crags. The ravine in which 

 the caves are situated runs east and west, and wa3 evidently formed by 

 the stream which flows through it, but whi sh ha3 of late years been 

 damm d up and convertei into a lake stretching from cliff to cliff — the 

 lake bein'4 about four hunlred feat w ; de. This ravine is about one-third 

 of a mile in length, anl is bounlel by beautifully wool 3 1 cliffs, in places 

 fifty or sixty feet high. The limestone is very hard and massive here, 

 with an easterly dip rather difficult to trace; and on either side of the 

 ravine the crags are much fissured, now and then forming tolerably-sized 

 caverns, which open some fifteen feet above the level of the lake. 

 Altogether the scene presented by Creswell Crags is extremely pretty, 

 and reminds one of the more majestic, though perhaps not more 

 picturesque scenery of the Derbyshire Carboniferous Limestone. The cavea 

 are all, save one, on the the north or Derbyshire side of the ravine, this 

 ravine being the boundary between that county and Notts. The 

 difficulty of clambering up the talus to the caves, saturated as the ground 

 was with the almost continuous rain, did not at all d^ter the ladies from 

 making the attempt, and they explored the caves with characteristic 

 curiosity. 



The first cave entered was the " Pin Hole," which penetrates 

 horizontally some forty or fifty yards into the hill. The deposits which 

 formed the floor of this cave (to quote the authors above-mentioned) 

 consisted of a few inches of surface soil, in which a fine flint flake was 

 found. Below this came red sand, rich in bones, many having evidently 



♦Quarterly Journal Geological Society, Vol. XXXI-II-III. 



