Geological Society. 293 



r.R.S., r.G.S. With Notes on the Animal Remains, by W. Da^-ies, 

 Esq., P.G.S., of the British Museum (]N"at. Histor}^), 



This paper contained the results of researches carried on iu these 

 caverns in the summers of 1883, 1884, and 1885 by ITr. E. Bouverie 

 Luxmoore, of St. Asaph, and the author. The enormous collection 

 of bones belonging to the now extinct animals of Pleistocene age 

 obtained had been submitted for examination to Mr. W. Davies, and 

 afterwards distributed to various museums. Several well-worked 

 flint implements were also discovered in association Avith the bones. 



The following are the conclusions arrived at by the author, from the 

 facts obtained during the explorations : — Tliat abundant evidence ha^ 

 been furnished to show that the caverns had been occupied by 

 hytenas, and possibly by other beasts of prey, as dens, into which 

 portions of carcasses of various animals had been conveyed in Pleis- 

 tocene times. The very great abundance of some animals, such as 

 the rhinoceros, horse, and reindeer, and the frequent presence of 

 bones belonging to young animals, proved that the plain of the Vale 

 of Clwyd, with that extending northward under the Irish Sea, must 

 have formed a favourite feeding-ground even at that time. Tlie 

 flint implements and worked bones showed also that man was 

 contemporary with these animals. The facts perhaps, however, of 

 greatest importance, made out during these researches, are those 

 which bear on some questions of physical geology in regard to this 

 area, which hitherto have been shrouded more or less in doubt. The 

 views on the physical conditions in Pleistocene times of the areas in 

 North Wales in which these and the other bone-caverns occur so 

 ably put forward by Sir A. liamsay, appeared to the author to be 

 strongly supported by the results obtained in these explorations. 

 The ravine in which the caverns occur must have been scooped out 

 previous to the deposition in it of the glacial sands and Boulder-clays. 

 This sand and clay, there seems good evidence to show, must have 

 filled up the ravine to a height above the entrances to the caverns 

 and such sands and clays are now found at some points to completely 

 fill up the caverns. How, then, did these sands and clays get into 

 the caverns ? Were they forced in through the entrances by marine 

 action or by a glacier filling the valley ? Or were they conveyed in 

 subsequently to the deposition of the Boulder-clay in the valley and 

 surrounding area ? The position of the caverns in an escarpment 

 of limestone, at the end of a ridge of these rocks, with a sharp fall 

 on either side, prohibits the idea that the material could have been 

 washed in from the higher ground, as has been suggested by some 

 in the case of other caverns, if it had anything like its present con- 

 figuration. Moreover, there is scarcely any deposit now visible upon 

 the limestone ridge, and there is no certainty that there ever was 

 deposited there any great thickness of such a clay as that now found 

 in the caverns. The general position also of the bones in some of 

 the tunnels seems to indicate clearly that the force which broke up 

 the stalagmite floor, in some places 10-12 inches thick, and stalac- 

 tites 6 to 8 inches across, which thrust many of the large and heavy 



