^ov, 1 8, 1875J 



NATURE 



55 



THIRD REPORT OF THE SETTLE CA VE 

 COMMITTEE {VICTORIA CAVE)* 



\rORK has been carried on almost uninterruptedly through' 

 ' "' out the year (except from March 20th to May 20th> 

 rhen it was stopped for want of funds), at a cost of 175/. 12s. "jd.' 

 )f this, 80/, lis. gJ. was a balance in hand, 50/. the British 

 association grant, and 45/. Of. lod. raised by private subscrip- 

 ion. 



Great progress has been made in the past year in imcovering 

 he glacial deposits at the entrance of the cave, and showing 

 heir relation to the older bone-beds containing the remains 

 man with the exiinct animals. The boulders are seen to 

 over an area of at least i, 200 square feet.+ They are of all sizes, 

 nd consist of dark and white Carboniferous Limestone, and the 

 lasement bed of that formation, Carboniferous Gritstone, and 

 Silurian Grit Some have travelled at least two miles, and others 

 ireater distances. They are various in size, from mere sand-grains 

 blocks several tons in weight. An interesting section was dis- 

 ilayed, showing the passage of the boidder-beds in one part from 



regular till with large scratched stones, through scratched 

 [ravel, sand, to laminated clay, and these were so interbedded as 

 o demonstrate that some at least of the laminated clay is of 

 [lacial age and origin. 



At length, after six years' work, we are able to say that we 

 uive reached the floor of the cave at the entrance. Several 

 ^inacles of rock have been found by the removal of the 



Bers ; they run in lines parallel with the joints of the rock 

 , and give testimony to the cave having been at some time 

 ied by a stream, similar rock-weathering occurring in other 

 water-caves in Craven. The arched niches on the right of the 

 ave at the entrance lead to the same conclusion. 



And now, with the additional evidence of another year's 

 diggings, we may again consider the question, the most interesting 

 perhaps of all the problems before us : Are the glacial deposits 

 irfaich rest upon the older bone-beds, containing the extinct 

 mammals and man, in the position which they occupied at the 

 close of the glacial conditions, or have they subsequently fallen 

 into their present site ? We may again urge the reasons given 

 last year (see Second Report), strengthened by enlarged sections 

 and a wider experience, which go to prove the first alternative. 

 To these arguments we may now add the following : — That the 

 extent of the glacial deposits now exposed is so great that it is 

 impossible that they can be a mere chance accumulation of 

 boulders which have been re-deposited in their present position 

 since glacial times. This being the case, it is clear from the 

 position of the boulders beneath all the screes, that they are a 

 portion of the general glacial covering of the valleys and hill- 

 sides which was left by the ice-sheet at the time of its disap- 

 pearance. 



These are the main arguments to be derived from the cave 

 itself, but further strong presumptive evidence, that the Pleisto- 

 cene fauna lived in the North of England before the ice-sheet, 

 s as follows : — The older fauna once lived in this district, a 

 t which admits of no dispute from its existence in the Vic- 

 i Cave, in Kirkdale Cave, RaygiU Cave in Lothersdale, and 

 aps in other caves. But their bones are now found nowhere 

 iii tiie open country. None of the river-gravels contain them ; 

 and just that district which is conspicuous by their absence, is 

 also remarkable for the strongest evidences of great glaciation. 

 Putting these facts together, the probability is very strong that 

 it was glaciation that destroyed their remains in the open country. 

 To suppose that these have been destroyed by other sub-aerial 

 agencies, would be to ignore the fact that in the South of England 

 and other non-glaciated areas, such remains exist both in the 

 caves and river-gravels. 



A few bones were found lying upon the boulders beneath the 

 talus. They have been determined where possible by Prof. 

 Busk, but they are only fragmentary and not of much interest ; 

 they were probably washed out of the Lower Cave-earth when it 

 was exposed above the edge of the boulders. No fragments of 

 bone were found throughout the 19 feet of talus which lies 

 between the base of the Neolithic layer and the; top of the 

 boulders. 



I Fork in Chamber D. — A considerable amount of work has 

 been done in excavating this chamber which leads off from the 

 principal entrance towards the right. It was choked to the roof 



* Abstract. Read at the Bristol meeting of the British Association, 

 August 187s, by R. H Tiddeman, M.A., F.G.S. 



t The full report will contain two photographic plates giving a general 

 view of the cave and a nearer view of the boulders. 



Deer 



over the greater part of its extent, with clay and limestone blocks. 

 It is now 1 10 feet long, 20 feet wide, and 20 feet high at the 

 entrance. Two galleries lead off from it on the right. One, the 

 Birkbeck Gallery, is made easily accessible for a distance of 44 

 feet, in a N E. direction. Here it becomes very narrow and leads 

 to a narrow chasm 20 feet deep. The other gallery is blocked at 

 the entrance with stalagmite. 



A magnificent series of bones was found in Chamber D. They 

 were all carefully registered as to their position by Mr. Jackson. 

 The Committee are much indebted to Prof. Busk for his kind- 

 ness in determining them. He says : " They are a remarkably 

 interesting collection, especially in the Bears, and I think the 

 larger of the two skulls is by far the finest specimen of the kind 

 yet found in this country." 



" Out of about 269 specimens^including'detached teeth, 

 127 belonged to Bear 



37 ., „ HyKua 



36 „ „ Bos 



24 » » I'ox 



15 Red Deer 

 7 Reindeer 



10 ,, „ Rhinoceros 

 2 ,, „ Horse 

 I „ „ Badger." 

 To these we may add I of Pig, 2 of Elephant, and i of Hippo- 

 potamus. The Rhinoceros is heviitachus, the Elephant antiquus, 

 and the Hippopotamus, a portion of a tusk, is the only specimen 

 of that animal found in the course of six years' digging. The 

 careful registration of the remains has enabled your reporter to 

 construct a section showing the distribution of the different 

 animals throughout the different portions of the deposit. It is 

 too bulky for publication, but the result may be given in words. 

 The bones group themselves along two horizons separated by a 

 greater or less thickness of laminated clay, cave-earth, and 

 stalagmite. The lower extends from the back of the boiUder- 

 beds at the cave mouth, is continuous with that which contained 

 the human fibula, and runs continuously as far as Parallel 42. 

 The upper bed commences only at Parallel 15, close against the 

 roof, and continues to Parallel 43. Where the upper bed com- 

 mences, the two horizons are about twelve feet apart, but they 

 gradually approach other, and at Parallel 35 not only touch, but 

 seem to be somewhat commingled. 



From this section we find that the following species are — 



Peculiar to the 

 Upper Bed. 



Peculiar to the Lower Bed. Common to both. 



Badger. 



Horse. 



Pig. 



Reindeer. 



Goat or Sheep. 



Hyaena. 

 Brown Bear? 



Elephas antiquus 

 Rhinoceros hemitachus. 

 Hippopotamus. 

 Bos frivtigenius. 



Man. 

 Fox. 



Grisly Bear. 

 Red Deer. 



Brown Bear has previously been foimd in the upper beds in other 

 parts of the cave. The upper bed probably contains remains 

 from the Reindeer period to the present, those of later date being 

 mixed up with older in the mud at the surface. But as distin- 

 guished from the lower bed, the chief characteristics of the upper 

 appear to be the presence of the Reindeer, and the absence of 

 Elephant, Rhinoceros, Hippopotamus, and Hyjena. 



In the upper bed the only sign of man's presence consists of 

 the; spinous process of a vertebra of a bear which has been 

 hacked apparently by some cutting instrument with a tolerably 

 r^ular edge. It might have been done with a bronze celt or 

 polished flint axe. It is probable that Chamber D was never the 

 resort of man within the historic period. The soft wet mud of 

 the floor, and the lowness of the roof, render it most unlikely 

 that anyone would take to it, except vmder the direst necessity, 

 or in the pursuit of science. 



In the lower bed again evidence of man's presence is but 

 scanty. At the mouth, and close to where the human fibula was 

 found, we have this year met with a piece of rib apparently 

 nicked by human agency. The nicks appear to have been made 

 by some clumsy instrument drawn backwards and forwards. 

 They are in character totally unhke the square-troughed gnaw- 

 ings of rodents, and the furrows heavily ploughed by the teeth 

 of carnivores. 



And now, having restricted ourselves to the hard road of 



