A HISTORY OF CORNWALL 



'head' are found in the smaller bays by the filling of which the shore 

 line has been modified. Some writers have considered the 'head' 

 to have been formed beneath the sea, but the phenomena which it 

 presents can be more satisfactorily accounted for on the above hypothesis. 

 That the outer edge of the deposit reached the sea may be regarded as 

 certain, and it is even probable that in sheltered situations it might creep 

 out beneath the water and escape destruction from tidal action ; but the 

 seaward creep on the ocean front must have been limited by the zone of 

 wave action before which the advancing deposit was progressively trun- 

 cated and its contents spread on the sea floor. 



That the raised beach which underlies the ' head ' was formed at 

 least before the close of the glacial epoch seems all the more probable 

 from the evidence furnished by other districts. On the northern side of 

 the Bristol Channel for instance, Mr. R. H. Tiddeman has shown that 

 the raised beach of Gower is overlain by glacial deposits ; while still 

 further north the west of Scotland affords ample evidence of the glacial 

 age of some of the raised beaches of that region. 



The gap therefore that divides the raised beaches of Cornwall from 

 their modern counterparts, with which at first sight they almost appear to 

 blend, is not only represented by periods in which the land has undergone 

 considerable oscillations of level, but marks a period that carries us back 

 to the glacial age. In that prolonged interval, the earliest part of which 

 was marked by an arctic climate, Palaeolithic man inhabited Britain in 

 association with giant forms of extinct mammalia, such as the mammoth 

 and the gigantic Irish elk, and with the cave-bear, lion, rhinoceros, lynx, 

 leopard, hippopotamus and reindeer. The presence of herds of herbi- 

 vorous animals which browsed upon the pastures, implies the continental 

 condition of Britain, permitting their migration across the plain now 

 occupied by the eastern portions of the English Channel. Subsequent 

 submergence which followed the age of great forests brought back once 

 more the return of Britain to its present insular condition. Although, 

 except in one instance which will be referred to later, the remains of 

 Palaeolithic man and the extinct mammalia coeval with his existence in 

 Britain have not hitherto been found in Cornwall, owing in all probability 

 to the absence of limestone caverns, and deep deposits of peat and gravels 

 from which such remains have usually been disinterred, it may be taken 

 for granted that our county was the habitat of early man and his congeners. 

 His remains however, as already noted, are stated to have been discovered 

 in association with the remains of deer and other animals beneath 53 feet 

 of estuarine deposits at Carnon and beneath 40 feet of similar material at 

 Pentuan. These however would probably be referred to the Neolithic 

 period. Mr. Clement Reid and Mrs. Reid have recently discovered at 

 Prah Sands between the head and the raised beach an old land-surface, 

 consisting of loamy soil penetrated by small roots and containing fragments 

 of charcoal and bone. Pieces of vein-quartz also occur and appear to have 

 been used as implements. Mr. Reid regards these remains as the first 

 record of palaeolithic man in Cornwall. 



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