_ of the area. 
Sept. 16, 1886 | 
NATURE 
481 
fore, which the Committee had in view this year was to critically 
examine those portions of the caverns not previously explored, 
so as to endeavour to arrive at the true cause of the pecaliar 
conditions observed. When the explorations were suspended 
last year in the Cae Gwyn Cave it was supposed that we had 
just reached a chamber of considerable size, but after a few days’ 
work this year it was found that what appeared to be a chamber 
was agradual widening of the cavern towards a covered entrance. 
The position of this entrance greatly surprised us, as hitherto we 
hhad believed that we were gradually getting further into the 
limestone hill. The rise in the field at this point, however, 
proved to be composed of a considerable thickness of glacial 
deposits heaped up against a limestone cliff. A shaft, 20 feet 
deep, was opened over this entrance from the field above. The 
beds were carefully measured by Mr. C. E. De Rance, Mr. 
Luxmoore, and the writer, during the prosecution of the work. 
Below the soil, for about 8 feet, a tolerably stiff boulder-clay, 
containing many ice-scratched boulders and narrow bands and 
pockets of sand, was found. Below this there were about 7 
feet of grayel and sand, with here and there bands of red clay, 
having also many ice-scratched boulders. The next deposit met 
with was a laminated brown clay, and under this was found the 
bone-earth, a brown, sandy clay with small pebbles and with 
angular fragments of limestone, stalagmite, and stalactites. On 
June 28, in the presence of Mr. G. H. Morton, of Liverpool, 
and the writer, a small but well-worked flint-flake was dug up 
from the bone-earth on the south side of the entrance. Its 
“position was about 18 inches below the lowest bed of sand. 
Several teeth of hyzena and reindeer, as well as fragments of 
bone, were also found at the same place; and at other points in | 
the shaft teeth of rhinoceros and a fragment of a mammoth’s 
tooth. One rhinoceros tooth was found at the extreme point 
examined, about 6 feet beyond and directly in front of the 
entrance. It seems clear that the contents of the cavern must 
have been washed out by marine action during the great snbmer- 
gencein mid-Glacial time, and that they were afterwards covered 
by marine sands and by an upper boulder-clay, identical in 
character with that found at many points in the Vale of Clwyd 
and in other places on the North Wales coast. The bone-earth 
seems to diminish in thickness rather rapidly outwards under the 
glacial deposits, but it was found as far out as the excavations 
have been made. Here the bone-earth rests directly on the 
limestone floor, with no local gravel between, as in the cavern. 
It would be interesting to know how far the cave-earth extends 
under the glacial deposits, but this could only be ascertained by 
making a deep cutting through the terrace of glacial deposits, 
which extends for a considerable distance in a westerly direction. 
The glacial deposits here are undoubtedly in an entirely undis- 
turbed condition, and are full of smooth and well-scratched 
boulders, many of them being of considerable size. Among the 
boulders found are granites, gneiss, quartzites, flint, felsites, 
diorites, volcanic ash, Silurian rocks, and limestone. Silurian 
rocks are most abundant. It is clear that we have here rocks 
from northern sources, along with those from the Welsh hills, 
and the manner in which the limestone at the entrance to the 
cavern in the shaft is smoothed from the north would indicate 
that to be the main direction of the flow. The marine sands 
and gravels which rest immediately on the bone-earth are pro- 
bably of the age of the Moel Tryfaen and other high-level sands, 
and the overlying clay with large boulders and intercalated sands 
may be considered of the age of the so-called upper boulder-clay 
The latter must evidently have been deposited by 
coast-ice. Whether the caverns were occupied in pre- or only 
in inter-Glacial times it is difficult to decide, but it is certain that 
they were frequented by Pleistocene animals and by man before 
the characteristic glacial deposits of this area were accumulated. 
The local gravel found in the caverns, underlying the bone earth, 
must have been washed in by streams at an earlier period, pro- 
bably before the excavation of the rocky floor of the valley to its 
present depth. From the Glacial period up to the present time 
excavation has taken place only in the glacial deposits, which 
must have filled the valley up to a level considerably above the 
entrances to the caverns. ‘lhe characteristic red boulder-clay 
with erratic blocks from northern sources is found in this area to 
a height of about 500 feet, and sands and gravels in the moun- 
tains to the south-east to an elevation of about 1400 feet. The 
natural conclusion therefore is that the caverns were occupied by 
an early Pleistocene fauna and by man anterior to the great sub- 
mergence indicated by the high-level marine sands, and therefore 
also before the deposition of the so-called great upper boulder- 
clay of this area, As there is no evidence against such a view, 
* Tremadoc. 
it may even be legitimately assumed that the ossiferous remains 
and the Hint implements are of an earlier date than any glacial 
deposits found in this area. 
Fourth Report on the Fossil Phyllopoda of the Paleozoic Rocks, 
by Prof. T. R. Fones.—This report tabulates 37 species with 
their geological range, critical remarks being given on most 
species. There are 28 species of Ceratiocaris from beds ranging 
from the Carboniferous limestone to the Lower Wenlock ; three 
doubtiul forms are recorded from the Upper Llandovery and 
The other forms referred to are Zymelecaris (four 
species), Physocaris vesica, and NXiphocaris ensis, all from the 
Ludlow beds. 
Report on the Vo'canic Phenomena of Vesuvius and its Neagh- 
bourhood, by Dr. H. F. Fohnston-Lavis.—The report gave a de- 
scription of the volcanic activity of Vesuvius during the past 
year, illustrated by photographs. The fourth sheet of the Geo- 
logical Map of Monte Somma and Vesuvius (scale 1 : 10,000) 
has been completed, and was exhibited at the meeting; this 
distinguishes in great detail the lava-flows of various dates. The 
present year has been remarkable for the chances it affords for 
studying the subterranean structure of the Campi Phlegrei and 
the volcanic region around Naples. The great main drain 
which is to convey the sewage of Naples to the Gulf of Gaeta 
will traverse the region west of Naples on a line running nearly 
east and west. Five borings have been made to test the ground 
to be cut throuzh, in which observations on the water-level, 
temperature, and presence of volcanic gases were made. A deep 
well is in progress at Lago Fusaro. Five other borings on or 
near the renowned Starza or fore-shore of Puzzuoli, on the new 
works of Sir W. Armstrong, Mitchell, and Co., are interesting 
as being within a few hundred yards of the celebrated so-called 
Temple of Serapis. Two are on the shore, and three at varying 
distances out to sea ; they fully confirm the opinions venerally held 
as to the oscillations of the ground here. The new Cumana Rail- 
way from Naples to Baia and Fusaro traverses the rocky escarp- 
ment just west of Naples. This has hitherto been supp)sed to be 
composed of a moderately uniform mass of pelagonatised basic 
marine tuff; but under the middle of the Corso Vitt. Emanuele 
and the Via Tasso the edge of a trachyte flow was traversed for 
over 70 metres. Much interesting information is expected from 
this railway, which will require a number of cuttings and tunnels, 
and will have to traverse the hot hill behind Baia. A deep well, 
in progress at Ponticelli on the outskirts of Naples, towards 
Vesuvius, has already been carried to a depth of over 109 
metres ; in the lower half of this a series of leucitic lava-streams 
was traversed, showing the great distances to which the old 
flows from Monte Somma reached, and also that either great 
depression of land has taken place, or that Monte Somma once 
formed a volcanic island. The work in hand, in addition to 
watching the progress of the works mentioned above, and 
mapping the old lava-streams, includes a careful study of the 
ejected blocks of Monte Somma, both chemical and micro- 
scopical, and a comparison of these rocks with those of the 
ancient volcanic regions of the Fassathal in the Tyrol, which 
they greatly resemble. 
Thirteenth Report on the Erratic Blocks of England and Wales, 
by Rev. Dr. Crosskey.—This describes boulders near Settle and 
Kendal, to which the attention of the Committee has been called 
by Prof. T. McKenny Hughes, which are perched on pedestals 
of limestone striated in the direction of the main ice-flow. The 
boulders have preserved the rock immediately beneath from 
denudation. Mr. Plant gives much information upon the 
boulders in the valley of the Soar near Leicester recently well 
exposed in deep excavations. Thousands of blocks here occur 
in the boulder-clay ; about one half are from Charnwood Forest, 
the remainder from the Permian sandstones and Carboniferous 
rocks of the Ashby coal-field, with blocks of mountain limestone 
brought fifteen or eighteen miles from the north-west ; the rest are 
from the east side of the Pennine Chain, forty to fifty miles 
distant to the north-east. Details of various other excavations in 
and around Leicester were given, from which it is inferred that 
the Charnwood district was the centre of lo-alice-action. Dr. 
Crosskey and Mr. F. W. Martin describe a group of boulders 
between Shifnal and Tong, the stones consisting of rocks from 
the Lake district with Criffel granites which have evidently 
travelled together to their present position. 
Report on the Erosion of the Sea-Coasts of England and Wates, 
by C. E. De Rance and W. Tofley.—The information here 
given referred in part to the East Anglian coast, for which 
