180 REPORT— 1872. 



from the roof, Tlie frngments are angular, and show no signs of rolling or glacial 

 scratches. 



No. iii. Eelow this Upper Clay-Tvith-stones, wherever penetrated, we find a thick 

 hed of fine dark-brown laminated clay. The laminations are very distinct and 

 tolerably regular ; the clay flakes of!" along the planes of bedding, the alternations 

 consisting of excessively fine sand and tenacious clay. 



It dips steadily towards the inner part of the cave, having an inclination of 

 about 1 in 9, rather more than G°. It shows a thickness of 12 feet in a shaft sunk 

 in the left-hand cliamber. With acid it effervesces freely, losing about 8 per cent, 

 of its weight. Though very well adapted for preserving organic structures, it has 

 not 3'ielded a trace of any organism even to the microscope. 



No. iv. The lowest set of beds yet attained comes next in order of descent. 

 They are in all respects similar to No. ii., the Upper Clay-with-stones, save that 

 in them, near the entrance, at a depth of about 16 feet from the base of the lami- 

 nated clay, the group of older mammals, as mentioned by Mr. Dawkins, was 

 discovered. 



The origin of the cUhris at the entrance is clearly subaerial, and it must all of it 

 be postglacial, for any glacier passing down the valley would infallibly remove it. 



The similarity of the deposits ii. and iv. is so great that there can bo little 

 doubt that they were made under similar conditions and are due to similar 

 causes. The angularity of the fragments and the absence of distinct bedding, 

 save where stalagmite occm'S, forbid us referring them to the sea ; nor can they 

 be referred to a river, for any stream of sufficient strength to bring the blocks 

 would certainly have sorted the materials. It is not likely that they are glacial, 

 and have been pushed into the cave from the side of an advancing glacier ; for then 

 they would have exhibited some scratches, which is not the case. It seems more 

 probable that the stones have fallen from the roof, and the clay has been introduced 

 by water in small volume coming down through crevices in the limestone and 

 forming, where conditions were favourable, beds of stalagmite. 



In direct contrast to the beds above and below, the laminated claj' shows the 

 greatest regularity of structure. 



If it were marine, it seems unlikely that in so good a preservative medium no 

 fragments or fibres of organisms should be found ; nor against a rocky beach woidd 

 it consist of such fine material; also, we should not expect to find it dipping away 

 from the sea, but towards it or lying horizontal : neither have we anywhere in the 

 district, for miles around, any indisputable evidence of the sea having been at so 

 great a height (1450 feet) during or since the glacial period ; any brook flowing 

 through the cave at so high an angle would not deposit fine mud but remove it. 



The author suggested that the moraine rubbish of a glacier or ice-sheet at some 

 time blocked the entrance *, that water charged with mud by the constant grinding of 

 tlie glacier trickled tlirough into the cave, and that the frequent change from 

 daily flow to nightly inaction gave rise to that close lamination in the deposit 

 wliich is its characteristic feature. 



This explanation of the glacial origin of the laminated clay was suggested to 

 the Settle-Cave Committee, in a report in the spring of 1871, by the author. 



Since then he has found in a sliaft sunlv at Ingleton, a few miles to the N.W., 

 under 39 feet of till, laminated clay undistinguishable from that in tlie Victoria 

 Cave, save in the presence of a few well-scratched small boulders and the 

 crumpling of the beds. Ho considers it probable that this laminated clay was a 

 deposit from glacier-water in some quiet hollow beneath the edge of the ice- 

 sheet or its waning representative. 



On the Primitive Weajpons of Ancient India. 

 By Sir Walter Elliot, K.C.S.I., F.L.S. 



The earliest known inhabitants of India are now only found in their original 

 unmixed state on the mountainous plateaux of Central India, on the Rajmahal 

 Hills in the north, and in some other secluded situations; but their descendants 



* This suggestion has since been confirmed (Geological Magazine, vol. s. p. 15, 1873). 



