134 REPORT—1874., 
fibula to the Anthropological Institute. He states that “there is nothing 
in the condition of the bone opposed to its belonging to the most remote 
antiquity, nor to its owner having been coeval with the extinct mammalia 
(before mentioned), with whose remains the specimen, as to condition, differs 
in no appreciable respect. Its interest, therefore, as representing one of the 
earliest extant specimens of humanity, will be at once obvious. But in 
another regard also it appears desirable that some notice of it should be placed 
on record.. The very unusual form and thickness of the bone have caused 
such great difficulty in its recognition as human, that it is well worth while 
to draw attention to its peculiarities.” Professor Busk proceeds to state that 
after much hesitation he was induced to think, at the suggestion of Mr. James 
Flower, that the bone in question might be referred to a small form of ele- 
phant ; but considerable doubt remained on their minds until Professor Busk 
saw the Mentone skeleton at Paris, and noticing the thick and clumsy fibula 
belonging to it, was at once struck with the apparent resemblance between 
it and the Victoria-Cave bone. Following up this suggestion, Mr. James 
Flower discovered in the Museum of the College of Surgeons a recent human _ 
fibula of unusual thickness, which at once removed all doubt. The cireum- | 
ference of the cave bone about the middle is 2'-2. The unusually thick 
fibula with which Professor Busk compares it measures 2”, whereas he con- 
siders that ordinary full-sized human fibulas may be taken at from 1'"4 to 
1'"8. It is obvious, therefore, that the Settle specimen is unusually thick. 
Professor Busk expresses his opinion that it does not appear from the form of 
the bone that the corresponding tibia was platyenemic, but he hopes that 
further exploration may clear up this and other interesting points. (Journal 
of the Anthropological Institute, vol. iti. No. 3, pp. 392-4.) 
This communication was of the greatest interest, for it had been some time 
before pointed out that there was much chance of the beds in which this bone 
occurred being preglacial, or at any rate of an age preceding that time when 
Scotland, a great part of Ireland, and the north of England were slumbering 
beneath a great sheet of ice similar to those which now cover the greater 
part of Greenland and enshroud a portion of the southern hemisphere. 
The Committee was decided by this in its course of work for the year. The 
question was one of such importance, that we felt the first thing to be done 
was to develop all the evidence that eould be procured upon the question of 
whether these beds containing the older mammals and Man were of pre- 
glacial or interglacial age or not. 
In order that these operations may be the better understood, it is neces- 
sary briefly to recapitulate the order and succession of beds inside and out- 
side the cave. The three principal beds inside the cave are 
The Upper Cave-earth, 
The Laminated Clay, 
The Lower Cave-earth. 
These beds were described by your Reporter in a communication to the Scttle- 
Caves Committee early in 1871, and subsequently to the British Association 
in 1872, but appeared in full in the ‘Geological Magazine’ for January 1873, 
to which he must refer for detailed description. In those communications 
reasons were given for thinking it probable that the laminated clay was ac- 
cumulated under glacial conditions from the muddy water of a glacier or an 
ice-sheet. Such water would penetrate hollows in the rocks anywhere, and 
have a tendency to throw down its mud. Subsequent explorations have only 
served to confirm this view. First (in 1872) came the discovery of the Pleis- 
