ON THE EXPLORATION OF THE SETTLE CAVES. 251 



Pleistocene stratum and its relation to the deposits above and below. A pas- 

 sage was cut th-rough the talua of angular detritus fallen from the cliff at the 

 same level as the cave-earth, which proved that the detritus graduated in its 

 lower part into a clay containing stones, among Avhich glaciated Silurian 

 grit-stones were recognized on 3rd November, 1872. These were close to a 

 large mass of fallen rock which formed the left-hand side of the passage that 

 had been cut at the entrance, the right-hand consisting of the solid lime- 

 stone wall of the cave. They rested at about the same level as the stratum 

 coutaining the cave-mammals, and apparently were deposited on the edges 

 of that stratum. Some of them were embedded in clay, while others, which 

 were to be seen in the section exposed May 21 last, were free, the clay that 

 once covered them being washed away. 



At the end of the passage, and just within the entrance of the cave, a shaft 

 was sunk, which proved that the cave-earth was only from 3 to 4 feet thick, 

 and that it rested on a confused stratum of large limestone blocks embedded 

 in clay both amorphous and laminated, and in some cases in sand, 7 feet 

 thick. Below this the workmen broke into a passage, of which one side was 

 composed of the wall of the cave. 



This section revealed the fact that the laminated clay occurred at various 

 levels, not merely above but below the Pleistocene stratum ; and there seems 

 to the Secretary (Mr. Dawkins) to be no reason why it should not be depo- 

 sited now in some of the interstices between the blocks of stone hclow the 

 I'leistocene stratum by the heavy rains. 



The evidence as to the precise relation of the older deposits in the cave to 

 the glacial phenomenon of the district is not so clear as might have been ex- 

 pected. The boulders may be the deposit in situ of a lateral moraine ; or they 

 may have dropped subsequently from a higher level. It is, however, obvious 

 that the hyaenas, bears, mammoths, and other creatures found in the Pleisto- 

 cene stratum could not have occupied the district where it was covered by 

 ice. And had they lived hero after the retreat of the ice-sheet, their remains 

 would occur in the river-gravels from which they are absent throughout a 

 large area to the north of a line drawn between Chester and York, since they 

 occur abundantly in the postglacial river-deposits south of that line. On the 

 other hand, they belong to a fauna that overran Europe, and must have 

 occupied this very region, before the Glacial period. It may therefore reason- 

 ably be concluded that they occupied the cave in preglacial times, and that 

 the stratum in which their remains lie buried was protected from the grind- 

 ing of the ice-sheet* which destroyed nearly all the sitrface-aecumulations in 

 the river-valleys, by the walls and roof of rock which has since been to a 

 groat extent weathered away. 



The exploration of the Victoria Cave, which has hitherto yielded such in- 

 teresting evidence of three distinct occupations (first bj' the hyajnas, then 

 by Neolithic men, and lastly by the Britwelsh), is by no means complete. The 

 cave itself is of unknown depth and extent ; and the mere removal of so 

 much earth and clay as it is at present known to contain will be a labour of 

 j'^ears. The results of the exploration up to the present time are of almost 

 equal value to the archfeologist, to the historian, and the geologist, and 

 prove how close is the intimate bond of union between three branches of 

 human thought which at first sight appear remote from each other. 



* On this point see : — Pop. Se. Ecv. Oct. 1871, " Pleistocene Climate and Mammalia ; " 

 and " Classification of Pleistocene Strata," Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. 1872, pp. 411 et se'q. 



