Sir S. S. HowoHh — The Maminoth and the Glacial Drift. 403 



found in the bone-earth were evidently deposited in the cave before 

 the deposition of the Boulder-clay, and there are no indications of 

 any interglacial period between it and a still earlier period of land 

 glaciation {id. pp. 571-2). Dr. Hicks says, "The recent researches 

 at Cae-Gwyn have proved . most conclusively that there was no 

 foundation for the views of those who contended that the drift which 

 crossed over the entrance and extended into the cavern was remaine 

 and had gradually crept down the hill. They have shown beyond 

 the possibility of doubt that the deposits which overlie the true 

 earth are in situ and are identical with the typical Glacial deposits 

 of the area. . . . The excavations carried on in 1885, 1886 and 1887, 

 show that the caves must have been occupied by the animals before 

 aiiy of the Glacial deposits now found there had accumulated [id. 

 p. 575). Mr. De Eance writes, June, 1886, "the entrance to the 

 cavern had been discovered and a vertical shaft 20 feet deep, dis- 

 closed Boulder-clay resting on drift sand which passed continuously 

 into the cavern itself, while the underlying bone-earth similarly 

 passed outside the cavern and formed the base of the cutting as far 

 as it was carried. In June, 1887, the pit in the drift was cut still 

 further back, the bone-eartb still continuing to form the base of the 

 Glacial drift" {id. p. 576). "Mr. Strahan believed that the drift of 

 the mouth of the cave was part of the northern drift which he had 

 mapped over a large part of Denbighshire, Flintshire and Cheshire, 

 and that the bone-earth lay beneath it" {id. p. 577). 



In the discussion on Prof. Hughes' paper in the Q.J.G.S. vol. xliii. 

 on the drifts of the Vale of Clwyd, Dr. Hicks said the Arenig drift 

 is known, from well-sinkings to be underlain by sands and gravels 

 like those at Talargoch, in which bones of animals, similar to those 

 found in the caverns, have been discovered. He said furthei-, that 

 he was perfectly convinced by the evidence found during the ex- 

 ploration of the caves of Ffynnon Beuno and Cae-Gwyn that they 

 must have been occupied by man and the animals before the climax 

 of the Ice-age, and that the mammalian remains and the implements 

 must be considered as of pre-Glacial age. Professor Dawkins said 

 that after examining the first section he felt obliged to accept Dr. 

 Hicks' evidence. The drift above the place where the implements 

 was found was, in his opinion, not remaine but in situ ; with regard 

 to the mammalia found in the caves of the Vale of Clwyd, nearly all 

 were living in the eastern counties in the pre-Glacial age" {op. cit. 

 pp. 116-118). 



Prof. Prestwich, in 1887, in abandoning his earlier view, which, 

 was against the existence of pre-Glacial Man, said that the cave work 

 of Ml'. Tiddeman and Dr. Hicks gives strong presumptive evidence 

 of the earlier geological appearance of Man in the British area; and 

 he saw no reason to doubt the sub-Boulder-clay evidence of Mr. 

 Skertchly. Of the correctness of his opinion in regard to the strati- 

 graphical position of the bed in which his specimen was found, I 

 have, however, little doubt (Q.J.G.S. vol. xliii. p. 406-7). In the 

 discussion which followed, Mr. De Ranee said he quite agreed with 

 Dr. Hicks in his interpretation of the facts observed by him {id. 409). 



In the Hysena-den, near Eoss, situated 300 feet above the present 



