Henry Dewey — Raised Beach of North Devon. 157 



If this succession be compared with that obtaining in Cornwall 

 and Devon its close similarity is at once seen. In Glamorgan 

 it is the more striking on account of the presence of true glacial 

 till overlying the ancient ' head '. This till, therefore, represents 

 the bed of striated stones and the boulder bed of Devon and Cornwall, 

 and supplies strong evidence of the sequence of climates in Western 

 Britain. The faunal evidence is entirely confirmatory. This is 

 supplied for the most part from the mammalian deposits of the Gower 

 Caves. In considering the relationship of these deposits to those of 

 the contiguous raised beach Dr. Strahan ^ states of Falconer's con- 

 clusion that " granted his contention that the marine sands of the 

 caves belong to the raised beach, and that the breccia associated 

 with the marine sands corres[)onds to the breccia associated with the 

 raised beach, it follows that the mammalian remains found in those 

 deposits were placed there before the deposition of the boulder-clay". 



The fauna described by Falconer is a mixed one, but contains 

 mammalia indicative of a warm temperate climate. These are Mephas 

 antiquus, Rhinoceros leptorhinus, Hippopotamus major, Felis leo, and 

 others. Moreover, it is a fauna which is found in association with 

 Palaeolithic implements of the Chelles, stage of culture. On the 

 Continent the fauna associated with Chellean palseoliths is always 

 a warm temperate or southern one ; but in England northern animals 

 are found with the southern ones. As we shall see later, the 

 southern forms drop out of the fauna associated with a later stage 

 of Palseolithic culture belonging to a period of advancing cold. In 

 other words, the northern animals could survive a temperate climate, 

 while the southern ones were either killed or forced to migrate on 

 the approach of the cold. 



It is important to assess the value of this evidence rightly so as not 

 to overrate its significance. Taking Falconer's list of mammalia, the 

 following significant species are referred to their several periods in 

 the vertical columns : — . 



From the list * it will be seen that the fauna agrees more with the 

 Chelles period than with either the Pliocene or Le Moustier. Prestwich 



^ Geology of South Wales Coalfield (Mem. Geol. Surv.), pt. viii, p. 127, 1907. 

 '^ E. T. Newton, in Vertebrata of the Pliocene Deposits (Mem. Geol. Surv., 1891). 



