Dr. H. Sicks — The Ffynnon Beuno and Cae Gwyn Caves. 567 



geologists as Prof. Boyd Dawkins, Mr. Morton, Mr. De Kance, Mr. 

 Strahan, Mr. Shone, and Dr. Stolterfotb, should, after careful 

 examination, have been perfectly satisfied that the Glacial deposits 

 overlying the flake and Mammalian remains were in an entirely un- 

 disturbed condition, and that they agreed with the views of the 

 members of the Committee (Mr. Luxmoore, Mr. P. P. Pennant, Mr. 

 E. Morgan, and myself), who were almost daily present at the 

 explorations, is, I tbink, ample proof that Prof. Hughes' deductions 

 are entirely at variance with the facts. 



Keport of the Committee, consisting of Professor T. McK. Hughes, M.A. , F.G.S., 

 H. Hicks, M.D., F.R.S., H. Woodward, LL.D., F.R.S., E. B. Luxmoore, M.A., 

 P. P. Pennant, M.A., and Edwin Morgan, appointed for the purpose of explor- 

 ing the Caves of North Wales. — Drawn up by Dr. H. Hicks, Secretary. 



The explorations conducted by the Committee have been confined 

 to the caverns of Ffynnon Beuno and Cae Gwyn, in the Vale of 

 Clwyd. These caverns had been explored in preceding years by 

 Dr. H. Hicks and Mr. E. B. Luxmoore, some of the results being 

 given in a paper communicated to the Geological Section of the 

 Association in 1885, but more fully in a paper in the Quart. Journ. 

 Geol. Soc. February, 1886. 



between the important rivers Elwy and Clwyd. This is in the main part remanie, 

 and as such, the term " Clwydian" might be applied to it. The undisturbed glacial 

 deposits, stratified marine sands, and the overlying clay, containing large boulders of 

 local rocks and northern erratics, found at Cae Gwyn and at so many other points in 

 the neighbourhood at a high level far away from, and beyond the influence of any 

 important river, ought not, on any account, to be termed "Clwydian." The true 

 glacial deposits which overlaid the Mammalian remains and flint flake at the entrance 

 to Cae Gwyn Cave belong to a much earlier phase than the Clwydian drift about St. 

 Asaph and at other low levels in the valley, bordering the great rivers. The Cefn and 

 Plas Heaton Caves, mentioned by Prof. Hughes, are also at a very much lower level 

 than the Ffynnon Beuno Caves, and are so near to the rivers that I do not think 

 the evidence furnished by them can be quoted as of much value either way, though it 

 is well known that many have contended that the evidence in the Cefn Cave was 

 distinctly in favour of its having been occupied by the animals before the great sub- 

 mergence in the Glacial period. The evidence cited by Mr. Strahan, in his recent 

 excellent Memoir, as having been obtained in sinking shafts at the Talargoch mines, 

 conclusively proves that Mammalian remains occur there in the very lowest glacial 

 deposits. It is the great height at which the Ffynnon Beuno Caves occur, the im- 

 possibility of their having been disturbed by fresh water, the evidence of their having 

 been occupied as dens before the great submergence, of the stalagmite floor having 

 been broken up by marine action, of the bones having been cased in marine sand, 

 and of the caverns having afterwards been completely buried under marine sand and 

 an overlying undoubted boulder clay, containing many large ice-scratched boulders, 

 that make the evidence found in them and in their immediate neighbourhood of such 

 great value. The facts in my opinion are conclusive, and they cannot be altered by 

 any amount of special pleading. Prof. Hughes' argument about the absence of 

 flint and other foreign rocks in what he calls the oldest deposit, is founded on nega- 

 tive evidence derived from a limited examination. Mr. Strahan, the latest authority 

 on the drift of this area, says (Geol. Survey Mem. 1885), " The passage from the one 

 Boulder clay into the other is gradual, nor can it be said that one under or overlies 

 the other. They were no doubt formed contemporaneously, differing only in the 

 source of supply of material." Sir C. Lyell in speaking of the Moel Tryfaen beds 

 says (" Student's Elements," 1871), "In the lowest beds of the drift were large 

 heavy boulders of far-transported rocks, glacially polished and scratched on more than 

 one side." Prof. Hughes' pakeontological argument is found on examination to be 

 almost equally inapplicable, as a very large proportion of the animals occur in the 

 Norfolk forest-bed, which is acknowledged by all to be of pre-Glacial age. The fact 

 that some others have not been found in the caverns probably indicates that they did 

 not migrate into this area. 



