B. H. Tiddeman — The Vietoria Cave^ Settle. 13 



probably the top of this bed ; but the water dripping from the 

 roof prevented the shaft being continued, so that it could not be 

 ascertained with certainty. The same angle of dip continued from 

 the 25 foot shaft would just bring the top of this bed to where the 

 pure clay was reached in the 13 foot shaft, so that it is highly 

 probable that it is the same. 



No organic remains whatever have been found in this bed. It is a 

 deposit well adapted for preserving organic structures ; and I have 

 frequently searched it in hopes of finding something embedded in it, 

 but hitherto without success. I have also examined it carefully with 

 a microscope, but have not seen a trace of any animal or vegetable 

 organism. 



(iv.) The lowest set of beds to which we have as yet attained 

 comes next in order of descent. It is in all respects, save the 

 remains which it contains, similar to ii. Seven feet of it were 

 shown in the bottom of the 25 foot shaft in Chamber B. It consists 

 of large and small blocks of Limestone in a matrix of sandy clay. 

 The stones are neither rounded nor scratched. No remains were 

 found in it in this shaft, but at the entrance of the Cave, at a depth 

 in this bed of about 16 feet from the base of the laminated clay, was 

 a yellow layer, a floor of occupation dipping into the Cave, at an 

 angle of 15° or 20°, full of hyaena coprolites, and containing the 

 following remains, kindly determined by Mr. George Busk, F.R.S., 

 in May and June, 1872 :- 



Mephas primigenius (milk molars). 

 Ulephas, Small size (fibula). 

 JJrsus spelceus. 

 Ursus priscus. 



Sycena spelcea. 



Rhinoceros tichorhinus. 



Bison. 



Cervus elaphus. 



2. I will now proceed to consider the probable origin of these 

 deposits, and, with a view to that, will just glance at the position 

 of the Victoria Cave. It burrows into the side of a cliff above the 

 1400 foot level on the east side of a lateral valley which forms a col 

 between the comparatively narrow valley of the Kibble above Settle 

 and its broad alluvial plain below that town. The Cave is situated 

 on the watershed of the little valley, or rather what would be its 

 watershed, were it not excavated in permeable limestone. 



(i.) The origin of the talus is undoubted : ib points simply to 

 agents still in operation here, the disintegration of the cliffs by 

 weather. It must certainly be Post-glacial, for any glacier passing 

 in this direction would certainly remove it ; and there are abundant 

 proofs that ice did pass by here. 



(ii. and iv.) The similarity of the deposits ii. and iv. is so great 

 that there can be little doubt they were made under similar con- 

 ditions, and are due to similar causes. (The bed of laminated clay 

 between them is quite different, and must be referred to quite a 

 distinct state of things.) The angularity of the fragments and the 

 absence of any appearance of rolling forbid us to refer them to the 

 sea ; with this may be coupled the absence of distinct bedding, save 

 where layers of stalagmite or of bones occur, and the irregularity 

 with which the blocks are dispersed throughout the mass without 

 reference to coarseness and fineness of material. Nor can they be 



