14 B. H. Tiddeman — The Victoria Cave, Settle. 



referred to a river or brook, for any stream wliicli would be of suffi- 

 cient strength to bring the blocks of stone would infallibly have 

 sorted the materials. It is not likely that they are glacial, and have 

 been pushed into the Cave from the side of an advancing glacier, for 

 then they would be almost sure to exhibit scratches, which is not the 

 case. Every condition is satisfied by the supposition that the stones 

 have fallen from the roof, and that the clay and fine material have 

 been introduced by water in small volume coming down through 

 crevices in the limestone, and depositing its impurities on the irre- 

 gular surface below, and forming occasionally, when circumstances 

 were favourable, layers of stalagmite. 



(iii.) In direct contrast to the beds above and below, the laminated 

 clay shows the greatest regularity of structure. How was it formed ? 

 It is not very likely, if it were a marine deposit, that we should find 

 no organic remains whatever ; some small fragments or fibres would 

 be sure to be thrown up, and the clay is of the best possible nature 

 for preserving them, which increases the strength of this negative 

 evidence. Also, it is not likely to be a sea deposit, because, if it 

 were, against so rocky a beach it would not be made of such very 

 fine materials, and coarser beds would certainly occur in it. Also, 

 the beds would not dip away from the sea, but be either level or dip 

 towards it ; whereas the reverse is the case. Neither have we at 

 any spot in the district for many miles round any indisputable 

 evidence of the sea having been at so high a level either during or 

 since the Glacial Period. On the other hand, it is difficult to con- 

 ceive of an ordinary stream of sufficient power to bring so much 

 mud, and also to deposit it at so high an angle as that at which it 

 lies. Any brook flowing through the Cave at that angle would not 

 deposit fine mud, but remove it. There is only one way in which I 

 can conceive of its having been formed. Let us imagine a glacier, 

 or an ice-sheet, passing by the mouth of the cave, and partly block- 

 ing the entrance with its rubbish. The former existence of one or 

 both is proved by the glacial scratches and till on the rocks hard by, 

 and by numberless other ice phenomena in the neighbourhood. The 

 glacier melts by day, and usually (though not always) freezes by 

 night. The moraine rubbish hinders the coarser debris from entering 

 the cave, but gives passage to glacier water charged with fine mud. 

 The glacier, by its grinding, keeps the water charged with mud; and 

 the frequent change from daily flow to nightly inaction gives rise 

 to that close lamination which is its characteristic feature. 



In the summer of 1872, since the above was written, in a shaft 

 sunk for coal at Newfield House, Ingleton, a few miles to the N.W. 

 of Settle, I came u'pon the following section : 



4. Eeddish stiff till, containing large and small scratched and beautifully 



polished boulders ... ... ... ... ... 39ft. 



3. Laminated clay undistinguishable from that in the Victoria Cave, but 



containing a few small well-scratcbed boulders ... ... 6ffc. 



2. Red clay, containing a few very small semi-angular scratched stones... 3ft. 



1. Laminated clay, like No. 3 ... ... ... ... 3ft. 



Coal-measure rock. 



Although in specimens of the laminated clay only a few inches 



