510 Dr. Henry Hicks — Bone- Caves of North Wales. 



acceptance. Sir EicTiarfl Oweu, also, has contribnted ^ two interest- 

 ing papers upon considerations suggested by his researches on the 

 Dwarf Crocodiles of Swanage, and the reading of the first before the 

 Geological Society, in 1878, was followed by an important and 

 lengthy discussion. The same distinguished palfeontologist, so long 

 ago as 1858,* also published an outline of the osteology of the 

 Teleosaurian skull ; and more recently, Prof. H. G. Seeley ^ has 

 succeeded in elucidating some of the main features of the brain in 

 that extinct group. 



In conclusion, without attempting, as yet, to enter into the merits 

 of the various specific types that have been described by different 

 authors, it will perhaps be useful to arrange our present knowledge 

 of the subject in tabular form, and the accompanying extensive scheme 

 is accordingly appended. (See folding Table, next p. 508.) Those 

 names that may be regarded as synonyms on the evidence of existing 

 literature have an asterisk prefixed to them, and in the case of 

 species founded on Continental fossils, the particulars inserted in the 

 columns following the name, refer to the date of identification, nature 

 of the first recognized example, etc., of the British representatives. 



V. — On the Fynnon Beuno and Cae Gwyn Bone Caves, 



NoKTH Wales.* 



By H. Hicks, M.D., F.R.S., F.G.S. 



IN the Proceedings of the Geol. Assoc, vol. ix. No. 1, I have 

 given an account of the discovery of two Bone-caves in the 

 Carboniferous rocks on the east side of the Vale of Clwyd, N. "Wales, 

 and of the researches carried on in those caverns by Mr. E. Bouverie 

 Luxmoore, of St. Asaph, and myself in the summers of 1883 and 1884. 

 This summer, by the aid of a grant from the Eoyal Society (the 

 Government Grant), we were enabled to employ a staff of workmen, 

 under our personal supervision, to explore these caverns more 

 thoroughly and with very satisfactory results. Our main object was 

 to gain a clear idea of the physical conditions of the area when the 

 caverns were filled with the deposits, and of the manner in which the 

 remains had been conveyed into them. These points we think we 

 have been able to prove to satisfaction, but it may be advisable to 

 continue the researches for the purpose of obtaining as much con- 

 firmatory evidence as possible. 



In the Cae Gwyn Cavern all the deposits were entirely undisturbed 

 except by burrowing animals when we first discovered it, and great 

 care was taken throughout to notice the conditions of the materials. 



1 R. Owen, " On the Influence of the Advent of a higher Form of Life in modi- 

 fying the Structure of an older and lower Form," Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. 

 xxxiv. (1878), pp. 421-430; also "On the Association of Dwarf Crocodiles 

 {Nannosuchiis and Theriomchus pusillus, e.g.) with the Diminutive Mammals of the 

 Purheck Shales," ibid. vol. xxxv. (1879), pp. 148-155, pi. ix. 



■'' Portion of lecture delivered on April 29th, 1858, reported in Ann. and Mag. Nat. 

 Hist. [3] vol. i. pp. 456-463. 



^ H. G. Seeley, " On the Cranial Characters of a large Teleosaur f rom the Whitby 

 Lias," Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxxvi. (1880), pp. 627-634, pi. xxiv. 



* Read before the Geological Section (C) of the British Association, Aberdeen, 

 September, 1885. 



