96 PREHISTORIC EUROPE. 



would frequently be floated off by the water in flood time, and 

 carried into underground channels. Again, as we shall afterwards 

 see, the Pleistocene Period was, at several epochs, characterised 

 by extreme humidity, when all the small streams and larger 

 rivers were subject to great inundations. Hence any remains 

 lying loose at the surface would frequently be swept away and 

 carried into subterranean channels, in the unequal depressions of 

 which they would tend to accumulate. Afterwards, when such 

 inundations became rare, or altogether ceased, and when, owing 

 to changes in the drainage-system of a country, the old subter- 

 ranean cavities were deserted for new channels, the ossiferous 

 and earthy ddbris would gradually become sealed up by stalag- 

 mitic accretions. 



> Before leaving the English caves reference may be made to 

 the very interesting Victoria Cave, near Settle, in Yorkshire, 

 which exhibits at least four stages or layers, each with its own 

 peculiar character. It occurs at a height of about 1450 feet 

 above the sea and 900 feet above the river Eibble, which flows 

 at the foot of the hill in which the cave occurs. The deposits 

 met with in this cave are as follow : — 1 



1. Romano-Celtic Stratum, with Roman coins, pottery, and various 

 objects of bone, such as spindle-whorls, beads, spoon -brooches, a tooth 

 comb, etc., and numerous articles and ornaments in bronze, some of them 

 enamelled in red, blue, yellow, and green. With these were associated 

 bones of the Celtic shorthorn, goat, pig, horse, roedeer, stag, wild-duck, 

 grouse, and domestic fowl. Professor Dawkins assigns this layer with 

 much probability to the time of the evacuation of Britain by the Romans, 

 when the Romanised Celts were forced to flee from their homes, " with 

 some of their cattle and other property, and were compelled to exchange 

 the luxuries of civilised life for a hard struggle for common necessaries." 



2. Neolithic Layer. — " Five or six feet of what had at one time been 

 loose talus, but was now bound together, though not very firmly," with 

 calcareous matter. Underneath this old talus were found a bone harpoon, 



1 The exploration of Victoria Cave has been conducted under the auspices of 

 the British Association, and is reported on by Mr. Dawkins and Mr. Tiddeman. 

 See British Association Reports, 1873 (by Mr. Dawkins), and 1874-1878 (by 

 Mr. Tiddeman). See also Geol. Mag., vol. x. p. 11, and another paper by Mr. 

 Tiddeman in Journ. Anthrop. Inst, 1878. 



