98 PREHISTORIC EUROPE. 



The succession of changes which is evidenced by the 

 phenomena exposed during the exploration of this interesting 

 cave Mr. Tiddeman has shown to be as follows : First, we have 

 the occupation of the cave by hyaenas, and now and then by 

 bears, by whose agency it is probable that most of the other 

 bones found in the lower cave-earth were introduced ; for it may 

 fairly be inferred, from the presence of hyaenas' coprolites, and 

 the abundant osseous remains of this animal and bears, that 

 these were actual denizens of the cave. Since doubt has been 

 cast upon the character of the fibula, which was at first believed 

 to be human, Mr. Tiddeman rejects it altogether, but the pre- 

 sence of the cut bones he holds to be a proof that man was a 

 native of Yorkshire at this period. And as the bones met with 

 in the lower cave -earth belong to species with which it has 

 been demonstrated that man was certainly contemporaneous in 

 many other parts of England and the Continent, it is in the 

 highest degree probable that man did live in the north of 

 England at the time the Victoria Cave was a den of hyaenas. 



The "glacial drift" and laminated clay, according to Mr. 

 Tiddeman, prove that after the cave had been the abode of 

 hyaenas for a prolonged time, it was at last abandoned, and the 

 valley of the Eibble was occupied by a large glacier or part of 

 an extensive sheet of land-ice, which, creeping down the valley, 

 deposited its morainic debris in front of the cave, while from 

 the melting ice muddy water flowed into the cavern, and spread 

 out the silt or laminated clay. 1 By and by this glacier dis- 

 appeared, and then the remains of another group of animals 



1 Such laminated clays are frequently found in connection with boulder-clay 

 or "glacial drift," not only in the British Islands, but in Switzerland and 

 Northern Italy. They represent the action of the water which is nearly always 

 circulating underneath a glacier. The few ice-scratched stones which the lami- 

 nated clays sometimes contain have been derived from the under-surface of the 

 glacier. I have seen fine examples of these deposits at various places in the 

 railway cuttings between Mendrisio and Balerna (Como and Lugano railway), 

 and I have observed them also in the till of the valley of the Arve, and other 

 places in Switzerland. They are extremely common in Scotland, and have been 

 described by Scandinavian glacialists as being frequently met with in Sweden 

 and Norway. They seem to be in like manner abundant in the glacial deposits 

 of North America. 



