Vol. 54.] ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. Ixxix 



The most important evidence yet obtained, it appears to me, 

 is that which has been furnished by the ossiferous caverns in 

 the glaciated areas ; but the occurrence in the same areas of the 

 remains of extinct mammalia, which are now admitted to have 

 been contemporary with the Cave Man, buried under great 

 thicknesses of Glacial deposits, must also have an important 

 bearing on the question. 



All the evidence tends to show that the so-called Tertiary and 

 Quaternary periods merged gradually into each other, and were 

 not separated by any great break in Britain. The higher moun- 

 tains, before the close of the Tertiary period, must have been 

 covered in part by ice and snow, and the so-called Glacial period can 

 only have a chronological importance as indicating the increased 

 intensity and climax of that cold condition gradually ushered in at 

 the earlier time. For the same reason there is no marked and 

 definite line separating the fauna of the Pliocene from that of 

 the Pleistocene, for we find remains of the animals of the warmer 

 period closely associated with those of the colder in the same 

 deposits, and under conditions which show clearly that they lived in 

 those areas at the same time. 



North Wales and tlie North-west of England. 



It is generally admitted that during the latter part of the 

 Pliocene period the mountains of North Wales stood at a consider- 

 ably higher elevation than they do at present ; therefore it is but 

 natural to suppose that during that time the streams which fiowed 

 from them gradually deepened, widened, and also possibly carved 

 out some of the pre-Glacial valleys. The Carboniferous Limestone 

 along the flanks of the mountains, which had at an earlier time 

 been much broken and crushed by earth-movements, now suffered 

 from the additional effects of subaerial action, and wide fissures 

 and caverns were gradually formed in it. In time some of these, 

 as the streams found outlets at lower levels, would be left compara- 

 tively dry, and would then be suitable for habitation by man and 

 beast. 



In nearly all those caverns where bones of the extinct animals 

 and the implements of contemporary man have been found, 

 there is some amount of sediment underlying the remains. This 

 must have been left there by the streams or floods which also 



