XCVi PROCEEDIT^GS OP THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [May 1898, 



occupied by the so-called early Pleistocene animals in pre-Glacial 

 time, and that the bones of the extinct mammalia found in the 

 cavern were covered over by material conveyed by glaciers during 

 the Glacial period. He says : — ' The extent of the Glacial de- 

 posits now exposed is so great that it is impossible that they can 

 be a mere chance accumulation of boulders, which have been 

 re-deposited in their present position since Glacial times. This 

 being the case, it is clear from the position of the boulders beneath 

 all the screes that they form a portion of the general glacial 

 covering of the valleys and hillsides which was left by the ice-sheet 

 at the time of its disappearance. These are the main arguments 

 to be derived from the cave itself; but further strong presumptive 

 evidence that the Pleistocene fauna lived in the North of England 

 before the ice-sheet exists as follows : — The older fauna once lived 

 in that district, a point which admits of no dispute from its exist- 

 ence in the Victoria Cave, in Kirkdale Cave, Raygill Cave in 

 Lothersdale, and perhaps in other caves ; but their bones are now 

 found nowhere in the open country. J^one of the river-gravels 

 contain them ; and just that district which is conspicuous bj' their 

 absence is also remarkable for the strongest evidences of great 

 glaciation. If these facts be taken together, the probability is 

 very strong that it was glaciation which destroyed their remains 

 in the open country.' ^ 



Prof. Boyd Dawkins ^ says that the remains found in this cave 

 ' belong to a fauna that overran Europe and must have occupied 

 this very region before the Glacial period'; therefore it may 

 ' reasonably be concluded that they occupied the cave in pre-Glacial 

 times.' 



The Victoria Cave is 1450 feet above sea-level, and remains of the 

 following early Pleistocene mammalia have been found in it : — 

 Elephas antiquus, Rhinoceros leptorhinus, hippopotamus, hyaena, bear, 

 and red deer. 



Scotland. 



A few caverns have been discovered in Scotland, but in none of 

 these apparently has there been evidence of occupation by Palaeo- 

 lithic man. Eemains of the Pleistocene mammalia, so constantly 

 found with the implements of Palaeolithic man in caverns in England 

 and Wales, have been discovered in several places, and it is of 



1 Rep. Brit. Assoc. 1875, p. 168. 



2 ' Cave Huuting,' 1874, p. 124. 



