OF THE CAVES OF CRESWELL CBAGS. 611 



valuable instruments they may be for classifying the Pleistocene 

 strata in glaciated areas, cannot be used successfully in non-glaciated 

 areas for the arrangement of the European Pleistocenes, which must 

 be treated in the same way as other geological deposits by an appeal to 

 the animal remains which they contain. The glacial series of events * 

 is one thing, and the zoological f altogether another thing. The 

 Pleistocene fauna is not divided from that which went before and 

 that which followed after by a barrier of ice. 



The Palaeolithic hunters of the Creswell Caves, judged by the 

 zoological standard, belong to the late Pleistocene age, since the 

 numerous remains of Reindeer prove that the Arctic mammalia were 

 then in possession of the land. Whether they be Pre- Inter-, or 

 Postglacial is altogether doubtful. 



Discussion. 



Prof. Rutimeyer dwelt on the insufficiency of stratigraphical data 

 for the determination of the age of glacial deposits in caves, but re- 

 ferred to two beds of lignites on the shores of the Lake of Zurich, 

 which are undoubtedly of interglacial age, seeing that they are 

 underlain and overlain by glacial deposits. In these lignites there 

 had been found remains of Cervus elaphus, C. dices, Ursus spelceus, 

 and of Rhinoceros hemitoechus and Elephas antiquus, the last two de- 

 termined by the late Dr. Falconer. He remarked that traces of 

 man's existence have been found along with such remains, and in 

 Italy a human skull occurred in strata containing Eleplias mevidionalis. 

 In the lignite of Wetzikon thin wooden stakes have been met with, 

 sharpened at one end, and bound round with what seemed to be 

 strips of bark, which, however, had proved to be small segments of 

 similar sticks split radially in the direction of the medullary rays. 

 Prof. Rutimeyer added that traces of man have been thus discovered 

 in true Pliocene deposits on both sides of the Alps. 



Mr. Evans, from the form of the needle and scrapers, was inclined 

 to refer them to a later age than that usually assigned to Solutre. 

 He inquired whether the ruddle mentioned by Prof. Dawkins con- 

 sisted of scraped hsematite like that found in French caves : for if so 

 it showed an interesting similarity of habit in people so widely se- 

 parated. He noticed the resemblance of the quartzite implements to 

 those of the neighbourhood of Toulouse. With regard to the earliest 

 appearance of man in this country, Mr. Evans remarked that, if there 

 was evidence of his presence in glacial or preglacial times, he must 

 have existed previously somewhere else under a milder climate. 

 This, he thought, was probable ; but he had not yet met with any 

 conclusive evidence of the fact, and he was glad to find that the de- 

 termination of the supposed human fibula from the Victoria Cave was 

 so doubtful that it may safely be rejected. With regard to the al- 

 leged discovery of traces of preglacial man in Suffolk and Norfolk, he 



* Geikie, ' Ice-Age.' 



t Boyd Dawkins, "Classification of Pleistocene Strata by Mammalia " Quart. 

 Journ. Geol. Soc. 1872, and • Care-hunting.' 



