612 ON THE MAMMAL-FAUNA OF THE CAVES OF CRESWELL CRAGS. 



thought it was founded on a complete misunderstanding of the nature 

 of the beds, which were really remanies. 



Dr. Murie said that the whole matter resolved itself into a very 

 small point. With regard to the supposed human fibula from Vic- 

 toria Cave, he stated that, his attention having been called to the bone 

 by Prof. Busk, he had made a careful examination and comparison of 

 it in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, and come to the 

 conclusion that it might be the bone of almost any animal ; all ideas 

 of the habits of the cave-dwellers founded upon it were therefore 

 mere fictions. 



Prof. Ramsay thought that the evidence went to prove the exist- 

 • ence of these caves before the Glacial period. They must have been 

 excavated by the action of water charged with carbonic acid ; and 

 glacial bones may easily have got into them. He was much grati- 

 fied by Prof. Riitimeyer's confirmation of the occurrence in Switzer- 

 land of interglacial beds containing evidence of the existence of man ; 

 and if man went up to Glacial beds, he must have previously lived some- 

 where outside them. He thought that the evidence for the existence 

 of man in the Victoria Cave before the Glacial period was stronger 

 than that against it. 



Mr. Callard remarked that the Victoria-Cave fibula was found just 

 at the entrance to and not inside the cave ; and as there was a doubt 

 about its being human, it should be left out of consideration. The 

 lamination of the clays that cover the bone might, he thought, have 

 resulted from their being slowly dropped from above at a subsequent 

 period. 



Prof. Prestwich said that geologists could not found any argument 

 upon this bone. He differed from Prof. Dawkins with regard to the 

 age of the deposits in the Victoria Cave, which he thought might be 

 Preglacial, but agreed with him that in this country we have no 

 evidence of the presence of man before the Glacial age. The Lower 

 Thames gravels are of Postglacial age, as the Gryphcea incurva has 

 been found in them, and this would tend to fix their date as subse- 

 quent to the Boulder- clay, from which that fossil is most likely derived. 



The President noticed the interesting association of the Woolly 

 Rhinoceros, Mammoth, and Reindeer, and commented on the alleged 

 difficulty of separating the Grizzly and Brown Bears by their com- 

 parative anatomy, which, dealing as it does here with the skeletons 

 alone, and leaving out of consideration the habits of the animals and 

 all zoological data, seems to show an identity of two animals which 

 in nature are very distinct. He asked Prof. Boyd Dawkins whether 

 the impression which prevailed in some quarters that there had been 

 a want of care in the excavation of the Victoria Cave was well- 

 founded. 



Prof. W. Boyd Dawkins said that, with respect to the Victoria 

 Cave, he could not say whether it was preglacial or glacial, nor even 

 define its relation to the Glacial period. The age of the clays was a 

 matter of opinion. At present the Victoria Cave is being very care- 

 fully worked. In this country, he thought, we have no evidence of 

 Preglacial man, unless the Lower Brick- earths be Preglacial. 



