BOIfE-CAVES IX NOKTH WALES. 19 



also represented by niilk-molars, fragments of other teeth, a last 

 Tipper true molar, and a few bones. 



The Mammoth, Rhinoceros, and Reindeer were true representatives 

 of a cold or Arctic climate. 



Discussion. 



Dr. EvAXs bore testimony to the great interest and value of 

 Dr. Hicks's discoveries, but with respect to his conclusions he had 

 very considerable difficulty in accepting them. He did not think 

 that it was necessary to invoke the great submergence for which 

 Dr. Hicks argued. He believed that the tunnel-caves had been 

 in existence before the period of the deposition of the Boulder-clay. 

 After the re-emergence of the countrj- the caves appear to have 

 been occupied by Hysenas, though influxes of water carrying cave- 

 earth occasionally took place. The pressure of such accumulated 

 water might also lead to the breaking up and promiscuous mingling 

 of the contents of the caverns. 



Prof. BoTD Dawxes's shared the doubts of the previous speaker as 

 to the justice of the author's conclusions. Similar phenomena to those 

 described occur in caves like Wookey Hole, and even in caves in the 

 immediate neighbourhood of those described. He believed that the 

 occasional flooding of the caves while they were inhabited by the 

 Hyaenas would fully account for all the phenomena described. He 

 did not accept the laminated clay as a proof of glacial conditions. 

 He did not believe that the breaking up and mingling of the deposits 

 could be effected either by glaciers or by the action of waves. 

 The implements made of felstone derived from the glacial deposits 

 found in Pont Newydd Cave on the opposite side of the valley, 

 prove that Palaeolithic man was in the district subsequently to the 

 Glacial period. He admitted the great difficulty of accounting for 

 all the phenomena presented in some of these cases. 



The Author said that the theory suggested by the speakers in 

 the discussion had not met any of the difficulties raised by the facts 

 which he had adduced against believing that currents of water carried 

 the Boulder-clay into the caves. He could not see how water, 

 eiitering the tunnels in the manner suggested, could possibly pro- 

 duce the results observed, subsequently to the scooping of the valley 

 and the prolonged occupation of the caverns by Hysenas, except 

 by submergence. That the area had been subjected to great sub- 

 mergence is granted by all ; the question in dispute is as to whether 

 or not a submergence had taken place since the caverns had been 

 occupied by Hyaenas. The views held by himself agreed in the 

 main with those of Sir Andrew Eamsay, Mr. Mackintosh, and the 

 late Mr. Trimmer. 



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