ON THE CAE GWYN CAVE. 137 



quence, and it does not affect any of the beds immediately above. 

 The bone-earth had been disturbed by marine action, and therefore 

 contained irreguhir bands of gravel and sand and some foreign 

 materials. Mr. De Ranee had made a further exploration, in con- 

 junction with Mr. Morgan, the owner, and one of the members of 

 the Committee, with the result that bones of hyaena had been 

 found overlying the block, under layers of sand which passed 

 from the vertical drift-section well beyond the point where any 

 pothole could possibly have occurred, and under the shelving rock 

 1-0 the inner wall of the cavern. His diagrams were exhibited. 

 The whole evidence, therefore, is most distinctly opposed to Prof. 

 Hughes's views, and confirmatory of the statements made by those 

 members of the Committee who have superintended the explora- 

 tions. 



Mr. E. T. Newton" spoke in explanation of a diagram which 

 he exhibited in illustration of the subject. On comparing the list 

 of Mammalia found in the cave with (1) those of the forest-bed taken 

 as a type of a pregiacial fauna, and (2) those of the presumably 

 postglacial or intergiacial fauna of the river-gravels, he concluded 

 that the Mammalia of the cave are of the same age as those of the 

 river-gravels. 



Mr. Lydekker criticised the lists and inferences of the last 

 speaker. 



The Author emphasized the points which had been made by 

 Mr. jSTewton. The age of the cave-deposits could only be decided 

 by that of the deposit which finally closed it. It was certainly 

 singular that Dr. Hicks had put everything there for him to find — 

 the scratched stone, the land-shell, and even the old fence itself. 

 When the cave was filled up, the swallow-hole action to which he 

 referred was no longer in operation. Of course, there was no 

 difficulty about the sand and gravel in the cave ; that had been 

 derived from the material outside. A plumb-line might have been 

 let fall where the bones were found, but the original roof of the cave 

 extended beyond them. The looped surface-deposits spoken of 

 were part of the great slip, and he claimed that this was due to 

 swallow-hole action. The barrier of limestone was not paralleled in 

 any portion of the drift ; the chief mass of travertine is not floor- 

 travertine, but wall-travertine, such as may now be seen in the cave. 

 Dr. Geikie had allowed that the bone-earth projected beyond the 

 present limit of the cave, but thought it probably never did so 

 originally. Hence he had no doubt that the roof or wall of the 

 cavern has given way, but believed that this fall took place before 

 the deposition of the glacial deposits. To these remarks the Author 

 would reply, that in the bone-earth, below the angular limestone, 

 were flints and other material which only came into the district 

 with the marine drift. Therefore the marine drift cannot have 

 been deposited after the break-down of the wall and roof of the 

 cave. 



Q. J. G .S. No. 174. 



