ON THE CAE GWTN CAVE, NORTH WALES. 561 



34. On the Cae Gwyn Cave, North Wales. By Henry Hicks, M.D., 

 P.E.S., F.G.S. With a Note by C. E. De Rance, Esq., F.G.S. 

 (Read April 11, 1888.) 



It has been thought advisable by those who have superintended the 

 explorations at the Cae Gwyn Cave that a full account of the re- 

 searches carried on there in the latter part of 1885, and during 1886 

 and 1887, should be laid before the Society. In a former paper 

 (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, Feb. 1886) I gave the main results 

 obtained up to the end of June 1885. The excavations were 

 then entirely under the superintendence of E. Bouverie Luxmoore, 

 Esq., M.A., E.G.S., P. P. Pennant, Esq., M.A., J.P., Edwin Morgan, 

 Esq., J. P. (all of whom reside in the immediate neighbourhood), and 

 myself. I was constantly present at the explorations to the end of 

 June, when we had reached a distance of about 135 feet from the 

 entrance. At this time the Cavern was visited also by Mr. C. E. 

 De Eance, E.G.S. 



The sandy layer was well marked at this point, and the workmen 

 were requested by us at the time to remove several shovelfuls, which 

 we examined and found to have all the characters of true marine 

 sand. The other deposits occurred in the order in which they 

 had been found elsewhere throughout the cavern. The further 

 researches in that year were superintended by Messrs. Luxmoore, 

 Pennant, and Morgan, and the results were constantly communicated 

 to me. The tunnel was found to be of nearly the same average 

 width and height for about 10 feet further inwards, when it gradu- 

 ally widened into what was then supposed to be a chamber. Of the 

 last portion of the cavern explored I stated in my paper (loc. cit. p. 14) : 

 " The last chamber reached in this cavern has not been fully ex- 

 amined, and as its roof has partially fallen in, it will have to be 

 shored up before the explorations can be proceeded with in that 

 direction. It is possible that a line of fissure has been reached, but 

 this is not clear yet. The cavern up to this point is a true tunnel- 

 cavern, with well-smoothed roof and sides." I also mentioned that 

 the bones occurred throughout at the same general horizon, that the 

 bone-earth contained in many places much sandy and gravelly 

 material, many large angular masses of limestone, and also pieces 

 of thick stalagmite and broken stalactites, sometimes lying hori- 

 zontally, but more often tilted, like the bones, at a high angle. Over- 

 lying the bone-earth throughout occurred a considerable thickness of 

 fine laminated clay, which contained no Pleistocene remains or large 

 angular fragments of limestone or stalagmite. In the last twenty 

 feet or so of the tunnel and in the supposed chamber the laminated 

 clay was overlain by layers of sand and gravel. Throughout the 

 supposed chamber the latter attained an average thickness of from 

 2J to 3 feet. "What was supposed to be a broken roof or line of fissure 

 turned out on further exploration to be the line of the limestone 



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