CAE GWYN CATE, NORTH WALES. 567 



earth extended for a considerable distance outwards even to a point 

 14 feet from the inner wall of the cavern, measured by a line taken 

 directly outwards. That Prof. Hughes was not at that time inclined 

 to contest these points seems evident from the following quotation, 

 taken from his lecture delivered at Chester and reported in the 

 ' Chester Chronicle,' November 6, 1886. After referring to the 

 finding of the flint-flake, in the presence of Mr. Morton and myself, 

 in the bone-earth, which he describes as " a limestone-breccia con- 

 taining a few bones," he goes on to say that " a similar deposit ex- 

 tended under the sandy drift with boulders, as far out as the exca- 

 vation was carried. This is conclusive against the drift which rested 

 on it being the undisturbed marine Clwydian drift, as it is quite 

 impossible that the lashing waves on the rock-bound shore exposed 

 to the north-west winds should not have swept such loose debris 

 into the deep fiord below." His object at that time evidently was, 

 as in some succeeding papers, to show that the drift was not in the 

 position in which it had been deposited, but remanie " rainwash " 

 like the ''mixed mud and sand and gravel which we find every- 

 where overlying the Clwydian drift crumbling down the hillside." 

 It is also stated that no shells had been found " in any of these 

 deposits;" and attention is called to the line of an old fence, as 

 showing how rapidly the deposits are creeping down the hill. Most 

 of these remarks were reproduced in papers in the Geol. Mag., 

 November 1886, and in the Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, February 1887. 

 As to the statements in regard to the so-called fence, I was greatly 

 puzzled at first to know what they meant, and was inclined to think 

 that they must relate to the old fence (as distinguished from that 

 which we had placed as a boundary to the cavern) along the edge 

 of the valley, against which we had heaped materials obtained from 

 the cavern. When I realized that Prof. Hughes meant the rather 

 steep grassy slope in the field (which, according to a statement in his 

 last paper, carried a fence which was removed about ten years ago), 

 I determined that a cutting should be made across it beyond the point 

 where any material had been thrown down, and our earliest opera- 

 tions this year were directed to that purpose. A cutting, which was 

 carried in a S.S.W. direction from the shaft at the mouth of the 

 cavern, was now made, varying from 5 to 10 feet in width, the nar- 

 rowest part being at the furthest point from the cavern. In the 

 face exposed in front of the entrance, and for a distance in the cutting 

 from there of about 25 feet, the soil varied in depth from 18 inches 

 to 2 feet, but at the slope it thickened considerably, probably from 

 having been thrown there in levelling the old fence. Underlying 

 this throughout the whole length of the cutting, and in the part of 

 the field examined beyond this point, a Boulder-clay of a reddish- 

 brown colour was exposed. This Boulder-clay contained numerous 

 erratics and thin seams of sand which were traceable along the whole 

 section. The general dip of the beds was at an angle of about 15° 

 away from the cliff face. 



On June 10th some fragments of shells were obtained by us out of 

 a band of reddish sandy clay, in the cutting near the shaft, at a depth 



