﻿Vol. 6l.j OSSIFEROUS CAVERN AT LONGCLIFFE. 63 



Discussion. 



Prof. Boyd Dawkins welcomed the paper as one of the most 

 important brought before any Society in this country during the 

 last few years. The physical conditions at Longcliffe were evi- 

 dently the same as at Wirksworth Cavern, and pointed to the vast 

 denudation which had taken place since the time when the remains 

 were introduced into those caves. The Pliocene cave at Doveholes, 

 at a level which was now part of the watershed instead of being 

 in the valley, also exemplified similar conditions. It would be 

 interesting to know whether the Authors had endeavoured to 

 measure the denudation in the case of the Longcliffe Cave, and 

 whether they had found any decomposed grits or foreign pebbles 

 such as occurred in many Derbyshire rock-fissures. 



He doubted whether hpenas could have leaped the minimum 

 12 feet postulated, down the swallet, and considered that the 

 bones had been introduced by water-action from some upper source 

 which itself was really a hysena-den. The occurrence of Rhino- 

 ceros hemitcechus and Elephas antiquus, together with the absence 

 of the mammoth and the woolly rhinoceros, assimilated the deposits 

 to those of Kirkdale Cave, a much older group of cave-deposits 

 than was usual in this country or in France. The probable classi- 

 fication and relative antiquity of the Derbyshire cave-deposits 

 would be, in chronological order: (1) Doveholes ; (2) Longcliffe 

 and the older deposits of Creswell Crags ( = Kirkdale Cave) ; 

 (3) upper deposits of Creswell Crags ; and (4) Windy Knoll. 

 With regard to the fallow-deer, he must express a certain amount 

 of scepticism. "Not much importance could be attached to measure- 

 ments of bones or teeth, in the case of a group which varied so 

 enormously as the Cervidae ; and there were no points which distin- 

 guished the teeth of the fallow-deer from those of the reindeer. 

 The occurrence of the lower jaw of a lion's whelp was, on the other 

 hand, the most important recorded from any cave in this country. 



