102 



PROP. T. M'KEISINY HUGHES ON THE 



Llandulas and Prestatyn, while all the Morfa Ehuddlan beds were 

 being laid down, and while the alluvial gravels of the valley were 

 being formed ; each shower, each frost, the sunshine, and the animals 

 all helped to work the surface of the hills to lower levels. With 

 so much time, with such continuous agencies at work, the wonder 

 is that any soft material of early date is left upon the hills. 



Where are the deposits of Palaeolithic age ? Perhaps they may 

 be represented by some of the higher terrace-gravels, which are 

 older than the Morfa Ehuddlan beds, and older than most of the 

 gravels of the Elwy and the Clwyd. J3ut the chances are enor- 

 mously against our finding any remains of that date in the terrace- 

 gravels along the hill-sides. The implements were rare and the 

 bones were quickly decomposed in those porous water-bearing 

 strata. 



It is not as if we had plenty of such remains in the gravels of 

 later date. Were it not for that one felstone implement preserved 

 by some accident in the more recent gravel of the Elwy, we should 

 know nothing of the occurrence of neolithic man in the district 

 except from the remains found in caves and from some interments. 



Perhaps some of the Morfa Ehuddlan beds may go back to the 

 Neolithic age. The Bos and the Cervus found in them certainly 

 came down to Eoman and later times. 



Similar phenomena are recorded from West Lancashire * and 

 Cheshiret. 



It is perfectly clear that we cannot everywhere draw a hard-and- 

 fast line between these divisions. 



The rain and other subaerial agencies must have brought down 

 the debris of the hill-sides, and the tidal silt was being thrown 

 down in the lower reaches of the Clwyd, while the rivers were 

 forming terraces along the cavernous banks of the Elwy. But 

 little of that which was washed down in the earlier times has not 

 been since removed by the continuance of similar agencies, and none 

 can have survived the scour of the submergence. 



So river-gravels were being formed in the upper part of the vale 

 while marine deposits were being thrown down in the lower, and 

 so on ; but, in the main, there is a general sequence to be made 

 out, and the relative age is pretty clear, though it will take much 

 more work to feel sure where to place the beds seen in every 

 isolated section. 



Part V. 

 Oaves. 



We must now examine the evidence to be derived from the caves 

 and endeavour to find their place in the chronology of the district. 



W T ith a view to this it is of first importance to distinguish clearly 

 between the history of the caves themselves and that of the cave- 

 deposits. 



* Moore, T. J., Trans. Lancashire Historic Soc. 1885. 

 t De Ranee, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. 1871, xxvii. p. 655. 



