108 



PEOF. T. M'KENNY HUGHES ON THE 



which appear to be gnawed by Hysena or Wolf. Some are rather 

 less infiltrated with manganese than the others, but all appear to be 

 pretty nearly of the same antiquity, not excepting the human molar 

 tooth, which looks quite as ancient as the rest. It is of very large 

 size, and in this respect exceeds any with which I have compared it, 

 except one or two from Australia or Tasmania." 



Here was a cave in which we could not only prove that the 

 deposits were postglacial, but even that they were later than the 

 marine drift which we call the St. Asaph beds ; and in these cave- 

 deposits were remains of man — a human molar and stone imple- 

 ments of the oldest type yet recognized in the caves of the Yezere 

 (see figs. 1-8, pi. ix.). These are all of felsite, except figs. 7 and 8, 

 which are of chert and flint. It would be very curious if we else- 

 where, in the same district, found a cave which contained the same 

 or a newer group of animals and traces of man's handiwork, and 

 which yet turned out to be of Pliocene or Preglacial age. 



A similar investigation recently carried on in the caves near 

 Tremeirchion has led Dr. Hicks* to a different conclusion from 

 that at which I had arrived as to the age of the deposits. Dr. 

 Hicks's graphic descriptions, which have been recently laid before the 

 Society, render it unnecessary for me now to do more than call 

 attention to the points bearing immediately upon the age of the 

 deposits in these caves. 



Inside, and more especially at the mouth of, most caves there is 

 a breccia, consisting of angular fragments which have fallen from 

 the rock while the cave was exposed to changes in the amount of 

 moisture and in the temperature. Sometimes the mouth is blocked 

 by a perfect barricade of large masses which have fallen from the 

 face of the rock where most exposed. This was very conspicuous at 

 Plas Heaton ; at Efynnon Beuno, however, the fragments were small. 

 They are generally packed in cave-earth, some of which is the red 

 earthy residuum of the decomposed limestone. In the Cae Gwyn 

 cave, that is the upper cave of Efynnon Beuno, this limestone breccia 

 contained a few bones ; and just within the upper mouth of the 

 cave, under a projecting mass of rock which was removed with a 

 view to making steps up to the surface of the ground outside, a 

 flint flake was taken out from sandy clay in the interstices of the 

 limestone breccia in which bones occurred. It was found under a 

 mass of rock which nearly touched the floor and had to be removed 

 to facilitate operations ; and the place where it lay was more like a 

 side crevice in the limestone into which it had been washed or 

 worked down than part of the regular cave-deposits. A similar 

 deposit extended under the sandy drift with boulders, as far out as 

 the excavation was carried. 



I do not dispute the genuineness of the flake, nor question its 

 occurrence in the cave. The animals found with it belong to the 

 same group as that which is elsewhere undoubtedly associated with 

 palaeolithic man, and it would be enough if glacial deposits could be 



* Nature, vol. xxxiv. 1886, p. 216 ; Proc. Geol. Assoc. vol. ix. 1886 ; Quart. 

 Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xlii. 1886, p. 3 ; Brit. Assoc. 1886, Rep. Sect. 



