DRIFTS OP THE VALE OP CLWYD. 



119 



shells, which cover the lowlands of Lancashire up to 150 feet above 

 the sea, also extended up the Vale of Clwyd to the same level ; but 

 much of the stratified material in this valley was remanie. Tor- 

 rential freshwater action operating during the melting of the ice is 

 an important factor not to be omitted in studying valley-gravel. 

 Many terrace-deposits supposed to be marine are of freshwater 

 origin and of late glacial age. 



The President insisted on the importance of carefully weighing 

 the evidence adduced by the Author, seeing to what an enormous 

 extent it was proposed to carry back the date of Man's appearance 

 on the earth. All those who had visited the open section seem to 

 have regarded Dr. Hicks's views as, at all events, tenable. 



Prof. Hughes explained that the old hedge to which he referred 

 was that shown in the sketch and photographs which he exhibited 

 (it was about 16 feet from the opening in the drift above the upper 

 entrance), and that no material from the cave had been thrown by 

 the workmen over the part opposite the upper entrance. The 

 scratched boulder produced, with the marks of agricultural imple- 

 ments, was one of many out of the drift dug from before the mouth 

 of the cave, and was the one given him by Mr. Luxmoore as a 

 typical specimen of the boulders in the drift. Pontnewydd and 

 Plas Heaton caves could hardly be said by any one acquainted with 

 the district to be at a low level near the great rivers. He would 

 refer to his paper for the evidence in favour of his classification of 

 the drifts, merely pointing out the difficulty of accepting Dr. Hicks's 

 correction that the Arenig Drift is not necessarily the oldest, though 

 he allows that the St. Asaph Drift must certainly be the newest. 



He did not understand Prof. Dawkins's suggestion that Man could 

 have lived through many glacial phases, if he was speaking of the 

 district under consideration. When the Arenig ice covered every- 

 thing, Man cannot have been there. He was not discussing the 

 question whether Man may have been in existence anywhere on the 

 earth while glacial conditions prevailed in Wales, but only whether 

 there was evidence that the cave-deposits of the Yale of Clwyd were 

 preglacial or a little later or much later. He had shown that, 

 according to the best authorities, there was an earlier and a later 

 Pleistocene group of mammals, and had pointed out that the animals 

 in the Pfynnon Beuno caves belonged to the newer. 



In reply to the President's remark, he regretted that Dr. Hicks 

 should, after his attention had been more than once called to the 

 inaccuracy of the statement, have again endeavoured to throw dis- 

 credit upon his evidence on the ground that he had not had oppor- 

 tunities of examining the sections. Dr. Hicks had no means of 

 knowing how often he had visited the locality, but had had the 

 means of knowing from a printed report that he (Professor Hughes) 

 had examined the caves, and proposed to explore them about a year 

 before Dr. Hicks is supposed to have discovered them. Professor 

 Hughes's home was close by ; he had frequently visited the caves, 

 and had on several occasions examined the drift that abutted against 



