40 



The Naturalist. 



containing the bones of Polar bear, grizzly bear, reindeer, and other 

 northern forms. Twenty feet below the neolithic layer we come upon a 

 bed of blue till, filled with ice-scratched boulders of hmestone, silurian 

 grits, and other far-travelled rocks. The rock stvise in the adjoining cliffs 

 show the direction of the ice-sheet to have been from Stainforth to Long 

 Preston, by way of Attermere Tarn, filling the ravine in front of the 

 Cave, and blocking up the entrance by its lateral moraine. These 

 products of the ice-sheet rested upon the upturned edges of a layer of 

 lower cave earth, dipping inwards, enclosing a bone bed of animals, none 

 of which now live in Britain — among them being the spotted hygena, 

 hippopotamus, rhinoceros, and elephant, the last two, of species now 

 extinct, and all indicating a tropical climate. Associated with this African 

 faima was found a human bone in the same fossilised condition, proving 

 that man inhabited these dales in pre-glacial times. Does the paleeolithic 

 Craven hunter, whose remains were dragged into this hyaena's lair, carry 

 us back to primeval man ? We think not. The cradle of the human race 

 was away out in the east, whence the successive waves of human migration 

 have flowed, and the remains of the earliest men must be sought, and 

 will be found, not in the caves of Britain, but on the plains of Asia. 

 Some of the party then provided themselves with candles, and proceeded 

 to explore the winding chambers of the Cave. On their return, their 

 appearance — all being almost literally covered with clay — provoked 

 considerable merriment among the company. Afterwards the party 

 proceeded to the Roman Camp at Attermere Tarn, and back by Scaleber 

 Waterfall to Settle. 



Bradford Naturalists' Society. — Meeting August 8th, Mr. R. Spencer 

 in the chair. — A number of botanical specimens were exhibited. Mr. H. 

 Andrews sent the following specimens collected by him in the neighbour- 

 hood of Lancaster : — Parnassia palustris, Meconopsis Cambrica, Clematis 

 Vitalha, Lythrum Salicaria, &c. Messrs. J. W. Carter and J. W. W. 

 Brook also exhibited a number of specimens, amongst which were 

 Geranium pyrenaicum, Linaria Gymbalaria, Campanula latifolia, Wahlen- 

 heraia hederacea, &c. 



Meeting Sept. 5th, Mr. J. Carter (vice-president) in the chair. The 

 meeting was devoted to conversation and the exhibition of specimens. In 

 botany, several were put on the table by Mr. J. W. W. Brook, including 

 Hyoscyamus niger, Origanum vulgare, Urtica urens, Senecio erucifolius, 

 Thalictrum minus, &c. Messrs. J. W. Carter and B. Illingworth 

 exhibited a number of specimens in lepidoptera ; amongst the most noted 

 was Noctua glareosa. Mr. T. Roebuck read from a current number of 

 the "Gardener's Magazine" an article on '^The Valisneria spiralis," 

 written by Mr. Shirley Hibberd. — J. W. W. Brook, Hon. Sec. 



Brighouse and Rastrick Naturalists' Society.— -Monthly meeting, 

 Sept. 11th, 1876, the president in the chair. A very large proportion of 



