118 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



Norfolk coast ; whole trees, capable of being used for building purposes, 

 are dug up in the adjoining valleys. 



"A question here suggests itself: Hare not the students of these pleis- 

 tocene strata neglected a little too much the written documents still in pos- 

 session of the descendants of the ancient inhabitants of the country — the 

 Welsh, or British, strictly so called? Of the Cantrev-y-Gwaelod there is 

 not only a general tradition, but even the names of certain of the ' hun- 

 dred overwhelmed towns and cities,' of the harbours, and of the eminent 

 men who governed the district, are still preserved in the poems and triads 

 which have been collected and published in the Myvyrian Archaiology,'" 

 and elsewhere. . . . All this then seem.s to suggest the possibility that the 

 time when the animals lived here, whose bones are collected in the caves 

 of Tenby, may not have been very long ago ; and though it is not intended 

 to imply that these extinct animals lived here in England within the mo- 

 dern historic period, much less at the time of the subsidence of the bay of 

 Cardigan, about the year a.d. 500, yet may not those recent subsidences 

 of the land be but the continuation of that action which separated us from 

 the continent, and examples of the way in which that separation was last 

 eflfected ? 



" A very brief notice of the second cave at Caldy, chiefly to record the 

 discovery and site of it, will be sufficient, because when it was broken into 

 for the first time, about two years ago, the quarrymen shovelled the sur- 

 face bones, of which there were a good many, into the sea, and it shared 

 after a little time the fate of the first cave, except that the floor is said to 

 be still intact, A few bones and teeth have however been preserved. 



" Of the third cave, perhaps the particulars at this time will be most 

 interesting, because it contained, with the remains of some of the carni- 

 vora mentioned above, flint implements of human construction. 



" This cave is situated on the mainland, and has a large open entrance 

 always known to the inhabitants by the name of ' the Oyle.' It runs far 

 into the rock, and is easily entered to the distance of forty-eight yards, 

 and further with a little difficulty. It was first examined archseologically, 

 about twenty years ago, by Major Jervis, and a brother officer. Three 

 celts were dug up, two of stone, and one of metal. During the present 

 year a somewhat careful examination was made of the contents of the 

 water-washed earth at the bottom of one of the chambers which consti- 

 tute the cave, and which chambers alone contain any deposit, for the nar- 

 row parts are bare to the rock. Teeth of the bear were obtained, with a 

 great quantity of the bones of recent animals. Here also were fish-bones, 

 mixed with such modern littoral shells as the Patella, Cardium, Furpurea, 

 Capilla, Mijtilus, Littorina littoralis, L. litorea, Natica monilifera, etc., 

 most of which, it is worthy of notice, are also found in the raised beaches 

 which appear at heiglits above the sea, from one hundred to two hundi'ed 

 feet or so, all round llie adjacent coasts, and up the Bristol Channel. 



" Indiscriminately mixed with these remains, were found some smaller 

 flint c]ii])s, and boh or arrow-heads. 



" On the question then of the antiquity of man upon our earth, our 

 caves lierc at Tenby give as yet no testimony, because though works of 

 art liave been found mixed witli. tliese bones of huge animals, the cave- 

 en rtii lins been so disturbed, tliat their original position cannot be ascer* 

 tained." 



