1 
6 
DE RANGE : THE VALE OF CLWYD CAVES. 
resting upon the rock. Mr. Trimmer,* in 1836, states that two bones j 
found at Talargoch Mine in a bed of gravel at 63 yards from the surface, 
associated with marine shells, were presented by Mr. Thomas Harrison 
to the Caernarvon Museum, the bones were described by Buckland as 
the astragalus of a large deer, and the himierus of a smaller species, 
Two perfect specimens of Purpura lapillus were shown to Mr. 
Trimmer found in the eastern end of the works. The bones found , 
at Talargoch have got scattered over the country, but one is pre- | 
served in the Chester Museum, and has been identified by Professor I 
Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S , as the left ilhnn of a bison. The gravel beds 
were also described as being worked for the rolled fragments of lead at 
Gronnant Mine by Dr. Buckland, the Glacial Drift being 104 feet in 
thickness. The following table by Mr. Strahan, F.G.S.,t gives the ! 
level of the base of the Drift below the ordnance datum level : — 
THE CAVES OF THE VALE OF CLWYD. j 
The scientific exploration of caverns appears to have sprung j 
from the search after the " ebur fossili " or unicorns horn, in the deep i 
caverns of the Hartz, Franconia and Hungary. So far back as 1603 I 
Dr. Gesner had noted that this supposed specific for many diseases, 
was in fact the elephant's teeth, tusks, and other fossil bones. In 
1672 Bauman's Hole in the Flartz was described in the Philosophical i 
Transactions. In the following century the caves of Franconia ! 
engaged the attention of numerous German observers, and bones were 
identified by Baron Cuvier. The most important of these was the 
cavern of Gailenreuth, from which vast quantities of bones of hyaenas, 
lions, and other animals were obtained. The year 1816 appears to 
have been the moment when public interest in these matters was 
greatest, and the experience of cavern exploration in Germany fully 
matured, which was the time chosen by Dr. Buckland for his visit to 
* On the Diluvial or Northern Drift of the eastern and western side of the ' 
Cambrian Chain by Joshua Trimmer, 1838, pp. 32-33. 
f Geology of Rhyl, Abergele and Colwyn. Memoirs Geol. Survey, 1885, j 
At Talargoch Walker's Shaft 
„ Prestatyn bore-hole 
„ Foryd bore-hole 
Feet. 
41 
54 
80 
