12 
DE RANCE : THE VALE OF CLWYD CAVE?. 
were examined by Mr. Clement Reid, F.G.S., bnt no others were 
capable of determination. 
To Dr. Hicks, F.R.S., is due the great interest which now attaches 
to the caves of the Vale of Clwyd. This investigator visited St. 
Asaph in 1883, and after visiting the well-known Cefn and Plas 
Heaton Caves, in the carboniferous limestone of the western side of 
the Valley, he " was struck with the dissimilarity in the character of 
much of the materials which had apparently filled these caverns before 
they were explored," with that which he was conversant in South 
Wales, to the exploration of which he had previously given much 
attention. Mentioning this to Mr. Luxmoore, F.G.S., of St. Asaph, 
and enquiring for caverns on the eastern side of the Vale of Clwyd, 
he was taken by the latter to a cavern situated in a ravine at the 
back of Ffynnon Beuno, near the village of Tremeirchion, four miles 
to the east of Cefn. The cavern was subsequently explored by them. 
The floor was found to be 42 feet above the stream, and 380 feet 
above the sea, the slope between being covered with a reddish Boulder 
Clay, containing Silurian pebbles. The stream has not yet cut down 
to the original floor of the valley, while high up the valley, sand and 
gravel is seen containing fragments of sea-shells, on a level slightly 
above the highest cavern. Similar gTavels occur in the gorge east of 
the Oratory, in the grounds of St. Beuno's College, at a height of over 
500 feet. The Ffynnon Beuno cavern, on investigation, was found to 
consist of a main tunnel with entrance to the south, a small parallel 
tunnel to the w^est, also facing south, and a fissure cavern to the east, 
between which and the inner termination of the tunnel caverns is a 
considerable chamber, probably partly of a late and artificial origin, 
and connected with mining trials carried out through the fissure to 
the east, which has, or has been expected, to bear lead-ore. 
A section of the main tunnel, about twenty feet from the entrance, 
disclosed the following section ; — 
1. Surface soil or loam about a foot thick, containing bones of 
domestic fowls and sheep. 
2. Stalagmitic breccia with charcoal, &c., possibly of extremely 
modern origin, about six inches. 
3. Reddish undisturbed cave-earth, about 2 feet in thickness 
