DAVIS: RELATIVE AGE OF THE REMAINS OF MAN IN YORKSHIRE. 203 
and various sections exposed by the wear and tear and washing away 
of the coast line, have shown them to be about thirty yards in length, 
six to ten feet in breadth, and about five or six feet deep. The bot- 
tom and sides, more or less circular in outline, are distinctly marked 
by a layer of oyster shells, and these shells, along with those of 
bucciuum or whelk, all more or less fractured to obtain the shell-fish, 
are frequent throughout the mass. In addition, fragments of pottery, 
large numbers of bones, and occasional ornaments in bronze are found 
mixed heterogeneously in a soft brown loam. These are the relics of 
a people, existing probably in miserable cabins near the coast, and 
living on shell-fish, together with the flesh of domestic animals, and 
possibly such agricultural produce as they could derive from the soil. 
The refuse of these people was thrown into pits or hollows, dug in 
the soft soil, and form the aggi'egations now remaining, without 
which we should have had no knowledge of them. They resemble 
very much the Danish Kjokkenmoddings, or kitchen-middens, whose 
investigation has thrown a flood of light on the early history of the 
people of Denmark. 
In the uppermost layer of cave-earth, in the Victoria Cave, near 
Settle, beneath only two feet of broken fragments of limestone, there 
is evidence of a comparatively recent occupation of the cave, by men 
possessed of considerable refinements as compared with those of 
earlier times, already mentioned. ^lixed with quantities of charcoal 
and charred substances, are bones of domestic animals, together with 
a small proportion of animals secured by hunting ; bronze implements 
and ornaments of great beauty, along with silver and bronze coins, 
impressed with the heads and names of Roman emperors have been 
found. This last occupation of the cave appears to have been of a 
more or less temporary nature, and indicates, probably, the presence 
of refugees from the advancing armies of the continental hordes, who 
invaded Britain shortly after the exodus of the Romans. 
Having briefly summarized some of the evidence of man's ex- 
istence in Yorkshire during the long ages prior to the advent of the 
Roman legions under Julius Ctesar, it may be well to retrace our steps, 
and, after briefly considering the effects and influence of Roman 
civilization, to describe somewhat in detail the most prominent works 
