E. J. Hebert — Reversed Faults in States. 
441 
tliis to the cliff, and it will project so far over the site of the 
boulder-beds as quite to preclude the idea of their having fallen 
from the cliff above. But drowning scepties catch at straws. So 
we have a further exhibition of intellectual contortion. It is now 
asserted by the sceptical geologist that the boulder-bed has come 
through a providential pot-hole or pipe, “ of which,” it is said, 
“there are plenty in the limestone above.” Memory, when sceptical, 
is certainly Creative. The limestone plateau above is singularly free 
from pot-holes : there is not one of any great size within many a 
mile, the nearest being Gingling Hole, more than three miles distant; 
and I much doubt whether there are any worthy the name nearer. 
Bat even had they been tolerably abundant, has the ingenious author 
of this theory ever seriously asked himself what are the chances 
of a pot-hole occurring just in so very convenient a Situation, and 
what the chance of the cliff having just weathered back far enough 
to destroy this providential pot and no further ? When he has got 
an idea of the smallness of these chances separately, let him then 
endeavour to estimate the probability of their both having occurred 
together. I rather fancy the figures will somewhat astonish even 
the sceptic. So much for the geological question, the cliief points 
of which have been insisted on over'and over again by Mr. Tiddeman. 
As regards the palseontological question, Mr. Tiddeman’s argument 
is simply this : here we have a fauna which is elsewhere offen 
associated with the remains of mau ; whatever be the age of this 
fauna, is presumably also that of man ; in the Victoria Cave we have 
evidence that this fauna existed before the close of the Glacial 
period ; therefore, presumably, man existed in this country also 
before the close of that period. The fact that the said fauna with 
human remains is post-Glacial in the South of England is to be 
explained by the consideration that the last glaciation of the country 
did not extend over the South of England. This consideration too 
explains the remarkable fact, that no Pleistocene fauna has been 
found in river-gravels in the North of England. Why should such 
a fauna, when found in river-gravels, be confined to the south ? 
Simply because the last glaciation has swept away all the river 
deposits of that age from the north ; but as it did not extend to the 
south, the old river-gravels of that district have escaped destruction, 
and remain to-day to be seen with their included fauna. 
III. — Reversed Faults in Bedded Slates. 
By E. J. Hebert, M.A., F.G.S., 
of H.M. Geological Survey. 
I F it be an established rule, in coal-mining districts, that the hade 
of a fault is to the doionthrow, it is an equally undeniable fact, 
that the surfaces of bedded slates, as a rule, exhibit only faults 
which hade to the upthrow. In suggesting a possible explanation of 
this phenomenon, I shall allude to the latter as reversed, and the 
former as direct faults. Let Fig. 1 represent a piece of wood six 
inches square and one inch thick, lying upon a table, and let it be 
