Ordinary Meeting, October 31st, 1871. 
E. W. Binmey, F.R.S., F.G.S., President, in the Chair. 
Mr. David Winstanley and Mr. John Ashworth were 
elected Ordinary Members of the Society. 
Mr. Wm. Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S., gave a short account of 
the discoveries in the Victoria cave, made since the last 
account was published in the Transactions of the Society. 
The clay forming the bottom of the cave, and which hitherto 
had been barren, was now yielding broken fragments of 
bone, some of which had been gnawed by the cave-hysena. 
A lower jaw of this animal was found, which indicated the 
presence of the characteristic Pleistocene mammalia in a 
part of Yorkshire in which they had not been known to 
have existed up to the present time. There were, therefore, 
three distinct groups of remains in the cave. The Romano- 
Celtic on the surface, the Neolithic beneath, and lastly that 
which has been furnished by the clay which is glacial in 
character. And since two feet of talus had been accumulated 
above the Romano-celtic layer during the last 1,200 years, it 
is very probable that the accumulation of debris of precisely 
the same character between the Romano-celtic and Neolithic 
layers, six feet in thickness, was formed in about thrice the 
time, or 3,600 years. If this rough estimate be accepted, 
and it is probably true approximately the Neolithic occupa- 
tion of the cave must date back to between 4,000 and 5,000 
years ago. There is no clue to the relative antiquity of the 
group of remains found in the clay ; but it may safely be 
stated to be far greater than that of the Neolithic stratum. 
Throughout Europe the break between the Pleistocene age 
represented in the cave by the bones in the clay and the 
Proceedings— Lit. & Phil. Soc. — Toe. XI. — No. 2. — Session 1871-2. 
