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bone bed in which the oldest remains were found, and which 
he therefore infers to be of preglacial age. 
There is a slight but important difference between Mr. 
Tiddeman’s statement as herein set forth, and that of 
Mr. Dawkins to this Society to which I took exception on 
the 18th of February. Mr. Dawkins gave the Society to 
understand that the most ancient remains, lately found, 
occurred outside the cave, in the talus, in which I think he 
was quite mistaken, and Mr. Tiddeman does not so place 
them. My remarks, as published in the Proceedings of that 
Meeting, had special reference to this very point, and as Mr. 
Dawkins varied his description in the published summary, 
they do not appear to be a reply to the context. 
However, Mr. Dawkins and Mr. Tiddeman are both in 
accord in considering that the lower cave earth in which 
the oldest remains are found is immediately covered by a 
clay of glacial origin ; and that in this case the Victoria Cave 
is the only one in Great Britain which has offered clear 
proof that the group of animals whose bones have been there 
found was living in the country before the glacial age. 
The conclusion above stated is so important as to demand 
the clearest proof, and therefore the subject is one worthy of 
the most careful consideration, and full discussion ; and as I 
hold the conclusion to be altogether wrong, I will proceed 
firstly to describe the deposits from my own point of view, 
and then will try to shew where I think the above gentle- 
men are in error. 
(1) The Victoria Cave occurs in the face of a limestone 
crag, which appears to be much fissured, as the openings of 
four other caverns occur in it within a quarter of a mile, 
two of which are believed to be in connection with the 
Victoria Cave. The cliff rises from 200 to 800 feet above 
the cave, and beyond it is a high tract of pasture land, with 
numerous hollows on the surface ; into which the rain sinks 
and finds its way through the fissures in the limestone. So 
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