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permeated with water in large quantities, that its whole mass 
is loosened, and falls away from season to season to a very 
great extent. The effect of this upon our present subject 
has an important bearing in two particulars. 
{a) It would entirely do away with the supposition that 
any part of this “talus” now lying immediately against the 
entrance of the cave, was existent during the glacial epoch, 
and hence that the boulders relied upon by Messrs. Tidde- 
man and Dawkins cannot be in situ as therein deposited, 
and 
( b ) That the floor level of the cave has been constantly 
rising, having been reformed upon the masses of limestone 
which had fallen from the roof. These two important 
deductions are amply verified by the present appearances 
of the cliff and cavern. 
(3) In every instance with which I am acquainted the 
clay which fills the caverns of Yorkshire and Derby- 
shire has been introduced by the agency of running water, 
generally by “ pot holes,” which communicate with the sur- 
face, and which in wet seasons give passage to large volumes 
of water laden with detritus, a portion of which is deposited 
in such parts of the underground channels as are favourable 
to its accumulation. Such clays are likely to be laminated, 
because of the mode af their deposition, at intervals , which 
allowed one layer to harden before another was deposited 
upon it. The clay which is found filling the Victoria Cave 
is precisely such as we should look for under the circum- 
stances before described. The glacial drift deposited clay 
of the boulder type upon the surface; and the rains of ages 
dissolved it away and carried it down these fissures into the 
cavern, where a portion of it remained. That the cave is of 
the precise character here indicated I can certify, for I was 
able to get to the end of it after going for a considerable 
distance through mud and water — -the roof being only about 
two or three feet from the floor. I there found that the end 
