present in the country, from, which fact, coupled with their southern habit, I should feel inclined to consider them characteristic of that period in which the southern animals were living in this country, but were suffering from the competition of arctic invaders driven southwards by the lowering of the temperature—that is to say, in the middle stage of the Pleistocene, as I have defined it in my essay on the "Classification of the Pleistocene Strata by means of the Mammalia"[1]. It must be further remarked that these two animals were among those which the Palæolithic hunter saw when he arrived in this country, in his expeditions along the valleys now covered by the English Channel and the North Sea. They are found in one cave only in Britain, the cave of Pont Newydd, along with Palæolithic implements, which are fashioned out of quartzite, like those of the red sand in the Cresswell Caves[2]. They occur also in the Palæolithic river-gravels of Bedford and Peckham, along with implements of the type Acheulien of De Mortillet.
Prehistoric and Historic Mammalia.
The following list (p. 732) represents the principal remains referable to prehistoric and historic times. It differs in no important particular from that of the other caves in the Cresswell Crags, with the exception of the occurrence of fragments of four human skeletons, all belonging to children and youths, and all being found in the red sand. Those discovered in chamber A evidently were deposited in strata which had been disturbed by repeated diggings, and do not belong to the Pleistocene age. In proof of this we may mention that the head of an iron hammer was found by Mr. Knight at the bottom of the red sand.
The skull found in chamber B, also, at a distance of 19 feet 6 in. from the entrance and at a depth of 2 feet 9 in. from the surface, cannot be looked upon as belonging to the age of the red sand, although the passage was completely blocked up in some places, and there were no obvious evidences of disturbance around it. The recent bones belonging to the various animals in the accompanying list, scattered through the red sand, show that it has been disturbed since its deposition, certainly by the burrowing of foxes, rabbits, and badgers, and most probably by the hand of man. The Sheep or Goat, the short-horned Ox, and domestic Pig found in it were unknown in France, Germany, Belgium, or Great Britain in the Pleistocene age, and were introduced by the Neolithic herdsmen into Northern and Western Europe. This skull, therefore, cannot be viewed as a relic of one of the Palæolithic hunters in Derbyshire, but must be referred to their successors in the district.
The two skulls, sufficiently perfect to allow of the shape of the cranium being made out, belong to two types, well known in this
- ↑ Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxviii. p. 410.
- ↑ The asserted occurrence (Brit. Assoc. Rep., 1878) of traces of Man in the same strata as the leptorhine Rhinoceros and Hippopotamus in the Victoria Cave is founded on an unfortunate mistake.
