Cave Hunting: Researches on the evidence of caves respecting the early inhabitants of EuropeDawkins, William Boyd
History
Cave Hunting: Researches on the evidence of caves respecting the early inhabitants of Europe
Dawkins, William Boyd
Antiquities, Prehistoric -- Europe; Caves -- Europe; Europe -- Antiquities; Prehistoric peoples -- Europe
The Dream-cave, near Wirksworth,[182] in Derbyshire, contrasts with
that of Kirkdale in the perfect state of the bones which it contains.
It was discovered in 1822, in following a vein of lead (Fig. 81).
The miners suddenly broke into a hollow, _c_, filled with red earth
and stones, and as they continued their shaft downwards the sides
continually closed upon them until the roof of a cave was revealed.
A nearly perfect skeleton of the rhinoceros was discovered in the
earth, as well as bones of the horse, reindeer, and urus. After a large
quantity of the earth had been removed, the surface soil, _i_, at a
little distance began to sink, and ultimately a vertical shaft was
found to connect the cave with the surface. Into this the animals had
fallen, just as at the present time sheep and oxen frequently perish in
similar natural pitfalls in the limestone strata.
[Illustration: FIG. 81.--The Dream-cave, Wirksworth. (Buckland.)
A Shaft following lead-vein.
B Supposed continuation of lead-vein.
C Cave.
D Swallow-hole.
E Ossiferous loam.
F Antler of deer.
G Rhinoceros.
H Limestone.
I Natural entrance.
]
Other caves and fissures in Derbyshire have yielded remains of the
extinct animals: those of Balleye, near Wirksworth, and of Doveholes,
near Chaple-en-le-Frith, the mammoth, and a small cave in Hartle Dale,
near Castleton, explored by Mr. Pennington and myself in 1872, the
mammoth and the woolly rhinoceros.
_The Caves of North Wales, near St. Asaph._
The ossiferous caves and fissures at Cefn, near St. Asaph, in the
mountain limestone that forms the south side of the Vale of Clwyd, were
first described in 1833,[183] by the Rev. Edward Stanley, afterwards
Bishop of Norwich, who explored that which Mr. E. Lloyd had discovered
about half-way down the vertical cliff, in the grounds of Cefn Hall.
It consists of a narrow passage, turning on itself, and communicating
with the surface of the cliff by two entrances, which were completely
blocked up with red silt, containing a vast quantity of bones in very
bad preservation. The bottom has not yet been reached. In one portion I
found, in 1872, a deposit of comminuted bone with scarcely any mixture
of loam, that rose in clouds of dust as it was disturbed. The animals
belonged to the same class as those of Germany, the cave-bear, spotted
hyæna, and reindeer, as well as the hippopotamus, _Elephas antiquus_
and _Rhinoceros hemitœchus_ of the Kirkdale cave. Pebbles derived from
the boulder clay, and rounded waterworn fragments of bone, showed that
the contents had been introduced into this cave by a stream. Some of
the remains, which were marked with teeth, may have been introduced by
the hyænas. The flint-flakes found with the human skull and cut antlers
of stag, already referred to in the fifth chapter, were discovered in
the lower entrance.
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