Man and the Glacial PeriodWright, G. Frederick (George Frederick)
History
Man and the Glacial Period
Wright, G. Frederick (George Frederick)
Glacial epoch; Prehistoric peoples
The Victoria cave, near Settle, in west Yorkshire, is the only other one
in England which we need to mention. In this there were no remains found
which could be positively identified as human, but the animal remains
in the lower strata of the cave deposit were so different from those in
the upper bed as to indicate the great lapse of time which separated the
two. This cave is 1,450 feet above the sea-level, and there were found in
the upper strata of the floor, down to a depth of from two to ten feet,
many remains of existing animals. Then, for a distance of twelve feet,
there occurred a clay deposit, containing no organic remains whatever,
but some well-scratched boulders. Below this was a third stratum of earth
mingled with limestone fragments, at the base of which were numerous
remains of the mammoth, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, bison, hyena, etc.
One bone occurred which was by some supposed to be human, but by others
to have belonged to a bear. This lower stratum is, without much doubt,
preglacial, and the thickness of the deposit intervening between it and
the upper fossiliferous bed is taken by some to indicate the great lapse
of time separating the period of the mammoth and rhinoceros in England
from the modern age. The scratched boulders in the middle stratum of
laminated clay, would indicate certainly that the material found its way
into the cave during the Glacial epoch, when ice filled the whole valley
of the Ribble, which flows past the foot of the hill, and whose bed is
900 feet below the mouth of the cave.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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