Man and the Glacial PeriodWright, G. Frederick (George Frederick)
History
Man and the Glacial Period
Wright, G. Frederick (George Frederick)
Glacial epoch; Prehistoric peoples
"Below the soil for about eight feet a tolerably stiff boulder-clay,
containing many ice-scratched boulders and narrow bands and pockets of
sand. Below this about seven feet of gravel and sand, with here and
there bands of red clay, having also many ice-scratched boulders. The
next deposit was a laminated brown clay, and under this was found the
bone-earth, a brown, sandy clay with small pebbles and with angular
fragments of limestone, stalagmites, and stalactites. During the
excavations it became clear that the bones had been greatly disturbed by
water action; that the stalagmite floor, in parts more than a foot in
thickness, and massive stalactites, had also been broken and thrown about
in all positions; and that these had been covered afterwards by clays and
sand containing foreign pebbles. This seemed to prove that the caverns,
now 400 feet above ordnance datum, must have been submerged subsequently
to their occupation by the animals and by man. In Dr. Hicks's opinion,
the contents of the cavern must have been disturbed by marine action
during the great submergence in mid-glacial times, and afterwards
covered by marine sands and by an upper boulder-clay, identical in
character with that found at many points in the Vale of Clwyd. The
paleontological evidence suggests that the deposits in question are not
preglacial, but may be equivalent to the Pleistocene deposits of our
river-valleys."[DE]
[Footnote DE: H. B. Woodward's Geology of England and Wales, pp. 543, 544]
If the views of Professor Lewis and Mr. Kendall are correct concerning
the unity of the Glacial period in England, the shelly and sandy deposits
connected with these Clwydian caves at an elevation of 400 feet or more
would be explained in connection with the marginal lakes which must
have occupied the valley during both the advance and the retreat of
the ice-front; the shells having been carried up from the sea-bottom
by the ice-movement, after the manner supposed in the case of those at
Macclesfield and Moel Tryfaen. If, therefore, the statements concerning
the discovery of flint implements in this Cae Gwyn cave can be relied
upon, this is the most direct evidence yet obtained in Europe of man's
occupation of the island during the continuance of the Glacial period.
In all these caves it is to be noted that there is a sharp line of
demarcation between the strata containing palæolithic implements and
those containing only the remains of modern animals. Palæolithic
implements are confined to the lower strata, which in some of the caves
are separated from the upper by a continuous bed of stalagmite, to which
reference will be made when discussing the chronology of the Glacial
period. The remains of extinct animals also are confined to the lower
beds.
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