Page:The Geologist, volume 5.djvu/142

118 Norfolk coast; whole trees, capable of being used for building purposes, are dug up in the adjoining valleys.

"A question here suggests itself: Have not the students of these pleistocene strata neglected a little too much the written documents still in possession of the descendants of the ancient inhabitants of the country—the Welsh, or British, strictly so called? Of the Cantrev-y-Gwaelod there is not only a general tradition, but even the names of certain of the 'hundred overwhelmed towns and cities,' of the harbours, and of the eminent men who governed the district, are still preserved in the poems and triads which have been collected and published in the 'Myvyrian Archaiology,' and elsewhere. . . . All this then seems to suggest the possibility that the time when the animals lived here, whose bones are collected in the caves of Tenby, may not have been very long ago; and though it is not intended to imply that these extinct animals lived here in England within the modern historic period, much less at the time of the subsidence of the bay of Cardigan, about the year 500, yet may not those recent subsidences of the land be but the continuation of that action which separated us from the continent, and examples of the way in which that separation was last effected?

"A very brief notice of the second cave at Caldy, chiefly to record the discovery and site of it, will be sufficient, because when it was broken into for the first time, about two years ago, the quarrymen shovelled the surface bones, of which there were a good many, into the sea, and it shared after a little time the fate of the first cave, except that the floor is said to be still intact. A few bones and teeth have however been preserved.

"Of the third cave, perhaps the particulars at this time will be most interesting, because it contained, with the remains of some of the carnivora mentioned above, flint implements of human construction.

"This cave is situated on the mainland, and has a large open entrance always known to the inhabitants by the name of 'the Oyle.' It runs far into the rock, and is easily entered to the distance of forty-eight yards, and further with a little difficulty. It was first examined archæologically, about twenty years ago, by Major Jervis, and a brother officer. Three celts were dug up, two of stone, and one of metal. During the present year a somewhat careful examination was made of the contents of the water-washed earth at the bottom of one of the chambers which constitute the cave, and which chambers alone contain any deposit, for the narrow parts are bare to the rock. Teeth of the bear were obtained, with a great quantity of the bones of recent animals. Here also were fish-bones, mixed with such modern littoral shells as the Patella, Cardium, Purpurea, Capilla, Mytilus, Littorina littoralis, L. litorea, Natica monilifera, etc., most of which, it is worthy of notice, are also found in the raised beaches which appear at heights above the sea, from one hundred to two hundred feet or so, all round the adjacent coasts, and up the Bristol Channel.

"Indiscriminately mixed with these remains, were found some smaller flint chips, and bolt or arrow-heads.

"On the question then of the antiquity of man upon our earth, our caves here at Tenby give as yet no testimony, because though works of art have been found mixed with these bones of huge animals, the cave-earth has been so disturbed, that their original position cannot be ascertained."