Cave Hunting / Researches on the evidence of caves respecting the early inhabitants of Europe

by William Boyd Dawkins

The Grey Clays.

Immediately below the neolithic stratum, a deposit of stiff grey clay of unknown depth occupies both the entrance and the inside of the cave ([Figs. 20], [21]), containing fragments of limestone and large angular blocks which had fallen from the roof. A shaft sunk to a depth of twenty-five feet near the entrance failed to arrive at the bottom, but presented the following section in descending order: stiff grey clay with layer of stalagmite six feet thick; a finely laminated calcareous clay twelve feet thick; and below, a similar bed of clay to that on the surface. In a second shaft sunk to the depth of twelve feet farther within the cave, the base of the grey clay was not reached.[72]

Fig. 29.—Section below Grey Clay at entrance.

A third shaft, at the entrance, however, penetrated the clay, No. 1 of [Figs. 20], [21], [29], at a depth of about five feet, and revealed the existence below of a reddish-grey loamy cave-earth ([Fig. 29], A), containing bones and teeth of the same animals as those from the caverns of Kent’s Hole, Wookey Hole, and others, which belonged to a group that invaded Europe before the glacial period, and that inhabited the region north of the Alps and the Pyrenees in pre- and post-glacial times.[73]

We subsequently discovered the cave-earth to be from three to four feet thick, and that it rested on an accumulation ([Fig. 29], B) of large blocks of limestone, the interstices between which were filled with clay, sometimes laminated and at others homogeneous, as well as with coarse sand. Below this we broke into an empty passage, one side of which was formed by the solid rock, and the other of blocks of stone imbedded in the clay.

As we opened out a horizontal passage towards the cave-earth, A, from the outside, the talus ([Fig. 29], C) of angular débris was cut through first, which gradually became more and more clayey in its lower portions: at one point, D, there were several glaciated blocks, some imbedded in clay and others perfectly free. It rested obliquely on the edges of the cave-earth, and passed gradually at the entrance into the clay occupying the interior of the cave.

The Pleistocene Occupation by Hyænas.

The remains of the spelæan variety of the spotted hyæna were very abundant in the cave-earth, consisting of fragments of skulls, jaws, and bones, and especially of coprolites, which formed irregular floors, accumulated during successive occupations of the cave by that animal. All the bones were gnawed and scored by teeth, the lower jaws were without the angle and coronoid process (see [Fig. 92]), and the hollow bones which contain marrow were broken, while those which were solid and marrowless were for the most part perfect: and this held good, not merely of the remains of the hyæna, but of those of all the animals which constituted their prey. The bones, for example, of the woolly rhinoceros are represented merely by the hard distal portion of the shaft of the humerus, and of the solid bones of the ulna and radius, while the only portions of skull are the solid pedestal offered by the nasal bones on which the front horn was supported, and a few smaller fragments. The pedestal in question is depicted by the dark shaded portion of [Fig. 30], the outline of the skull and lower jaw being taken from one of Professor Brandt’s plates of the Woolly Rhinoceros found in Siberia.[74] The teeth which imply the presence of the mammoth (milk molars 3 and 4) were those of a young individual, as is very generally the case in caves which have been occupied by hyænas. The young would naturally be more exposed to the attack of those cowardly beasts of prey than the adult, armed with its long curved tusks, and defended, not merely by its thick skin, but also by the covering of wool and long hair which is peculiar to the species. Besides these animals, the reindeer, red-deer, bison, horse, the brown, grizzly, and great cave bears, were preyed upon by the hyænas and dragged into the cave. All these species were discovered within an area of a few square yards of cave-earth, which passes into the interior of the cave under the grey clay. They belong to that well-defined group known as pleistocene, quaternary, or post-pleiocene, which was proved to have inhabited Yorkshire[75] in ancient times from Dr. Buckland’s discoveries in Kirkdale, and Mr. Denny’s examination of the river-deposit at Leeds, in which the remains of the hippopotamus were obtained.