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

by William Boyd Dawkins

Fig. 74.—Section of Valley-gravels at Fisherton. (Evans.)

The valley through which the river Wily flows is excavated in the chalk ([Fig. 74]), and on its northern side fluviatile deposits occur at two levels, represented in the accompanying section. One patch of gravel, about twelve feet thick, a, lies about eighty feet above the present level of the Wily; while a second, b, consisting of clayey brickearth or loam, with seams of gravel, and fluviatile shells, sweeps down from a lower point to the bottom of the valley, and passes under the river. From the deposit a, Dr. Blackmore obtained many rudely-chipped implements, of the same palæolithic type as those found with the extinct mammalia in the gravel beds at Amiens and Abbeville in the valley of the Somme. In the deposit b, fossil mammalia were met with belonging to the following animals:—

Spotted hyæna.
Lion.
Reindeer.
Stag.
Bison.
Urus.
Musk-sheep.
Wild boar.
Horse.
Woolly rhinoceros.
Mammoth.
Lemming.
Pouched marmot.
Hare.

Dr. Blackmore subsequently discovered a flint implement along with these animals, of the same type as those previously met with in the deposit a.

A horizontal stretch of alluvium, c, deposited by the floods, occupies the present bottom of the valley. In this section it is plain that the gravels and brickearth at a and b were deposited by a river, which formerly flowed at those levels. In other words, the valley of the Wily was excavated during the time that the pleistocene strata a and b were being formed, while palæolithic man and the extinct animals were living in the neighbourhood. The position also of b below the present bottom of the valley proves that the latter then was deeper than it is now. The prehistoric alluvium, c, represents the last stage in the history of the valley in which it is beginning to be filled with the deposits of floods. While it was being accumulated none of the animals of a and b were living in the district except the hare, urus, stag, horse, and wild boar.

A somewhat similar section is exposed in the valley of the Avon at Freshford, near Bath, in a railway cutting, at a height of about thirty-five feet above the river. A thick mass of gravel abuts directly against a cleft of inferior oolite ([Fig. 75]), and gradually dies down to the alluvium. In it Mr. Charles Moore discovered the remains of the musk-sheep, and the Rev. H. H. Winwood those of the mammoth, bison, horse, and reindeer. In this case the pleistocene strata occupied the side of one of the valleys which had been deepened since the time of their deposit.

Fig. 75.—Section of Valley-gravels at Freshford, Bath.
4, Red loam, 5ft. 6in.; 3, Oolitic wash, 1ft.; 2, Clay with flints, 4ft. 10in.; 1, Gravel with fossil mammals, 8ft.

The alluvium in the neighbourhood of Bath contains in its lower portion a layer of peat, with bones of the Celtic short-horn (Bos longifrons), stag, roe, horse, goat, and pig; and in its upper part are old refuse heaps, proved to be Roman by the coins and ware, which are also met with at various points underneath the surface soil, and sometimes at considerable depths. It is, therefore, of prehistoric and historic age, and since it is found only in the valley bottoms, we may conclude that the present courses of the rivers along the sides of which it is found date back from the prehistoric age; while their ancient courses are marked by the fluviatile deposits with the extinct mammalia standing at various levels, the higher being the older. In the section at Fisherton we have evidence that the river flowed at a lower level in the pleistocene age than in the prehistoric, and in that at Freshford that the lower portion of the valley had been excavated after the pleistocene strata had been formed. One or other of these physical changes is to be traced in nearly all river valleys.[176] We may conclude that both imply a considerable lapse of time, because similar changes are now produced with extreme slowness. In the pleistocene river deposits, which lie scattered about at various heights on the valley sides, we seek in vain for neolithic implements, or domestic animals. In the low-lying alluvia, and accumulations of peat, we seek equally in vain for traces of palæolithic man, or of the extinct mammalia, except the Irish elk.

We may also gather, from the localization of the prehistoric alluvia close to the present streams, that the time represented by its accumulation is insignificant in comparison with the long lapse of ages implied by the pleistocene gravels and brickearths, that were deposited at various heights during the excavation of the valleys. The general surface of the valleys has undergone but little change since history began, and the excavation by the rivers has been so small as to have escaped accurate measurement. The alluvia represent the principal work done since the close of the pleistocene period.