Man present with Hippopotamus in Cave of Pont Newydd.
Palæolithic man has left no traces of his presence in the caves of Castleton and Matlock. They have, however, been met with in several caverns in Wales, such as those of Pembrokeshire and Monmouthshire in the south, and in that of Pont Newydd,[1] near St. Asaph in North Wales. In the latter a human molar tooth has been found, as well as a quartzite implement, and rude splinters and chips of quartzite, of the same type as those of the red sand in the caves of Cresswell. The pebbles of which these are made have been obtained from the glacial deposits in the neighbourhood. We may therefore conclude with Professor Hughes, that the Palæolithic hunter was here after the district was forsaken by the glaciers and the sea, or in other words, in post-glacial times, as in the parallel case offered by the river-deposits of Bedford and Hoxne. It must also be remarked that the leptorhine rhinoceros and the hippopotamus, as well as the straight-tusked elephant (E. antiquus), bear, bison, reindeer, and horse, are found with the quartzite implements in the Pont Newydd cave, which may therefore be classified with those of Yorkshire and the lower strata in Mother Grundy's Parlour.
With this exception, the association of traces of man with the remains of hippopotamus has, as yet, not been observed in any bone caves either in this country or on the Continent. The presence of the leptorhine rhinoceros, hippopotamus, and straight-tusked elephant, probably marks the earliest phase of the occupation of the caves of Europe by the Palæolithic hunter.
- ↑ Cave-hunting, viii.
