Daniel Mackintosh

“ The angular limestone fragments may have fallen from the roof or sides of the caves during the period of accumulation; or previously fallen fragments, along with the bones of animals, may have been washed up into the clay by the waves of the Upper-Boulder-clay sea. It ought not to be forgotten that in caves sea-waves are often possessed of very great force, and that they are capable of insinuating themselves into the remotest recesses. ”

“ However it may have originated, I cannot believe with Professor Hughes that, in the Pont-newydd cave, it was washed in through a swallow-hole, from the Boulder- clay of the neighbourhood, by a freshwater stream. The relative proportion of stones of different kinds is not nearly the same in the pebble-bed and in the Boulder-clay covering the surface of the ground at a higher level. In the pebble-bed nearly all the stones, so far as I could see, are Denbighshire sandstone or grit. In the Boulder-clay a large proportion of the pebbles are limestone. ”

“ The bed under the stalagmite in the Cefn cave, with its representative in the Pont-newydd cave, is the most difficult to explain. I am unable to say whether it most resembles an accumulation of fine river-shingle or a raised beach. In the caves it does not occur at the height above the present sea-level of the more typical raised beaches. ”