On a Short History of the Creswell Caves

Abstract

PLEISTOCENE DISCOVERIES IN DERBYSIIIRE. The first discovery of the Pleistocene Mammalia in Derbyshire was, I believe, made as long ago as 1822, when the remains of the Woolly Rhinoceros, the Reindeer, and some other animals were found in the Dream Cave, near Wirksworth. This cave however was never the habitation of wild beasts, but had been a trap in which they had miserably perished; it was one of those swallow holes so common in the Limestone districts. Since then, until I had the good fortune to light upon the Caves at Creswell, but few traces of the extinct animals were met with in the county; the Mammoth, Rhinoceros and Hippopotamus were found close to its W. border at Waterhouses, and the first of these animals was also met with at Doveholes and near Castleton, in conjunction with the Rhinoceros. Abundant remains of the Reindeer and Bison, accompanied by the Bear and the Wolf, were discovered by Mr. Rooke Pennington, at Windy Knoll, close to Castleton; and still more recently a fissure at Matlock Bath has yielded specimens of some of the more common of the Cave mammalia. THE CRESWELL CAVES. The Creswell Caves are remarkable in that they do not occur as do the majority of Bone Caves in the carboniferous limestone, but in Dolomite of the Permian series. They consist of a few small caves and fissures situated on either side of a short and picturesque ravine, cutting through the Lower Magnesian Limestone escarpment on the N.E, border of …