Outside view of the jaw-bone of a fossil hyæna, found at Kirkdale, copied from Dr. Buckland's engraving, plate xviii. fig. 2. Phil. Trans. for 1822. It is about a third larger than that of the living hyæna. The formidable canine tusk is seen to the left, then four molar teeth, the last and largest of which is called the great carnivorous (carnassiere). This tooth resembles the corresponding one in the spotted hyæna, more than in the striped. But the spotted hyæna has the posterior knob (talon) of that tooth much less than the striped and the fossil hyæna. The great thickness of the teeth harmonizes well with the delight and facility with which hyænas are known to gnaw and devour bones.

The fossil hyæna seems to have been more powerful than the existing species; its limbs were somewhat thicker and shorter; and its anatomy differed in some minute particulars.

very

V. Fossil felis, or tiger and lion family.—A large animal, and another less, both belonging to the genus felis, have left their exuviæ in the caverns and diluvium; the former has been called felis spelæa, the latter felis antiqua. It is therefore incontestable that fossil species of tiger or lion, lived at the same period with the fossil bears, and retired into the same caverns, where the bones of both genera lie promiscuously, along with bones of hyænas; but the felis tribe was less numerous.

M.

Goldfuss says that in twenty years, during which time, several hundred bears' skulls were extracted from the caves of Muggendorf, no more than 15 skulls of hyænas were found, and only 3 or 4 of the felis tribe; but he states that at Gaylenreuth, the separate teeth and bones, and fragments of the skulls of tigers or lions are not rarer than those of hyænas.

The inverse proportion holds in the Kirkdale cave; where the hyæna remains are far more numerous than those of the other carnivora; while the felis exuviæ are very scarce, and there is hardly a vestige of the bear. The bones of the fossil felis are in general stronger than those of the living animals of this tribe, and in some particulars of their osteology specifically different.

VI. A few fossil bones have been found belonging to the genus Canis. These have been referred to the wolf or dog; the osteology of these animals being nearly the same; a few to the fox and to a species the size of the polecat; and some to the weasel.

VII. M. Sommering discovered in the cavern of Gaylenreuth a skull of the genus ursus gulo or glutton, whose only species now known, inhabit exclusively cold regions.

"The glutton and the hyæna, the rein-deer and rhinoceros, in the same caverns, as we observe at Gaylenreuth and Breugues; the bison (aurochs) and the elephant, in the same diluvium as we find in the valley of the Arno, reveal certainly a state of the earth very different from what we witness, or

ANTEDILUVIAN BONE CAVERNS.

557

imply in these animals a temperament opposite to what their kindred species now display."

On these suggestions I would merely observe, that the fossil vegetable remains exhumed in high latitudes, in Melville Island and Siberia, as well as in the strata of Germany, France, and England, establish beyond all possibility of a doubt the far higher temperature which prevailed in these regions on the antediluvian globe, than at the present day.

OF THE BONE CAVERNS.

All the great calcareous formations, the mountain limestone, as well as the more modern, are excavated in many directions into large vaults and fissures, several of which have been long admired on account of their sparry roofs and stalactitic projections. In the stratified limestone of Crete, lies the famous labyrinth. Through the whole island, says Tournefort, there is a world of caverns; especially in Mount Ida, there are holes you may run your head in, bored through and through, and very deep perpendicular chasms also abound. In the limestone districts of England we have likewise a vast number of such vaults and subterranean rivers, as in Derbyshire, where Mr. Farey enumerates 28 remarkable caverns, and as many open fissures, locally called shake-holes, or swallow-holes, from their swallowing up the streams that cross the limestone districts of that country. The fissures descend from the surface to a very considerable depth, and often expand into vaults or communi

• Cuvier, Ossemens Fossiles, Tom. IV. p. 487.

cate laterally with caverns. Many such excavations ingulph rivers in the limestone formations of the Mendip hills and South Wales, in the west of Ireland, Carniola, and North Ameriea.

The bone caverns of Germany are quite analogous. Nothing, says M. Cuvier, is more truly curious than the new theatre into which I am about to transport my readers. Numerous grottoes, brilliantly decorated with crystalline stalactites of every form, succeeding each other to a great extent through the body of the mountains, communicating together by openings so narrow that a man can hardly proceed by crawling on his hands, yet with their floors all bestrewed with enormous heaps of bones of animals of every size, form undoubtedly one of the most remarkable phenomena which the fossil kingdom can present to the meditations of the geologist, more especially when we consider that this scene of mortality is repeated in a great many places, and through far distant lands. No wonder then that these vaults of death have become objects of research to the ablest naturalists, and that their bony relics have been often described and figured. Prior to such philosophical inquiries, however, these bones were famed among the populace; who, as usual, added many imaginary prodigies to the natural wonders which they had seen. The bones were long dug up and sold, as bones of the fossil unicorn, to the apothecaries, on account of some singular virtues which they were reputed to possess; and there is no doubt that this strange traffic contributed mainly both to the investigation of old caves, and to the discovery of new ones.

BAUMAN'S CAVE NEAR BLANKENBOURG.

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The most anciently celebrated cavern is that of Bauman in the Duke of Brunswick's dominions, in the district of Blankenbourg, to the south of the village of this name, in a hill which forms one of the exterior slopes of the Hartz mountains towards the east. The general direction of the cave is from east to west, but the entrance looks to the north. Although it soon expands into an ample vault, the mouth is narrow, and can be entered only by crawling. The first grotto is the largest; from which there is a descent into the second of 30 feet, at first by a narrow gallery through which we must creep, and then by going down a ladder. This grotto is the richest of all the German caves in stalactites of every form. The passage to the third grotto is at first peculiarly difficult, compelling the visitor to advance on all fours; but it afterwards enlarges, exhibiting on its walls stalactites of the most fantastic shapes. From this vault, there are two lateral dilatations which constitute the third and fourth grottoes as delineated in the plan of the Acta Eruditorum. At the extremity of the passage, it is requisite to reascend in order to reach the entrance of the proper third cavern, which opens out like a a gateway. Beyond this third grotto, there is said to be another passage terminating in two small

caves.

The Rev. Dr. Buckland has published in his Reliquiæ Diluv. an accurate section of Bauman's Höhle in the Hartz. The first or grand chamber, is from 40 to 50 feet in diameter, with stalactites on various parts of its roof. Its floor is covered with a bed of diluvial loam containing some bones and