350 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



is chiefly attracted by it because it has rendered him the invaluable service 

 of scaling down the floor hermetically, and preserving the precious deposits 

 of animal bones beneath through many centuries, without permitting natu- 

 ral decay or accidental disturbance. So hard was the floor, that attempts to 

 penetrate it were abandoned in despair, until, by following the cracks that 

 traversed it like a pavement, a flag was turned over, and groups of skulls 

 and bones were found adhering to the stalagmite. Succeeding flags, when 

 upturned, exhibited like interesting objects. The place was evidently an 

 ursine cemetery --intramural, indeed, as respected rock walls, but extramu- 

 ral as regarded all habitations of town-loving man. Here the remains of 

 the bear prevailed to the exclusion of all others. The bones retained their 

 natural freshness, as if they had been derived from animals in a high state 

 of vigor; while some of the teeth displayed dazzling enamel. Two skulls 

 were buried in the stalagmite as in a mould, and were brought away in that 

 state. The unbroken condition of most of these remains appeared to indi- 

 cate that they belonged to animals that died a natural death in this spot 

 during a succession of ages. 



The most interesting part of the cavern was at a point where the roof and 

 floor nearly met, and which was always regarded as the extreme limit of the 

 cavern, until, by removing heaps of loose stones, a passage was opened to a 

 small group of chambers, probably untrodden before by the foot of mortal 

 man. A column of spar connecting roof and floor being removed, it was 

 found, to the explorer's inexpressible joy, to have covered the head of a 

 wolf "perhaps the largest and finest skull, whether fossil or modern, of 

 that animal in the world." Near it lay one of its under jaws entire, the 

 other could not be found. The stalagmite at this point was a foot and a 

 half thick, excessively hard, marked by mixture of rolled rocky fragments, 

 but in the interior moulding itself purely upon a mass of bones. These 

 were so thickly packed together, that no idea of their number could be given. 

 They had suffered from pressure, and had been impelled by violence into this 

 narrow neck of the hollow. Some were even driven into the interstices of 

 the opposite wall; others were piled in the greatest confusion against its 

 side. From this spot alone Mr. MacEncry gathered some thousands of teeth 

 of the horse and hyena, and in the midst of all were myriads of Rodentia. 

 The earth was saturated with animal matter; it was fat with the sinews and 

 marrow of more wild beasts than would have peopled all the menageries in 

 the world. 



In one part of the cavern, which has received the name of the " Cave of 

 Rodentia," it was found that the remains and dust of this class of animals 

 constituted the whole floor, and that they were agglutinated together by cal- 

 careous matter into a bony breccia or conglomerate. Xot only had their 

 tiny remains penetrated into every cleft and crevice of the rock, but they 

 had even insinuated themselves into the chambers of the large bones. Here, 

 then, were myriads of minute animal remains accumulated by the side of 

 those of the elephant, rhinoceros, and hyena, in one common sepulchre. 

 AVhcn a handful of the dust was thrown into the air, hundreds of teeth rose to 

 the surface, and only in this way could they be collected. Land and water 

 rats (campagnoh) , bats, weasels, and moles, had all left innumerable remains 

 on this spot. That they all existed and died here, was made manifest by 

 the condition of their remains, every part indicating prolonged habitation 

 and peaceable death. 



The distribution of animal remains over the whole cavern may be thus 



