Outlines of Geology . 1 93 



been at home on these islets is preposterous and absurd ; but then 

 again, it is manifestly not impossible, that when the islands in 

 question were inhabited by these larger animals, they were parts 

 of a continent, and it is not difficult, as I shall show by-and-by, to 

 urge strong grounds in support of such a theory. 



Another circumstance has been urged against the notion that 

 these bones have been transported from other countries, which is 

 their very general diffusion, and their .abundance in various situa- 

 tions as well as climates ; had they only occurred in countries 

 conquered by the Macedonians, the Romans, and the Carthaginians, 

 and were they the bones of the elephant only, and further, did 

 they present no peculiarities that stamped them as a more ancient 

 and an extinct race, we might suppose, with the earlier specula- 

 tors, that they were the bones of animals which had perished in 

 the warfare of those nations, but taking the facts before us into 

 the account, it is perfectly absurd to regard them as the victims 

 of the restlessness and ambition of the human race, and they seem 

 (as a modern writer has suggested) to belong to a period when 

 man's dominion over the earth was limited and feeble ; when 

 perhaps the human race was confined to som.e favoured spot, and 

 when the elephant, from his sagacity and strength, " was the chief 

 master of the earth." 



Among the extinct species of carnivorous animals, we must not 

 forget to mention the bears, whose remains are found in the caves 

 of Bareuth and the Hartz; the bones discovered by Mr. Whidby, 

 in certain caverns in the limestone of Plymouth probably belonged 

 also to bears. Nor must we omit the singular associations of 

 bones described by Mr. Buckland in a cave at Kirkdale, at Kirby 

 Moorside in Yorkshire, among which those of the hyaena, bear, 

 wolf and fox, of the elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, horse, 

 deer, rabbit, and water rat have already been discovered, present- 

 ing a truly curious assemblage, and importantly connected with 

 various objects of geological inquiry. From the apparently gnawed 

 condition of the bones, it has been concluded that the den was 

 inhabited by hyaenas, and that the other animal remains are the 

 bones of their prey which had been dragged into the recesses of 



Vol. XIX. O 



