ry(|,j\|t is equally evident that the bones in question hav^ been 



brought to their present locality by some beast of prey ; for no 



jjthcr supposition will account for the cavern's becoming the ge- 



^Yi\\ c-uiDctery for animals so various in size, and so different in 



habits, as those to which they must have once belonged. 



3. It is not less evident that the animals that owned these 

 bones could not have died a natural death, for most of them 

 ^kave evidently been subjected to great violence, and cnhibit 

 tfractures in every direction. The floor of the cavern is strewed 

 ff>Ver with a sort of dust, consisting of minute fragments of de- 

 composed bone, which burns readily when ignite(i,| j, b^^refa 

 1 In short, there is reason to believe that the cave at WelHng- 

 j.ton Valley is somewhat similar to the one which Professor Buck-* 

 land examined at Kirkdale, in the north of England, and which 

 he ascertained, beyond the possibility of doubt, to have been the 

 den of a hya;na (resembling the variety now existing only at the 

 'SpiitJbern extremity of Africa) before the deluge. Both of these 

 caves are in limestone ranges. They both contain innumerable 

 ..fragments of fossil bone, deeply imbedded in stalagmite — the 

 Y^iubstance formed from the droppings of water in caverns of the 

 Ickind in question — or in indurated clay. I cannot pretend, how- 

 n0ver, to describe either the nature or the relative position of the 

 ^c^ubstance in which the bones at Wellington Valley are imbedded, 

 )f leaving only seen a minute portion of it adhering to one of the 

 •njbones. 



({[ From these ascertained facts, I conceive we are warranted to 

 ffi^educe the following inferences : — 



fii 1. That this vast island is not of recent or post-diluvian for- 

 .^mation, as is generally asserted, without the least sl^ip^.of 

 evidence. ^^ ^j^, 



j,r),, 2. That at some former period of its history it was inhabited 

 -nty various races of animals, that are either extinct or no loi9^;er 

 vittxisting in this part of the world. r^^j 



3. That the pliysical convulsion that destroyed these various 



,, races of animals did not materially change the external appear- 



„^ance of the country ; for the wild beasts' (probably tliehywnas') 



den at Wellington Valley has in all hkelihood the very «ame 



appearance that it had when inhabitated upwards of four thpu- 



sand years ago. 



