122 FOSSILS OF THE NEIGHBOURHOOD. 



them that no opening was diseernable ; and I looked 

 in vain for any trace of it, although, from the advan- 

 ced destruction of the rock, this is not surprising, 

 and furnishes no argument against the existence of 

 one. The bones were enveloped in clay, and a very 

 rich black mould. Pebbles, such as are found by 

 the sea-side, or in rivers, occurred at intervals, as 

 did also breccia or hard masses, which I found to 

 be pieces of clay, of limestone, of bone, and some 

 pebbles cemented together by stalagmite. Generally 

 the bones were in fragments and splinters ; many of 

 them appearing to have been thus broken by the 

 teeth of some predatory beast, and some are undoubt- 

 edly marked by these. Tlie cyHndrical bones are 

 usually deprived of their extremities when otherwise 

 entire ; while the smaller and thicker bones remain 

 whole ; and it appears that two or three skulls of 

 the Hyaena, in good preservation, were turned out 

 some time back, and lost. The teeth, which occurred 

 in great quantities, are likewise usually perfect, and 

 seemed in no way different from recent specimens, 

 and the bones themselves appear to have suffered no 

 other alterations than loosing their animal matter, 

 and thereby becoming so extremely dry, that the 

 tongue or lip will remain attached to them on the 

 slightest appUcation, and receiving into their com- 

 position a certain quantity of lime derived from the 

 droppings from the roof. Excluded from the action 

 of the air it seems that bones may remain for ages 

 unaltered ; but, when these same bodies were ex- 

 posed for a few days and nights to the alternations 

 of the temperature, I found that their decomposition 

 proceeded rapidly. Generally, the bones lay in the 

 utmost confusion, so that rarely were two bones of 

 the same species of animal found together : Phalan- 

 gal bones however were usually in proximity to each 

 other, and, at the spot where bones of a rat and of a 

 mouse were found, those of other animals were not 

 seen. There appears no reason to doubt, from a 



