FOSSILS. 221 



suppose that it is specifically the same with any ex- 

 isting shell ; but like the wolf, fox, horse, &:c., of 

 the same date, bear only a striking similitude without 

 being identically the same as our present animals of 

 those names. With regard to the Oreston caves 

 being of a kind different to that now alluded to, it 

 will be superfluous to produce all the arguments in 

 proof: suffice it that they are of an opposite ten- 

 dency to those just now enumerated. We must 

 however remark, that it is Dr. Buckland's opinion, 

 that the animals, whose remains have been found 

 here, were destroyed by falling into these fissures 

 whilst hunted, in the case of the ox, horse, &c., and 

 whilst hunting, as in the case of the tiger or hysena ; 

 that their carcases were deposited for the time, on 

 some projecting ledge of rock, and were subsequently 

 conveyed at the time of the flood deeper into the 

 hollows : but the same flood which drifted them, 

 drifted also blocks of limestone, pebbles, and solitary 

 bones into the same situations. I think it is a gen- 

 eral rule for caves of this class, having openings 

 from above, to present, in these passages, irregular 

 blocks of stone ; at least such was the case at Ores- 

 ton, and I have observed it in three instances at 

 Yealmpton. Mr. Henneh states that, in the last 

 discovery of bones at Oreston, none of the very large 

 animals were observed ; and Dr. Buckland, also, in 

 his work, does not enumerate the elephant and 

 hippopotamus ; but I have seen teeth of both these, 

 and likewise fragments of the skeleton of the rhin- 

 oceros, from thence, procured in 1822. All these 

 I conceive may have been washed down with the 

 diluvial clay. I have contributed a good set of 

 bones, from the Yealm Bridge cave, to the Museum 

 of Mr. P. F. Bellamy, surgeon, a gentleman of 

 Plymouth, who will be glad to show them to persons 

 interested in such pursuits. 



Let it be understood, that, in making the above 

 remarks on the deluge, we are anxious to stand 

 acquitted of the intention to inculcate a spark of 



