1822.] Proceedings of Philosophical Societies, 227 



Article XVI. 



Proceedings of Philosophical Societies. 



ROYAL SOCIETY. 



Jan, 31. — Observations on the Length of the Second's Pen- 

 dulum at Madras, by John Goldingham, Esq. FRS. 



Feb. 7. — Account of" an Assemblage of Fossil Teeth and Bones 

 belonging to extinct Species of Elephant, Rhinoceros, Hippo- 

 potamus, and Hysena, and some other Animals discovered in a 

 Cave at Kirkdale, near Kirby Moorside, Yorkshire, by the Rev.. 

 W. Buckland, FRS. 



Feb. 14. — Mr. Buckland's paper wsls continued. 



Feb. 21. — Mr. Buckland's paper was concluded. 



This paper gives a detailed account of an antediluvian den of 

 hysenas discovered last summer at Kirk dale, near Kirby Moor- 

 side, in Yorkshire, about 25 miles north-east of York. 



The den is a natural fissure or cavern in oolitic limestone 

 extending 300 feet into the body of the solid rock, and varying 

 from tvi^o to five feet in height and breadth. Its mouth was 

 closed with rubbish, and overgrown with grass and bushes, and 

 was accidentally intersected by the working of a stone quarry.. 

 It is on the slope of a hill about 100 feet above the level of a 

 small river, which, during great part of the year, is engulphed. 

 The bottom of the cavern is nearly horizontal, and is entirely 

 covered to the depth of about a foot, with a sediment of mud 

 deposited by the diluvian waters. The surface of this mud was- 

 in some parts entirely covered with a crust of stalagmite ; on 

 the greater part of it, there was no stalagmite. At the bottom 

 of this mud, the floor of the cave was covered from one end to 

 the other with teeth and fragments of bone of the following 

 animals : hyaena, elephant, i:hinoceros, hippopotamus, horse, ox, 

 two or three species of deer, bear, fox, water-rat, and birds. 



The bones are for the most part broken, and gnawed to pieces, 

 and the teeth lie loose among the fragments of the bones ; a 

 very few teeth remain still fixed in broken fragments of the 

 jaws. The hyaena bones are broken to pieces as much as those 

 of the other animals. No bone or tooth has been rolled, or in 

 the least acted on by water, nor are there any pebbles mixed 

 ■with them. The bones are not at all mineralized, and retain 

 nearly the whole of their animal gelatin, and owe their high 

 state of preservation to the mud in which they have been imbed- 

 ded. The teeth, of hyaenas are most abundant ; and of these, the 

 greater part are worn down almost to the stumps, as if by the 

 operation of gnawing bones. Some of the bones have marks of 

 the teeth on them ; and portions of the fcecal matter of tBe 



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