Natural History. 213 



and travelled on sledges, the cold being at 40° R., so that the 

 frozen quicksilver could be cut with a knife. On the 31st they 

 arrived at Tomsk ; on the 21st of January, 1829, at Krasnojarsk, 

 and on the 7th of February, at Irkutzk, which is about 4000 versts 

 from Tobolsk. They afterwards visited Kiachta, and crossed the 

 frontier of China; but the most agreeable result is, that the desired 

 object of the journey is accomplished, as the observations have 

 proved perfectly satisfactory, and the magnetic pole is found. Cen- 

 turies will perhaps elapse before Siberia will be again so thoroughly 

 observed. When the letters were dispatched, it was resolved that 

 the journey should be extended to Nertschinsk; from which place 

 Professor Hanstein would return to Krasnojarsk. His companion, 

 Lieutenant Due, was to go alone to Jakutzk, 2700 versts N. E. 

 of Irkutzk, and perhaps proceed down the river Lena to the Frozen 

 Ocean, and they intended to meet again at Jeniseisk in September 

 6r October. — New Mon. Mag. xxvii. 359. 

 i 



23. Destruction of the Caves of Kuhloch and Rabensiein in 

 Franconia. — Dr. Buckland has written a letter to the Editor of 

 the Philosophical Magazine, inclosing another from Mr. Egerton, 

 giving an account of the destruction of these caverns, as to geolo- 

 gical reasoning. The cave of Kuhloch was the most interesting and 

 curious deposit of organic remains in Germany. It has been mi- 

 nutely described, and a drawing of it given in Reliquiee Diluvian<B> 

 and Professor Buckland is anxious to record its alteration and par- 

 tial demolition, that the cause of its differing for the future from his 

 description may never be forgotten. 



Mr. Egerton says, " Lord Cole and myself are just returned to 

 Schaffhausen, from a three weeks' visit to the antediluvian caverns 

 of Franconia; and knowing the great interest you feel in their wel- 

 fare, I write to inform you of the melancholy fact of the total de- 

 struction of the deposit of bones, in the caves of Kuhloch and Ra- 

 benstein. His Majesty the king of Bavaria having announced his 

 intention to visit Rabenstein, the owner of that castle has thought 

 fit to prepare these two caves for his reception ; in order to do 

 which, he has broken up the whole of the floors, pounding the 

 larger stones and bones to the bottom for a foundation, and 

 spreading the earth and finer particles to form a smooth surface 

 over them. Conceive our horror on arriving at Kuhloch, at finding 

 thirty men at work wheeling out the animal earth, to level the 

 inclination of the entrance, by which you have so satisfactorily 

 explained the phenomenon of the absence of pebbles and diluvial 

 loam in this remarkable cavern. There was not a bone to be 

 found there when we arrived ; however, with a little management 

 we contrived to obtain two beautiful fragments of lower jaws of 

 hyaena, besides some very good bears' bones, and oue ulna that 

 had been broken during the animal's life, and the sharp edges of 

 the fracture rounded off by the absorbents into a smooth stump. 



