By Mr. Cunnington. 133 



Cave Bear, so closely resembles that of the human subject, as to be 

 frequently mistaken for it by the unpractised anatomist. 



The subject attracted more attention at the beginning of the 

 present century, and was studied particularly by Dr. Buckland, 

 and the results published by him in 1823, in his Reliquiae Dilu- 

 vianae. This book contains elaborate and admirably illustrated 

 accounts of the various phenomena of the Bone Caves, especially 

 of the celebrated cave of Kirkdale, in Yorkshire. All these phe- 

 nomena, together with the present form and structure of hills and 

 valleys, and the accumulations of the loams and gravels constituting 

 "the Drift," Dr. Buckland considered as bearing undeniable 

 evidence of a recent and transient inundation — the Noachian 

 Deluge, and he applied the term " Diluvial " to the results of this 

 great convulsion. But the progress of science was rapid, and in 

 about ten years from the publication of that work, the Professor in 

 his address to the Geological Society, relinquished his theory, and 

 magnanimously recanted what he acknowledged to be a geological 

 heresy. 



Since the publication of these views, our leading geologists have 

 interested themselves much in the study of the older rocks, whilst 

 this subject has been comparatively neglected, until within the last 

 few years. Now however, all the publications of the Geological Society 

 g^ve evidence of the interest felt in this branch of the science, and 

 papers by Murchison, Prestwich, Lyell, Austen, Morris, Trimmer, 

 and others are constantly revealing new and remarkable discoveries.* 



Many interesting facts have been established; amongst others, 

 that it is mostly, if not entirely in the gravel of the valleys, that 

 the bones of the large Mammals occur; they do not appear in the 

 Drift of the hills. 



Thirty-two different species of these fossil animals have been 

 found in England, but only the following seven species have 

 hitherto been discovered in Wiltshire: 



' Mr. ProHtwich has lately made soino very iiiUreslinn^ observations on the 

 Drift ill the nuighbouriiood of Salijihiiry, particulars of which were published in 

 the Qiinrtfrly Journal of the Oeolo)j;ical Hociety in May, 1855. 



