Philosophical Transactions. 17! 
which the cavern mentioned in the title is situated; he then 
describes the cavern itself, enumerates in detail the animal 
remains which were found in it, describes the phenomena with 
which they were attended, suggests the conclusions to which 
these phenomena lead, and concludes with a comparative ac- 
count of analogous animal deposits.in other parts of this coun- 
try and the continent. 
The cave is in a compact bed of oolitic limestone; it is 
coated with stalactite, and floored with mud and stalagmite, in 
which the bones are found, and to which they appear to owe 
their preservation. The following are the animals whose bones 
it is supposed have been recognised. Hyena, tiger, bear, 
wolf, fox, weasel, unknown wolf-like animal, elephant, rhino- 
ceros, hippopotamus, horse, ox, three species of deer, rabbit, 
water-rat, mouse, rayen, pigeon, lark, duck. These bones 
are almost all broken and imperfect, and many of them gnawed; 
hence the author assumes that this cave was originally inhabited 
as aden by hyenas, and that they dragged into its recesses 
the other animals whose remains are found mixed indiscrimi- 
nately with their own, and as hyenas do not scruple upon an 
emergency to eat each other, no wonder that their own bones 
are intermixed with those of other animals; the ruminants, 
however, seem to have formed their ordinary prey, and as very 
few of the teeth found in the cave bear marks of age, it is pro- 
bable that they perished by a violent death. 
The extreme abundance of the teeth of water rats has also been alluded 
to; and though the idea of hyznas eating rats may appear ridiculous, it 
is consistent with the omnivorous appetite of modern hyznas; nor is the 
disproportion in size of the animal to that of its prey, greater than that 
of wolves and foxes, which are supposed by Captain Parry to feed chiefly 
on mice during the long winters of Melville Island. Our largest dogs eat 
rats and mice ; jackalls occasionally prey on mice, and dogs and foxes will 
eat frogs. It is probable, therefore, that neither the size nor aquatic habit 
of the water rat would secure it from the hyenas. They might occasionally 
also have eaten mice, weasels, rabbits, foxes, wolves, and birds ; and in 
masticating the bodies of these small animals with their coarse conical teeth, 
many bones and fragments of bone would be pressed outwards through their 
lips, and fal! neglected to the ground. 
As the cave was too small for the entrance of elephants, 
thinoceri, and hippopotami, Mr. Buckland ingeniously sup- 
poses that they died a natural death in the neighbourhood, 
and that their limbs were conveyed piecemeal into the den by 
its omnivorous inhabitants. 
Should it be asked why, amidst the remains of so many hundred animals, 
not a single skeleton of any kind has been found entire, we see an obvious 
answer, in the power and known habit of hyznas to devour the bones of 
their prey ; and the gnawed fragments on the one hand, and album gracum 
on the other, afford double evidence of their having largely gratified this 
natural propensity ; the exception of the teeth and numerous small bones 
of the lower joints and extremities, that remain unbroken, as having been 
too hard and solid to afford inducement for mastication, is eutirely consistent 
with this solution. Aud should it be further asked, why we do not find, 
