335 



" The den is a natural fissure, or cavern, in oolitic lime- 

 stone, extending three hundred feet into the body of the 

 solid rock, and varying from two 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 one hundred 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 ; but on the greater part of it there was no sta- 

 lagmite. At the bottom of this mud, the floor of the cave 

 was covered from one end to the other with teeth and frag- 

 ments of bone of the following animals : — hyaena, elephant, 

 rhinoceros, 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 frag- 

 ments 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 upon 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 imbedded. 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 foecal matter of the hyaenas are found 

 also in the den. These have been analyzed by Dr. Wollaston, 

 and found to be composed of the same ingredients as the 

 album grcecumy or white faeces of dogs that are fed on bones, 



