NATURAL HISTORY. 



S15 



surface of the ground, or are easily 

 drawn out of the rrtouldering rub- 

 bish. The very walls seem filled 

 with various and innumerable teeth 

 and broken bones. The stalactical 

 covering of the uneven sides of the 

 cave <loes not reach quite down to 

 its bottom, whereby it plainly ap- 

 pears th;.t this vast collection of 

 animal rubbish, some time ago filled 

 a higher space m the cave, before 

 the bulk c|^ it sunk by mouldering. 



This place is in appearance very 

 like a large quarry of sandstones ; 

 and, indeed, the largest and tinest 

 blocks of osteolithi^al concretes 

 might be hewn out in any number, 

 if there was but r(/om enough to 

 come to them, and to carry them 

 out. Thi.s bony rock has been dug 

 into in different places, and every 

 ■where undoubted proofs have been 

 met with, that its bed, or this oste- 

 olithical stratum, e.\tends every 

 way far beneath and through the 

 limestone rock, into v/hich and 

 throitgh which these caverns have 

 been made, so that the queries sug- 

 gesting themselves about the asto* 

 nishing numbers of animals buried 

 here confound all speculation. 



Along the sides of this third ca- 

 vern there are some narrower open- 

 ings, leading into different smaller 

 chambCiS, of which it cannot be 

 said how deep they go. In some of 

 them, bones of smaller animals have 

 been found, such as jaw-bones, 

 vertebras, and tibiae, in large heaps. 

 The bottom of this cave slopes to- 

 ward a passage seven feet high, and 

 about as wide, being the entrance 

 to a 



Fourth cave, 20 feet high, and 

 15 wide, lined all round with a 

 stalactical crust and gradually 

 sloping to another steep descent, 

 where the ladder is wanting a se- 



cond time, and must be used'with 

 caution as befor:, in order to get 

 into a cave 40 feet high, and about 

 half as wiuC. In those deep and 

 spacious hollows, worked out 

 through the most solid mass of rock, 

 you again perceive with astonish- 

 ment immense numbers of bony 

 fragments of all kinds and sizes, 

 sticking everywhere in the sides of 

 the cave, or lying on the bottom. 

 I'his cave also is surrounded by se- 

 veral smaller oties; in one of them 

 rises a stalactite of uncommon big- 

 ness, beingtbur feet high, and eight 

 feet diameter, in the form of a trun- 

 cated cone. In another of those 

 side grottoes, a very neat stalactical 

 pillar presents itself, five feet in 

 height, and eight inches in diameter. 



1 he bottom of all these grottoes 

 is covered with true animal m.onld, 

 out of which may be dug fragments 

 of bones. 



Besides the smaller hollows, 

 spoken of before, round this fourth 

 cave, a very narrow opening has 

 been discovered in one of its cor- 

 ners. It is of very ditiicnlt access, 

 as it can be entc-redonly in a craw- 

 ling posture. This dismal and dan- 

 gerous passage leads into a fifth 

 cave, of near 30 feet high, 43 long, 

 and of unequal breadth. To the 

 depth of six feet this cave has been 

 dug, and nothing has been found 

 but fragments of bones, and ani- 

 mal mould : tiie sides are finely de- 

 corated with stalactites of diiisrent 

 forms and colours : but even this 

 stalactical crust is filled with frag- 

 ments of bones sticking in it, up to 

 the \ery roof. 



From thi.s remarkable cave, an- 

 other very low and narrow avenue 

 leads into the last discovered, or the 



Sixth cave, not \«ery lar.e, and 

 merely covered with a stalactical 



crust. 



