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XXII. An Account of the remarkable Accumulation of the Exuvice 

 of Bears, in a Cave at Kiihloch in Franconia. By Professor 



BUCKLAND*. 



THE cave of Kiihloch (in Franconia), is more remark- 

 able than all the rest, as being the only one I have ever 

 seen, excepting that of Kirkdale, in which the animal re- 

 mains have escaped distm'bance by diluvial action; and the 

 only one also in which I could find the black animal earth, 

 said by other writers to occur so generally, and for which 

 many of diem appear to have mistaken the diluvial sediment 

 in which the bones are so universally imbedded. The only 

 thing at all like it, tliat I could find in any of die other ca- 

 verns, were fragments of highly decayed bone, which oc- 

 curred in the loose part of the diluvial sediment in the caves 

 of Scharzfeld and Gailenreuth ; but in the cave of Kiihloch it 

 is far otherwise. It is literally true that in this single cavern 

 (the size and proportions of which are nearly equal to those of 

 the interior of a large church) there are hundreds of cart loads 

 of black animal dust entirely covering the whole floor, to a 

 depth which must average at least six feet, and which, if we 

 multiply this depth by the length and breadth of the cavern, 

 will be found to exceed 5000 cubic feet. The whole of this 

 mass has been again and again dug over in search of teeth and 

 bones, which it still contains abundantly, though in broken 

 fragments. The state of these is very different fi-om that of the 

 bones we find m anj^ of the other caverns, being of a black, or, 

 more properly speaking, dark umber colour throughout, and 

 many of them readily crumbling under the finger into a soft dark 

 powder, resembling mummy powder, and being of the same na- 

 ture with the black earth in which they are imbedded. The 

 quantity of anmial matter accumulated on this floor is the most 

 surprising, and the only thing of the kind I ever witnessed ; and 

 many hundred, I may say thousand, individuals must have con- 

 tributed their remains to make up this appalling mass of the dust 

 of death. It seems in great part to be derived from comminuted 

 and pulverised bone ; for the fleshy parts of animal bodies pro- 

 duce by their decomposition so small a quantity of permanent 

 earthy residuum, that we must seek for the origin of this mass 

 principally in decayed bones. The cave is so dry, that the black 

 earth lies in the state of loose powder, and rises in dust under the 



* This article is extracted from the section on the Caves in Franconia in 

 Professor Buckland's "ReliquuB Diluviance" lately published ; of which in- 

 teresting work, and several recent memoirs on subjects connected with 

 those which are discussed in it, we purpose to give analyses in our 

 next. 



feet: 



