Geological Society/. 67 



attention had been drawn by the description of M. Marcel de Ser- 

 res,) for the purpose of instituting a comparison between it and the 

 caves in England previously described by himself; and the. result 

 has established nearly a perfect identity both in their animal and 

 mineral contents, as well as in the history of their introduction. 



The cave of Lunel is situated in compact calcaire grassier, with 

 subordinate beds of globular calcareous concretions, and the whole 

 of the rock having something of an oolitic structure. In working a 

 free-stone quarry of this calcaire grassier, the side of the present 

 cavern was accidentally laid open, and considerable excavations 

 have since been made in it, at the expense of the French Govern- 

 ment, for the purpose of extracting its animal remains that lie bu- 

 ried in mud and gravel, and of searching for the aperture through 

 which all these extraneous substances have been introduced. These 

 operations have exposed a long rectilinear vault of nearly 100 yards 

 in length and of from ten to twelve feet in width and height. The 

 floor is covered with a thick bed of diluvial mud and pebbles, occa- 

 sionally reaching almost to the roof, and composed at one extremity 

 chiefly of mud, whilst at the other end, pebbles predominate. 



Some vertical fissures in another quarry of calcaire grassier a 

 few miles distant, are filled with similar materials to those within the 

 cavern, and containing occasionally a few bones, sometimes cemented 

 by calcareous infiltrations to a breccia like that of Gibraltar, Cette, 

 and Nice. These materials are similar in substance to, and are 

 uninterruptedly connected with, a superficial bed of diluvium that 

 covers the surface of these quarries, and are identical with the ge- 

 neral mass of diluvial detritus of the neighbourhood. 



Stalactite and stalagmite are of rare occurrence in the cavern of 

 Lunel ; hence neither its bones nor earthy contents are cemented 

 mto a breccia. 



On examining the bones collected in the cavern byM. Marcel de 

 Serres and his associate M. Cristol, Dr. Buckland found many of 

 them to bear the marks of gnawing by the teeth of ossivorous ani- 

 mals ; he also discovered in the cave an extraordinary abundance 

 of balls oi album grcecum in the highest state of preservation. Both 

 these circumstances, so important to establish the fact of the cave 

 of Lunel having been inhabited, like that of Kirkdale, as a den of 

 hyaenas, had been overlooked by the gentlemen above mentioned. 

 1 he more scanty occurrence of stalactite, and the greater supply 

 of album gracum in this cavern than in those of England, (See 

 RehquKB Diluviance, vol. i.) are referred to one and the same cause, 

 VIZ. the introduction of less rain water by infiltration into this cave, 

 than into that of Kirkdale; in the latter case a large proportion of 

 the fecal balls of the hyenas appear to have been trod upon and 

 crushed at the bottom of a wet and narrow cave, whilst at Lunel 

 they have been preserved in consequence of the greater size and 

 dryness of the chamber in which they were deposited. 



M.iMarcel de Serres has published a list of the animal remains 

 contained in this cavern, which differ but little from those of Kirk- 

 dale: the most remarkable addition is that of the Beaver and the 

 Badger, together with the smaller striped, or Abyssinian Hyicna. 



K 2 l-'or 



