234 Proceedings of Philosophical Societies. [March, 



about the size of a weasel. The bones of the various gramini- 

 vorous animals were found together ; but those of the carnivora 

 at a distance from each other. All were very fragile and white ; 

 some were treated with muriatic acid, and found to have lost 

 nearly all their animal matter ; while others examined by Prof. 

 Bucklaud retained about one-third less than those of Kirkdale. 

 The proportion of animal matter retained by fossil bones, 

 varies very considerably in different specimens. In the 

 Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, there are some teeth 

 of the mastodon, from the banks of the Ohio, which have been 

 deprived of their earthy matter by means of muriatic acid, but 

 still showing their whole form. Mr. C. suggested, that the 

 clay in which the Oreston bones were found, and which, in 

 their immediate vicinity, was much blacker as well as more 

 tenacious and solid than in any other part, might have abstracted 

 the animal matter from them. They are so absorbent of moist- 

 ure, that the largest adheres to the tongue with sufficient 

 strength to support its whole weight. When immersed in water, 

 much effervescence took place, and the bones became black ; 

 but resumed their usual appearance on being dried ; this was 

 particularly the case with those of the carnivorous animals. In 

 consequence of their fragility, some of them were broken by the 

 workmen while divesting them of the clay ; while others fell to 

 pieces on being exposed to the air. In respect to the latter 

 circumstance, they resemble the tusks, &c. of the elephant, 

 found in the sand above the blue clay at Brentford, Ilford, and 

 other places near the river Thames, which divide into lozenge- 

 shaped or into cubic fragments. 



Fossil bones showing traces of disease, Mr. Clift observed, are 

 extremely rare ; and he has never seen any that exhibited frac- 

 tures which had been healed during the life of the animals : 

 there are, however, among these from Oreston, the metacarpal 

 and metatarsal bones of an ox, which bear evidences of ossific 

 inflammation ; and the lower jaw of a young wolf, in which two 

 abscesses, one on each side, have produced sinuses. 



The fragments of shell found in one of the caves, retain their 

 pearly matter, and appear to be those of an ostrea ; but they are 

 too small to present any satisfactory characters, not amounting 

 to the bulk of a single valve. 



A more particular description of the bones, illustrated with 

 drawings, succeeded the above observations. There are bones 

 of about twelve oxen, with short conical horns, standing 

 upright ; and larger than the medium size of the existing species 

 of that genus. A few seem to belong to a deer, but this cannot 

 be satisfactorily determined, as there is neither the head of the 

 animal, its horns, nor its teeth. Some small bones of a young 

 animal, apparently a calf or a fawn. The bones and teeth of 

 about twelve horses, which must have been fourteen hands high. 

 The bones of five or six hyaenas, including two jaw-bones with 



