1823.] Royal Society. 465 



would, from their different habits, be less exposed to such acci- 

 dents ; and this circumstance affords a probable reason why the 

 bones of the latter are less abundant in fissures than those of the 

 former class of animals. 



In the third section of this communication, Mr. Buckland 

 described the caves discovered at Plymouth in 1822, referring 

 to Mr. Whidbey's account already before the Society (and 

 reported in the Annals for March, p. 233 — 235) : the Plymouth 

 caves consisted of fissures traversing the rock in all directions, 

 some vertical, some oblique; and the reason why several of them 

 appeared at first to Mr. Whidbey to have had no communication 

 with the surface, was, that they were first opened at their lower 

 extremity, where they ended in a cul de sac, and traversed the 

 rock so obliquely as not to reach the surface, but at a distance 

 from the working face of the quarry. A cave discovered at 

 Wirksworth, in Derbyshire in Dec. 1822, containing the entire 

 skeleton of a rhinoceros, and the bones and horns, &c. of deer, 

 and another at Paviland, near Swansea, containing bones of the 

 elephant, rhinoceros, bear, hyama, wolf, ox, horse, and a human 

 female skeleton, with various indications of human habitation, 

 were likewise described ; and the paper concluded with an exa- 

 mination of several hypotheses by which the phenomena of the 

 various assemblages of animal remains adverted to, might be 

 explained, showing, that the only satisfactory manner of 

 accounting for the presence of the mud and pebbles, is to attri- 

 bute them to diluvial origin ; and that with regard to the bones, 

 they must be divided into five classes. 



1. Those of carnivorous animals that retired spontaneously to 

 the caves to die during successive generations in the period 

 immediately preceding the deluge, as in the case of the bears' 

 bones in the caves of Germany. 



2. The remains of animals that were dragged in as food by 

 beasts of prey during the same period, as in the case of the 

 various remains in the cave at Kirkdale. 



3. The remains of animals that fell into and perished in the open 

 fissures and caves connected with them in the period preceding 

 the deluge, as in the case of the bones at Plymouth and Gib- 

 raltar. 



4. The remains of animals that were washed in together with 

 the mud and pebbles at the deluge, as in the case of the entire 

 skeleton of a rhinoceros, nea ;Wirksworth. 



5. The remains of animals that have entered caverns or fallen 

 into open fissures since the period of the deluge, as in the case 

 of the human bones in the open cave at Paviland, and the bones 

 of dogs, deer, &c. in the open fissure at Duncombe Park. 



May 8.— At this meeting, Prof. Oersted attended, and was 

 admitted a foreign member of the Society ; and he was justly 

 complimented by the President on his brilliant discovery of the 



New Series, vol. v, 2 n 



