466 Proceedings of Philosophical Societies, [June, 



magnetic effects of electricity, for which the Society had already 

 awarded him the Copleyan medal. 



The reading of Prof. Buckland's Account of Bones disco- 

 vered in Caves and Fissures in various Parts of the Continent, 

 was commenced. 



May 15. — At this meeting, the reading of Prof. Buckland's 

 paper was resumed and concluded. 



Mr. Buckland examined the caverns alluded to in the summer 

 of 1822, and found that all their characters and phenomena con- 

 firmed his former conclusions respecting them and the English 

 caves : they all contain either diluvian mud, or diluvian sand 

 and pebbles, covered with one coat of stalagmite only; the bones 

 are imbedded in the mud, 8cc. and are often united with it by the 

 infiltration of stalagmite, into an osseous breccia, resembling 

 that of Gibraltar and the coasts of the Mediterranean. The 

 caverns are in limestone rocks of different ages and formations, 

 and all their circumstances concur to show that the bones they 

 contain had existed in them previously to the inundation by 

 which the mud and pebbles were introduced. 



The cave at Scharifeld, in Hanover, on the west border of 

 the Hartz Forest, is in magnesian limestone analogous to that of 

 Sunderland, being the first floetz limestone of Werner ; it is 

 situated at the elevation of 500 feet above the level of the near- 

 est river, and it consists of one large chamber, with numerous 

 smaller lateral connexions. Its floor of stalagmite has been 

 much broken up by visitors in search of bones and teeth of bears 

 and hyaenas, but principally of bears. The lower cavities and 

 under vaultings of this cavern have been wholly filled up with a 

 mass of mud, pebbles, and bones, in which artificial excavations 

 have been made for the purpose of extracting the bones, and it 

 is only in these artificial cavities that any bones or teeth are 

 found adhering to the sides or roof. In one of the smaller cavi- 

 ties, Prof. Buckland found the fractured head of a bear imbedded 

 in mud, and having a large pebble lodged in the cavity of the 

 skull. 



The Bauman's cave situated on the north-east side of the 

 Hartz, near Elbingrode, is so called from a miner, who, in 1670, 

 went into it in search of ore, and having wandered about in it 

 three days and nights, came out, so exhausted, that he almost 

 immediately expired. It is in transition limestone, and is ele- 

 vated about 100 feet above the river Bode, and as that river 

 could not rise ten feet without inundating the adjacent village of 

 Rubeland, the mud, &c. which the cave contains could not have 

 been deposited by the floods of the river. This cavern contains 

 a great quantity of large pebbles. The bones in it are partly 

 imbedded in loose sand and mud, and partly united with the 

 large pebbles into a solid breccia. Those in the breccia have 

 been much broken, and some of them crushed to pieces (as if 



