468 Proceedings of Philosophical Societies. [June, 



part of the matrix in which they are imbedded. In this cave 

 there is no stalagmite, neither are there any pebbles ; its animal 

 earth also is peculiar, but the author points out in its situation 

 and circumstances sufficient causes to account for these appa- 

 rent anomalies. 



Professor Buckland concluded this communication with some 

 general remarks on the caves in Germany, among which were 

 the following : 1. The present entrances to them were not their 

 original openings, but are only truncated portions of their lower 

 branches laid open by diluvial denudation : 2. The diluvium they 

 contain is either loam, sand, or pebbles, but more commonly a 

 mixture of all three, through which the bones lie interspersed, 

 and the whole mass has often been indurated into an osseous 

 breccia, like that of Gibraltar. 3. The loam has not been pro- 

 duced by the decay of the flesh or bones, or of the rock in which 

 the cave exists, but it agrees, in chemical constitution, with 

 that of the diluvial beds of the adjacent country. 4. The num- 

 ber of caves in which any bones at all are found, is compara- 

 tively very small, but where they occur it is usually in enormous 

 quantities. 5. Every circumstance tends to evince, that the mud, 

 pebbles, &c. were washed in by the deluge upon the bones 

 already existing in the caves : if, on the contrary, all the bones 

 had been drifted in by the diluvian waters, they would be found 

 dispersed in small quantities only, and in numerous caves. 

 6. There is only one superficial crust of stalagmite in any of the 

 caves, and no alternations of mud, pebbles, and bones, but 

 simply one confused mass covered by a single crust of stalag- 

 mite. 7. The identity of the period in which the animals lived 

 whose remains occur in caves, fissures, and diluvial gravel or 

 loam, is shown by the agreement of the species of animals 

 whose remains they contain ; since it appears that the extinct 

 hyama, bear, elephant, and rhinoceros, occur, with many other 

 animals, in diluvial gravel beds, as well as in caves ; while the 

 extinct tiger is found, together with the remains of horses, oxen, 

 deer, &c. in fissures and caverns, as well as in superficial beds 

 of diluvial gravel. The period also in which the animals lived, 

 whose remains are found in the breccia of Gibraltar, is shown to 

 be the same as that is which the hysenas inhabited the den at 

 Kirkdale, and the bears the caves of Germany, viz. that imme- 

 diately preceding the deluge. 8. The author concludes that the 

 inundation which destroyed these animals was transient and 

 universal ; that it also covered the highest mountains ; and that 

 it took place at a period which cannot have exceeded a few 

 thousand years ago. To these are added some important exam- 

 ples of the effect of the diluvian waters in the excavation of 

 valleys, and of the accumulations of diluvial gravel in Britain, 

 and in other parts of the world. 



At this meeting, the reading of the following paper was also 

 commenced, and the completion of it postponed to another 



