FOUND IN THE CAVE AT RlRKUALE. 13 



primitive state, and to give them an opportunity of 

 pursuing the necessary investigation from the begin- 

 ning; it would prevent misconceptions, and change 

 some ideas which have been conceived for those of 

 another description ; it would give competent per- 

 sons an opportunity of examining the bones ag they 

 were picked out of the mud ; they would have the 

 opportunity of seeing the rock removed by degrees, 

 which had assisted in the preservation of these ani- 

 mal remains, and hid them from public view : they 

 could separate the specimens from their matrices 

 with their own hands, and examine their association, 

 and might pursue the workmen through all the ra- 

 mifications of the subterranean cavern. But this is 

 not practicable, the only substitute is description, 

 which is an appeal to the imagination, and is 

 the only subterfuge when identity is inaccess- 

 ible. Let us for a moment suspen.d our scientific 

 investigation, and regale our imagination with 

 accidental circumstances as they occurred at the 

 cave at Kirkdale. The reader would have been 

 amused, had he been present to have witnessed the 

 scene of torch light in the interior of the place ; to 

 have seen men of science exchanging the splendid 

 apartments of mansions for a den of Hyaenas, creep- 

 ing on their hands and knees through the slender 

 passes, where once carnivorous animals growled, 

 visiting those abodes to which they brought their 

 prey, and in which they devoured one another. To 

 have stood without the entrance of the cave, would 

 not have been lesi interesting ; there you might 

 have beheld a rustic's frock investing a man of let* 



