OF THE CAVE AT KIRKDALE. 55 



Within the last five or six years, there have been 

 more than twenty specimens taken out of the allurn 

 shale in the neighbourhood of Whitby, of the pro- 

 teosaurtis or lizard proteus, or as some call it, 

 Ichthyosaurus or lizard fish ; and the more compact 

 bones and teeth of different animals are often dis- 

 covered in situations to which they could have had 

 no access from without. Different animals are of- 

 ten found, not only in caves like that at Kirkdale, 

 but in the solid rock, and the alluvial covering, as 

 well amongst gravel as in other situations ; which 

 could not be the case, as it relates to the solid rock, 

 unless they had been introduced there when that 

 rock was in a soft state ; and as those animals were 

 not made till after the Almighty had finished tho 

 creation of the earth, we fix the date of this rock to 

 the time of the general inundation ; and there- 

 fore, the cave at Kirkdale is, I conceive, post* 

 diluvian. 



It may probably be objected, that many of the 

 animals whose remains were found at Kirkdale, are 

 such as inhabit high southern climates, and there- 

 fore could not have been inhabitants of Britain. 

 This idea is, however, exploded by high authority; 

 it is in the greatest degree curious, says Mr. Buck- 

 land, to observe that four cf the genera, whose bones 

 are widely diffused over the temperate and even 

 polar regions of the northern hemisphere, should 

 at present exist only in tropical climates, and 

 chiefly south of the equator ; and the only country 

 in which the elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, 



and hyaena, are now associated, is southern Africa. 

 E2. 



