40 REMARKS ON THE PROBABLE DATE, &C. 



would then be prevented both on the floor and on 

 the sides of the cave. For if the water had come 

 with a great current in the inclination of the rock, 

 through the passage which is yet unexplored, it 

 would have furrowed the floor, and the bones and 

 loam would have been formed into ridges on either 

 side ; or if it had flowed in at the mouth of the cave, 

 there would have been a greater quantity of marl, 

 and that mixed with pebbles, and other matter, 

 so that the great area, or first entrance into the cave, 

 would have been filled with it, as was the case with 

 a fissure in the valley called the Manor Vale, near 

 Kirkby-Moorside, and many others of the same 

 description. But here was no more sediment then 

 might have been expected from the reason before 

 assigned. And its having been shut up many cen- 

 turies from the access of atmospheric air with water 

 filtrating into it, this would increase the loam and 

 form the stalagmite. The most that can be advanc- 

 ed relative to the time of the cave at Kirkdale being 

 inhabited by Hysenas,must be conjecture : we have 

 no written documents which can give a clue to cer- 

 tainty ; still the account given by Moses of the 

 order of the creation, compared with the nature 

 of the limestone rock perforated by the cave, justi- 

 fies the above hypothesis. I shall therefore leave 

 the remarks I have made to the judgment of those 

 who may feel themselves interested in them, hoping 

 the account of Moses alluded to will have consider- 

 able influence on our decisions, and that the evidence 

 collected from it will not be treated with indifference. 



