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which we have just viewed. Here the bones are almost all 

 of carnivorous animals, either lying loosely at the bottom of 

 caverns covered with animal earth, or encased in stalagmitic 

 concretions. Many of these caverns have been mentioned 

 by different authors, as existing in several parts of Germany. 

 Leibnitz describes Bauman's Cave, near Blankenbourg ; 

 Einhornshoele, in Scharzfeld, is described by M. de Luc; 

 and several, in the chain of the Hartz, are particularized by 

 Behrens, in his hercynia curiosa. They exist, indeed, in 

 many parts of Germany. 



The most remarkable are the caverns of Gaylenreuth 

 near Bayreuth. The opening to these is at the foot of a 

 rock of limestone (oolite ?), passing into a grotto about three 

 hundred feet in circumference, which is divided by the form 

 of the roof into four caves. Fragments of bones are still 

 found in these caves, and, it is said, were once as numerous 

 as in the interior of the grottos. The second grotto was 

 found to be sixty feet long, about forty feet wide, and beauti- 

 fully set with stalactites ; the floor being so covered with a 

 sparry crust, as to prevent any search there for bones. On 

 passing through a hole three feet high, an entrance was 

 gained into the third grotto, about thirty feet across and 

 nearly round, the sides being fantastically adorned by its 

 stalactitical hangings, and its floor covered with a wet and 

 slippery glazing, through which several bones, jaws, and 

 teeth projected. Hence a descent of about twenty feet led 

 to the inferior caverns, where M. Esper, the narrator, 

 expected to be left to augment the number of zoolites con- 

 tained in these terrific mansions. The rock itself was here 

 thickly beset with teeth and bones, and the floor covered 

 with a loose earth, the result of animal decomposition, which 

 also contained numerous bones. A gradual descent led to 

 another grotto, which, with its passage, was forty feet in 

 length. Twenty feet further was a terrible gulph, at the 

 bottom of which was another grotto about the same size as 



