THE PEE -ADAMITE EARTH. 



520, It is to this geological period, that the prodigious numbers 

 of Mammifers found in the strata of the Pampas of Buenos Ayres, 

 and in the caves which are scattered in such vast numbers over 

 the continents of Europe and America, and even in Australia, are 

 ascribed. In the Brazils are numerous bone-caverns, which 

 contain genera still inhabiting the South American continent, 

 though differing from the living species. It is worthy of especial 

 notice, observes Dr. Mantell, that the bones of a species of horse 



Fig. 198. Armadillo. 



occur in these accumulations, for when the Spaniards invaded 

 the country, horses were wholly unknown to the inhabitants, 

 who, on seeing a Spaniard on horseback, supposed that the man 

 and horse composed a single animal. It is a marvellous event 

 in the history of the world, that a native species should have dis- 

 appeared, and should have been succeeded in after ages by count- 

 less herds of the same genus introduced by man's intervention. 



521. One of the first bone-caves which attracted attention was 

 that of Gaylenreuth in Franconia, a section of which is shown 

 in fig. 200. 



The entrance of this cave, about seven feet in height, is placed 

 on the face of a perpendicular rock, and leads to a series of 

 chambers from fifteen to twenty feet in height, and several 

 hundred feet in extent, in a deep chasm. The cavern is perfectly 

 dark, and the icicles and pillars of stalactite reflected by the 

 torches present a highly picturesque effect. The floor is literally 

 paved with bones and fossil teeth, and the pillars and corbels of 

 stalactite also contain osseous remains. Cuvier showed that three- 

 fourths of the remains in this and like caverns were those of 

 bears, the remainder consisting of bones of hyenas, tigers, wolves, 

 foxes, gluttons, weasels, and other Carnivora. 



140 



