MINERALOGY. 405 



peace together, and went forth in companies to hunt 

 their prey, or were they the prey of others who devoured 

 them there ? However this may be, their bones accu- 

 mulated through a great many generations, and the 

 fossil remains of their dejections prove that these cav- 

 erns were permanent rather than temporary resting- 

 places for them. 



The most remarkable are those of the Hartz, Fran- 

 conia (in the latter is the bear cavern of Galenreuth), 

 Muggendorf, Hohlenstein, Erpfingen, Adelsberg, and 

 Kirkdale, in which last named the bones found were 

 proved to have belonged to twenty- three genera.* 



THIRD ORDER. 

 SECONDARY ROCKS (Floetzgebirge). 



This formation, which, with the exception of the prim- 

 itive rock formation, constitutes the great portion of the 

 so-called mineral earths of which our mountain ridges 

 are composed, consists of numerous and plainly devel- 

 oped strata of chalk and sandstone superposed in alter- 

 nate layers. It contains a great number of organic 

 remains in a perfected fossil state, which evidently 

 belong to an antediluvian period. Few of these "med- 

 als of Creation" present vestiges of mammals, but the 

 remains of numerous mollusks, from the gigantic Am- 

 mon's horn to the smallest gryphite. Amphibia are 



* Professor Buckland supposes that this cave was a den of hyenas, 

 and that the multitude of bones found there were carried into the 

 cave by these animals, and therefore that the hyena, an animal now 

 inhabiting only the hottest climates, once lived in England. See 

 RELIQUE DILCVIAN^E, p. 37. Tr. 



