OF CARNIVOROUS ANIMALS. 517 



the contemplation of the geologist, especially when we re- 

 flect that this phenomenon recurs in a great number of 

 places, and over a very extended space of country. 

 These caves have been the object of research of se- 

 veral naturalists, some of whom have well described and 

 figured the bones which they contain ; and even before 

 they were explored by the naturalist, they were celebrat- 

 ed among the common people, who, according to their 

 custom, added many imaginary prodigies to the natural 

 wonders which are really observed in them. The bones 

 which they contain were long, under the name of fossil 

 unicorn, an important article of commerce and materia 

 medica, on account of the powerful virtues which were 

 attributed to them ; and it is probable that the desire of 

 finding these bones contributed much to the more accu- 

 rate knowledge of these caves, and even to the disco- 

 very of several of them. 



The most anciently celebrated is the cave of Bauman, 

 situated in the country of Blarikenburg, which belongs 

 to the Duke of Brunswick, to the south of the city of that 

 name, to the east of Elbingerode, and to the north of the 

 village of Rubeland, the nearest inhabited place, in a hill 

 which forms one of the last declivities of the Hartz to- 

 ward the east. It has been described by many authors, 

 among whom we shall particularly mention the great 

 Leibnitz, in his Protogcea, pi. i. p. 97, where he gives a 

 map of it, borrowed from the Ada Eruditorum 1702, 

 p. 305. 



Its general direction is east and west, but the entrance 

 faces the north. It is very narrow, although it is un- 

 der a pretty large natural vault. The first cave is the 

 largest. From this to the second, one must descend by 



