OF CARNIVOROUS ANIMALS. 529 



published at Trieste, in which are described all the wind- 

 ings of these subterranean passages, their different halls, 

 their domes, their columns, and all the other appearan- 

 ces produced by their stalactites. We shall not follow the 

 author (M. de Volpi, Director of the School of Com- 

 merce and Navigation at Trieste) through this immense 

 labyrinth. Let it suffice to say, that this zealous natu- 

 ralist asserts his having proceeded more than three leagues, 

 almost in a straight line, and that he was only stopped 

 by a lake which rendered it impossible to go on. It was 

 about two leagues from the entrance that he discovered 

 bones of animals, of which he gives figures, and which 

 lie describes under the name of Palaeotheria. He had 

 the politeness to communicate to me, says Cuvier, his 

 drawings the year before, but it appears my reply did 

 not reach him, for he makes no mention of it in his book. 



Be this as it may, his figures clearly shewed that the 

 bones in question belonged to the great cave-bear. In 

 fact, several of these bones having been presented to the 

 Congress of Lay bach, Prince Metternich, whose enlight- 

 ened taste for the advancement cf knowledge has already 

 been of so much service, had the goodness to address 

 them to Cuvier, who disposed them in the Royal Cabinet, 

 where any one may satisfy himself as to their species. 



There are, without doubt, caves in many other chains-, 

 and several are known in France. Caves occur in Sua- 

 bia, but no bones have been found in them ; and, in ge- 

 neral, it appears, that, before the last discoveries, and 

 especially that which has been made in Yorkshire, none 

 were known but those of Germany and Hungary that were 

 rich in bones of earnivora. In truth, the rock of Fouvent, 



L! 



