OF CARNIVOROUS ANIMALS. 545 



floor was covered with debris of brown granular lime- 

 stone, similar to that of the walls, and that the bones 

 especially formed a heap there. He thinks that the ani- 

 mal, whose bones have been found in this cave, was 

 much too large to have got into it alive or entire. Sil- 

 limari's Journal, June 1825, p. 354. 



It must therefore be also admitted here, . either that 

 the bones could only have got into the cave in the same 

 manner as the heaps of blocks found in the Adelsberg 

 cave ; that is to say, by falling from the roof, or that the 

 apertures have been closed since the period at which the 

 animals were buried. 



If it be now considered, 1st, That the surface of the 

 secondary limestone mountains of Carniola is covered 

 with a layer of reddish clay ; and, Qdly, That the clayey 

 mud of the heap in the Adelsberg cave is mineralogical- 

 ly the same as that which forms the floor of the cave ; 

 may it not be supposed, that the same catastrophe which 

 produced the heaps in the cave may have, at the same 

 time, introduced into it the reddish clayey mud of the 

 surface, which, by extending itself over the floor of the 

 cave, would have contributed to cover the bones that 

 were lying there ? 



Moreover, may it not have been the case, that, after 

 the caves had been inhabited by the carnivorous animals, 

 the substances falling from above, and coming from the 

 surface of the soil, may have carried along with the clay- 

 ey mud and the bones of bears, the spoils of large her- 

 bivorous animals, which they may have met with, and 

 which cannot be supposed to have sought refuge in these 

 caves during life. 



There will, no doubt, be objected to me, that opinion 



M m 



