546 ON CAVES CONTAINING BONES, &C. 



which maintains, that the bones of herbivora have been 

 dragged into the caves by the carnivorous animals. This 

 might certainly have been the case with regard to small 

 species, but it is not probable that the bones of large spe- 

 cies could have been introduced in the same manner. 



Admitting as certain, at least with regard to the Adels- 

 berg cave, that the limestone blocks and the bear bones 

 which accompany them, have fallen from the ceiling, the 

 phenomenon of caves containing bones would connect it- 

 self pretty well with that of osseous brecciae in a geolo- 

 gical point of view. As M . Cuvier observes, " The na- 

 ture of the rocks which contains the one and the other is 

 not very different ; and, besides, the fissures of caves 

 being generally pretty wide, the bones would not have 

 stuck, but would have fallen to the bottom, while those 

 of the osseous brecciae being much narrower, and not so 

 deep, would have retained the bones at no great distance 

 from the surface of the soil. 



Thus, from the facts observed in the caves of Germany 

 and England, and from that of the Adelsberg cave, 

 which I have described above, we may conclude, 1st, 

 That the presence of bones in caves has been produced 

 at two different periods, which, without doubt, have not 

 been very distant from each other ; the first, that when 

 the animals inhabited these caves ; the other, that when 

 they had been transported there by a somewhat general 

 catastrophe ; &%, That the second epoch was contem- 

 poraneous with the osseous brecciae, and was produced, 

 like them, by a phenomenon or process of filling up. 



