EXISTING SPECIFIC FORMS ABUNDANT. 83 



legitimately inferred from the diluvium is, that many portions 

 of the northern nations of Europe and America were then 

 under the sea, and that a strong current set over them. 



Connected with the Diluvium is the history of Ossiferous 

 Cavprns, of which specimens singly exist at Kirkdale in 

 Yorkshire, Gailenreuth in Franconia, and other places. 

 They occur in the calcareous strata, as the great caverns 

 generally do, but have in all instances been naturally closed 

 up till the recent period of their discovery. The floors are 

 covered with what appears to be a bed of the diluvial clay, 

 over which rests a crust of stalagmite, the result of the drop- 

 pings from the roof since the time when the clay bed was 

 laid down. In the instances above specified, and several 

 others, there have been found, under the clay bed, assem- 

 blages of the bones of animals, of many various kinds. At 

 Kirkdale, for example, the remains of twenty-four species 

 were ascertained namely, pigeon, lark, raven, duck, and par- 

 tridge ; mouse, water-rat, rabbit, hare, hippopotamus, rhino- 

 ceros, elephant, weasel, fox, wolf, deer (three species), ox, 

 horse, bear, tiger, hyena. From many of the bones of the 

 gentler of these animals being found in a broken state, it is 

 supposed that the cave was a haunt of hyenas and other pre- 

 daceous creatures, by which the smaller ones were here con- 

 sumed. This must have been at a time antecedent to the 

 floodings which produced the diluvium, since the bones are 

 covered by a bed of that formation. It is impossible not to 

 see here a very natural series of incidents. First, the cave is 

 frequented by wild beasts, who make it a kind of charnel- 

 house. Then, submerged in the current which has been 

 spoken of, it receives a clay flooring from the waters contain- 

 ing that matter in suspension. Finally, raised from the 

 water, but with no mouth to the open air, it remains unin- 

 truded on for a long series of ages, during which the clay 

 flooring receives a new calcareous covering, from the drop- 

 pings of the roof. 



Our attention is next drawn to the erratic blocks or 

 boulders, which in many parts of the earth are thickly strewn 

 over the surface, particularly in the north of Europe. Some 



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