178 KIRKDALE CAVE. 



careous incrustation. The bones lay dispersed in the mud and in the 

 stalagmitic crust, broken into angular fragments and chips, but not 

 " bearing the least appearance of having been rolled in water ; nor was 

 a single pebble found in the cave." The fractures appeared all to have 

 been occasioned by violence, and many of the fragments were marked 

 with impressions, such as a living hyaena has been found to imprint on 

 similar bones submitted to his powerful jaws. These circumstances, 

 combined with the evidence derived from the album grascum, and the 

 extraordinary number of teeth of hyasnas, in every condition from that 

 of the milk-tooth to the aged grinder worn to the gums by mastication, 

 seem to fully justify Dr. Buckland's opinion that this was a den of 

 hyaenas who dragged into it piecemeal the other animals, for food. 



The quantity of the reliquiae seems to shew that the cave was 

 tenanted for a long succession of years ; and a comparison of these re- 

 mains with others found in diluvial gravel, determines that they belong 

 to the same extinct species. As there is no evidence that such animals 

 have existed in this country (or, indeed, in any part of the world) since 

 the flood, the only conclusion at present tenable, is, that the cave was 

 an antediluvian den, of the same nature as Kent's hole, and the bear caves 

 of Franconia. We must, therefore, admit that before the deluge, this 

 country was inhabited by a variety of animals which now dwell only in 

 tropical regions, and the question of its ancient condition is answered in 

 one of its terms. We may further infer, that, since its inhabitants were 

 analogous to those that now exist, its surface had the same general cha- 

 racters ; forests for the stag and the elephant, lakes for the rhinoceros 

 and the hippopotamus, and rocky coverts for the prowling hyaena. These 

 animals might be fitted by constitution to support the rigours of a 

 northern climate ; but the general harmony of geological phenomena 

 seems to be better preserved by admitting that the northern regions of 

 the earth were warmer before the flood, than at present. 



