142 HYJENA. 



jecting, like the legs of pigeons through a pie crust, into 

 the void space above, have become thinly covered with 

 stalagmitic drippings, whilst their lower extremities have 

 no such incrustation, and have simply the mud adhering 

 to them in which they have been imbedded ; an horizontal 

 crust of stalagmite, about an inch thick, crosses the middle 

 of these bones, and retains them firmly in the position 

 they occupied at the bottom of the cave. A large flat 

 plate of stalagmite, corresponding, in all respects, with 

 the above description, and containing three long bones, 

 fixed so as to form almost a right angle with the plane of 

 the stalagmite, is in the collection of the Rev. Mr. Smith, 

 of Kirby Moorside. The same gentleman has also, among 

 many other valuable specimens, a fragment of the thigh- 

 bone of an Elephant, which is the largest I have seen from 

 this cave. 



" The effect of the loam and stalagmite in preserving 

 the bones from decomposition, by protecting them from all 

 access of atmospheric air, has been very remarkable ; some 

 that had lain uncovered in the cave for a long time before 

 the introduction of the loam, were in various stages of 

 decomposition, but, even in these, the further progress of 

 decay appears to have been arrested as soon as they be- 

 came covered with it, and, in the greater number, little 

 or no destruction of their form, and scarcely any of their 

 substance, has taken place. I have found, on immersing 

 fragments of these bones in an acid, till the phosphate and 

 carbonate of lime were removed, that nearly the whole 

 of their original gelatine has been preserved. Analogous 

 cases of animal remains preserved from decay by the pro- 

 tection of similar diluvial mud, occur on the coast of Essex, 

 near Walton, and at Lawford, near Eugby, in Warwick- 

 shire ; here the bones of the same species of Elephant, 



