HY^NA SPEL^A. 



145 



Fig. 56. 



before I visited Kirkdale, had convinced me of the exist- 

 ence of the den, viz., a partial polish, and wearing away 

 to a considerable depth of one side only ; many straight 

 fragments of the larger bones have one entire side, or the 

 fractured edges of one side, rubbed down and worn com- 

 pletely smooth, whilst the opposite side and ends of the 

 same bones are sharp and untouched, in the same manner 

 as the upper portions of pitching stones in the street be- 

 come rounded and polished, whilst their lower parts retain 

 the exact form and angles which they possessed when 

 first laid down. This can only be explained by referring 

 the partial destruction of the solid bone to friction from the 

 continual treading of the Hysenas, and rubbing of their skin 

 on the side that lay uppermost in the bottom of the den." 



In the adjoining cut, 

 (fig. 56,) of the sec- 

 tion of the Kirkdale 

 cave, before the mud 

 had been disturbed, A 

 is a stratum of mud, 

 covering the floor of 

 the cave to the depth 

 of one foot, and con- 

 cealing , the bones; B, 

 stalagmite, incrusting 

 some of the bones, and 

 formed before the mud 

 was introduced ; c c, stalagmite formed since the intro- 

 duction of the mud, aud spreading horizontally over its 

 surface ; D, insulated stalagmite on the surface of the mud ; 

 E E, stalactites hanging from the roof above the stalagmites. 



Dr. Buckland justly inferred, from the facts which his 

 persevering researches elicited, and particularly from the 



Section of Kirkdale cave, from the 

 " Reliquiae Diluvianae." 



