]o8 VESTIGES OF THE 



been surmised that there was a time, subsequent to the 

 tertiary era, when the circumpolar ice extended far into 

 tlio temperate zone, and formed a lofty, as well as exten- 

 .sive accumulation. A change to a higher temperature, 

 producing a sudden thaw of this mass, might set free 

 such a quantity of water as would form a large flood, 

 and the southward How of this deluge, joined to the 

 dii-ection which it would obtain from the rotatory mo- 

 tion of the globe, would of course produce that com- 

 pound or south-easterly direction which the phenomena 

 i-equire. All of these speculations are as yet far too 

 deficient in facts to be of much value ; and I must freely 

 own that, for one, I attach little importance to them. 

 All that we can legitimately infer from the diluvium is, 

 that the northern parts 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 ossife- 

 rous caverns, of which specimens singly exist at Kirk- 

 dale in Yorkshire, Gailenreuth in Franconia, and other 

 places. They occur in the calcareous strata, as the great 

 (avei-ns generally do, but have in all instances been 

 naturally closed up till the recent period of their dis- 

 covery. 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 droppings from the roof 

 since the time when the clay-bed was laid down. In the 

 instances above specified, and several others, there have 

 Ix^en found, under the clay bed, assemblages of the 

 l)(mes of animals, of many various kinds. At Kirkdale, 

 for example, the i-emains of twenty-four species wei"e 

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

 tridge ; mouse, water-rat, rabbit, hare, deer (three 

 f^pecies), ox, horse, liippopotamus, rhinoceros, elephant. 



