WRITINGS OF JAMES SMITHSON. 113 



anomia, are now as foreign to the surrounding seas, as are 

 the others to the land. If one then came from afar, both 

 did. 



"What must have been the mass and impetuosity of the 

 wave which could buoy a huge oyster, a massive brain stone, 

 from the equatorlo the British Islands, and at an elevation 

 to deposit it on Shotovcr Hill, or at Kingsweston ? Such 

 waves had tumbled down the mountains of the earth, shiv- 

 ered its islands and its continents, and choked up the bed 

 of the ocean with their ruins. Surely it is a far less diffi- 

 culty to " bring the climate to the exuviae, than the exuviae 

 to the climate." 



The existence together of the bones of many species does 

 not necessitate the conclusion of the animals having been 

 associates in the cave. If hyaenas " do not always resort to 

 the same den," neither is it probable do other wild beasts. 

 A succession of inhabitants is admissible. 



Nor is it required to believe that any of the animals whose 

 bones were found in the cave died there. If hyaenas col- 

 lect bones round their dens, it must be allowed not very 

 improbable that they sometimes, often even, carry them a 

 little further. Alarmed by the roar of a more mighty de- 

 vourer, or even by that of one of equal strength, it seems 

 natural for them to retreat with their spoil to their last 

 refuge. Why, but to be able to do this, do they bring them 

 near their dens ? 



The smallness of the cave's mouth, admitting it to have 

 been always what it now is, would indeed oppose the idea 

 of elephants having walked into it, but no entire skeleton 

 requires the admission of their having done this; andhyae- 

 nas who feed on putrid carcases, may have found no diffi- 

 culty in parceling such ; or they may have collected " the 

 Bushman's harvest," or the bones may have been carried 

 into the cave by animals more powerful than hyaenas. 

 ' If animals as ravenous of bones as hyaenas are said to be 

 did not, in any hour of dearth, devour those of the water- 

 rats, it may be because those became tenants of the cave 



