Notice and Review of the Reliquiae Diluvianae. 163 
and polishing ofjsome of the bones in this antediluvian den. 
This appears on one side only, and therefore could not 
have been the result of the agency of water. The fre- 
quent tread and rubbing of the hyzna’s upon them, is the 
only probable cause of this phenomenon. The author for- 
tifies this position, by stating in a note, that he has ‘“* been 
informed-by an officer in India, that passing by a _tiger’s 
den, in the absence of the tiger, he examined the interior 
and found in the middle of it a large portion of stone, on 
which the tiger reposed, to be worn smooth and polished 
by the friction of his body. The same thing may be seen 
on marble steps and altars, and even metallic statues «in 
places of worship that are favorite objects of pilgrimage : 
they areoften deeply worn and polished by the knees, and 
even lips of pilgrims, to a degree that, without experience 
of the fact, we could scarcely have anticipated.””? Travel- 
lers inform us, that a stone, similar to that mentioned 
above, occurs in a cave in Franconia, and that a bronze 
statue of St. Peter at Rome, has lost a part of the great toe 
in this manner. 
The most abundant, perhaps, of all the bones in this 
cave, were those of the water rat. ‘The cave is situated, 
at present, about eighty feet above a small stream, that 
falls into the vale of Pickering, and therefore above the 
highest floods. The nature of the adjacent country, how- 
ever, induces our author to conclude, that the valley of 
Pickering, previous to the last great diluvian catastrophe, 
formed the bottom of a lake, and this den of hyenas being 
on the margin, its proprietors obtained from thence an oc- 
casional supply of ducks and water rats. In confirmation of 
the supposition that hyenas may, at least occasionally, eat 
water rats, Mr. Buckland, after quoting from Parry and 
Hearne the fact that the arctic bears and wolves feed on mice, 
enquires, ‘If bears eat mice, why should not hyznas eat 
rats??? After the gigantic animals upon which the hyena 
sometimes fed, these diminutive ones might even prove a 
dainty. . 
Ruminating animals form the ordinary food of beasts of 
prey; accordingly we find their bones in great abundance 
in the Kirkdale den. As to the bones and teeth of the 
elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, and birds, it is prob- 
able they were dragged thither by the hyzenas, by piece- 
