» 



520 



BUEYING OF FOSSILS IN 



[Ch. XLV. 



matter 



conian and other caves, filled up as thej often are even to 

 their roofs with osseous breccia, was long ago proposed by 



_ ;h to be very generally 

 adopted. But I do not doubt that bears inhabited some of 



M_ __ , 



Kirkdale 



shire, was once the den of hysenas. The abundance of bony 

 dung, associated with hysenas' bones, has been pointed out 

 by Dr. Buckland, and with reason, as confirmatory of this 

 opinion. 



The same author observed in every cave examined by him 

 in Germany, tha.t deposits of mud and sand, with or without 

 rolled pebbles and angular fragments of rock, were covered 



t 



In the English caves 



remark 

 lagmite 



beds 



But Dr. Schmerling has discovered in a cavern 



from Liege, three distinct 



at Chockier, about two leagues 



mite, and between each 



breccia, and mud mixed 



them a mass of 





with quartz pebbles, and in the 

 three deposits the bones of extinct quadrupeds.J 



This exception does not invalidate the generality of the 

 phenomenon pointed out by Dr. Bucldand, one cause of 

 which may perhaps be this, that if several floods pass at 

 different intervals of time through a subterranean passage, 

 the last, if it has power to drift along fragments of rock, 

 will also tear up any alternating stalagmitic and alluvial 

 beds that may have been previously formed. Another cause 

 may be, that a particular line of caverns will rarely be so 

 situated, in relation to the lowest levels of a country, as to 

 become, at two distinct epochs, the receptacle of engulfed 



rivers . 



same chasms may 



of indefinite duration, the species inhabiting a country may 

 m the meantime be greatly changed, and thus the remains 

 of animals belonging to very different epochs may become 

 mingled tosrether in a common tomb. 



* Mdm. de la Soc. d'Hist. Nat. de 

 Paris, torn. iv. 



t Keliquise DihmanjE, p. 108. 



t Journ. de Geo!., torn. i. p. 286. 

 July, 1830, 







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