Bone Caves. 463 



cave overlying the detritus that held the bones of 

 elephants and other mammalia. No human remains 

 were found in that cavern. During part of the time 

 some of the caves in the south of England seem to have 

 been inhabited, while others farther north lay under- 

 neath the ice-sheet, so that part of the northern land 

 was desolate, and for a time uninhabited by beast or 

 man. This, however, is certain, that man, the Mam- 

 moth, and other extinct mammalia, were contem- 

 poraneous, and to make this general statement more 

 definite, I shall give a condensed account of the 

 proofs on which it rests, selecting for that purpose some 

 of the caves that have been explored by competent ob- 

 servers. 



First, however, I will observe that the bones of wild 

 animals, together with implements made by man, have 

 in all the caverns generally been preserved in much the 

 Fame manner. As already stated, they were often 

 washed into caverns from above through fissures, and 

 sometimes they were carried in by beasts of prey 

 through the mouths of dry caves. Often, in some of 

 the lower strata of caverns, they lie in a red loamy 

 earth mixed with stones. Over this there frequently 

 lies a thick deposit of stalagmite or carbonate of 

 lime, deposited from water dropping from the roofs of 

 the caverns. Some caves are, or have been, filled or 

 almost filled, with stalagmite, and in it bones, horns, 

 and other relics are buried. In this way bones became 

 sealed up in the caves safe from the effects of air and, 

 to some extent, of moisture ; and the result has been 

 the natural burial and preservation of those old races of 

 animals that formerly inhabited our land. 



At least thirty-six British caves have been recorded 

 as holding the remains of terrestrial mammalia, and 



