FOSSIL MAMMALIA. 17 



from existing species, existed contemporaneously in this 

 country ; and the Baron, from similar inductions, has drawn a 

 similar conclusion respecting the continent of Europe. 



The general circumstances of all these caverns are, as we 

 have observed, extremely similar. The hills in which they are 

 excavated resemble each other in their composition. They are 

 all calcareous, and produce stalactite in abundance. The roofs, 

 sides, and passages in the caverns are ornamented and con- 

 tracted by it in all its boundless variety of configuration. The 

 bones are nearly in a similar state in all these deposits. De- 

 tached, scattered, partly broken, but never rolled, as would 

 be the case had they been brought from a distance by the 

 force of inundations. Somewhat specifically hghter, and less 

 solid than the recent bones, they yet preserve their genuine 

 animal nature, are not much decomposed, still contain plenty 

 of gelatine, and are never in a state of petrifaction. A har- 

 dened earth, but still liable to break or pulverize, impregnated 

 with animal manner, and sometimes of a blackish colour, con- 

 stitutes their natural envelope. This is, in many instances, in- 

 terpenetrated and covered by a crust of stalactite of the finest 

 alabaster. The bones themselves are sometimes clothed with 

 the same material which enters their natural cavities, and oc- 

 casionally attaches them to the walls of the cavern. From 

 the admixture of animal matter, this stalactite often exhibits a 

 reddish hue. At other times its surface is tinted with black. 

 But these are accidents of recent occurrence, and independent 

 of the cause which introduced the bones into their present 

 locale. It is easy to observe, that this same stalactite is daily 

 making a rapid progress, and invading those groups of osseous 

 remains which it had hitherto left untouched. 



This mass of earth, intermixed with animal matter, enve- 

 lopes without distinction the bones of all the species, and if 

 we except a few on the surface of the soil, and which, from 

 their comparative freshness, we must conclude to have been 

 transported thither at a much later era, all were evidently 



