178 



THE WONDERS OF GEOLOGY. Lect. II. 



of cascades of pure alabaster, the waves of which seem to 

 be rushing out at the bottom, to pour themselves into the 

 stagnant lake of the same substance which covers the floor. 

 The roof has been corroded into deep cavities, which are 

 separated by partitions of every conceivable form and 

 tenuity, giving it the appearance of the richly fretted 

 gothic roof of a chapel, with pendent corbels. Beautiful 

 stalactites depending from these projections, reach almost 

 to the floor, and contribute by their delicacy and trans- 

 parency to throw additional richness over the scene. 



It is certainly, as M. Cuvier remarks, a most extraordinary 

 fact, that caves, spread over an extent of two hundred 

 leagues, should have the same osseous contents. The rela- 

 tive proportions of the different species are computed to 

 be as follow : — three-fourths belong to bears — two-thirds 

 of the remainder to hyenas — and a small number to the 

 tiger or lion, and to the wolf or dog ; rolled pebbles of a 

 greyish blue marble are the only extraneous materials found 

 with the bones. The singular assemblage of species whose 

 recent types are widely separated geographically, which 

 some of these caves present, is very remarkable. Thus in 

 one cavern, animals allied to the spotted hyena of the Cape 

 of Good Hope, are associated with the remains of others 

 related to the glutton, which inhabits Lapland ; and in 

 another, bones of the rhinoceros with those of the reindeer. 



Numerous caves containing osseous remains are scattered 

 over the continents of Europe and America ; and in Aus- 

 tralia, fossil bones referable to animals of different genera, 

 are found, under similar conditions. In the Brazils there 

 are also numerous ossiferous caverns presenting the same 

 general character. These bones belong, for the most part, 

 to genera which still inhabit South America. It is worthy 

 of especial notice, that the bones of a species of horse occur 

 in these accumulations ; for when the Spaniards invaded 

 the country, horses were unknown to the inhabitants, who, 



