160 



KIRKDALE CAVE. 



[Ch. XIIT. 



a bed of sand filled with sea-shells, almost all of recent species, rests a 

 breccia (6, fig. 93), composed of fragments of calcareous rock, and the 

 bones of animals. In the sand at the bottom of that cave. Dr. Philippi 

 found about fortj^-five marine shells, all clearly identical with recent 

 species, except two or three. The bones in the incumbent breccia are 

 chiefly those of the mammoth [E. primigenius), with some belonging to 

 an hippopotamus, distinct from the recent species, and smaller than that 

 usually found fossil. (See fig. 137.) Several species of deer also, and, 

 according to some accounts, the remains of a bear, were discovered. 

 These mammalia are probably referable to the Post-Pliocene period. 



The Newer Pliocene tertiary limestone of the south of Sicily, already 

 described, is sometimes full of caverns : and the student will at once per- 

 ceive that all the quadrupeds of which the remains are found in the sta- 

 lactite of these caverns, being of later origin than the rocks, must be re- 

 ferable to the close of the tertiary epoch, if not of still later date. The 

 situation of one of these caves, in the valley of Sortino, is represented in 

 the annexed section. 



Fig. 180. 



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:\ 



/ 



t 



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-..__ 









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1 







"'^^^-'-^Sj 





^ 



c 





c 

















&" 1} Deposi'ts in caves f <^ontaining the remains of quadrupeds for the most part extinct. 



C. Limestone containing the remains of shells, of which between 70 and 80 per cent, are recent 



England. — In a cave at Kirkdale, about twenty-five miles N". N. E. of 

 York, the remains of about 300 hysenas, belonging to individuals of every 

 age, have been detected. The species {Htjocna spelma) is extinct, and was 

 larger than the fierce Hycena crocuta of South Africa, which it most re- 

 sembled. Dr. Buckland, after carefully examining the spot, proved that 

 the Hyfenas must have lived there ; a fact attested by the quantity of 

 their dung, which, as in the case of the living hyaena, is of nearly the same 

 composition as bone, and almost as durable. In the cave were found the 

 remains of the ox, young elephant, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, horse, bear, 

 w^olf, hare, water-rat, and several birds. All the bones have the appear- 

 ance of having been broken and gnawed by the teeth of the hyaenas ; 

 and they occur confusedly mixed in loam or mud, or dispersed through 

 a crust of stalagmite which covers it. In these and many other cases it 

 is supposed that portions of herbivorous quadrupeds have been dragged 

 into caverns by beasts of prey, and have served as their food, an opinion 

 quite consistent with the known habits of the living hyaena. 



No less than thirty-seven species of mammalia are enumerated by Pro- 

 fessor Owen as having been discovered in the caves of the British islands, 

 of which eighteen appear to be extinct, while the others still survive 



