lambdoidal crest, the large size of the frontal sinuses and protuberances, 

 and the attrition of the molar teeth, this skull may be concluded to have 

 belonged to an old male individual. 



spoken of are situated; and over these hills the main road leads from Bayreuth to Erlang, or Nuren- 

 berg. Half-way to this town lies Streitburg, where there is a post, and but three or four English 

 miles distant from thence are the caves mentioned, near Gailenreuth and Klausstein, two smal 

 villages, insignificant in themselves, but become famous for the discoveries made in their neighbour- 

 hood. 



" The tract of hills is there broken off by many small and narrow valleys, confined mostly by steep 

 and high rocks, here and there overhanging, and threatening, as it were, to fall and crush all beneath ; 

 and everywhere thereabouts are to be met with objects which suggest the idea of their being evident 

 vestiges of some general and mighty catastrophe which happened in the primeval times of the globe. 



" The strata of these hills consist chiefly of limestone of various colour and texture, or of marl and 

 sandstones. The tract of limestone hills abounds with petrifactions of various kinds. 



" The main entrance to the caves at Gailenreuth opens near the summit of a limestone hill towards 

 the east. An arch, near seven feet high, leads into a kind of ante-chamber, eighty feet in length, and 

 three hundred feet in circumference, which constitutes the vestibule of four other caves. This ante- 

 chamber is lofty and airy, but has no light except what enters by its open arch ; its bottom is level, 

 and covered with black mould, although the common soil of the environs is loam and marl. 



" By several circumstances, it appears that it has been made use of in turbulent times as a place of 

 refuge. 



" From this vestibule or first cave, a dark and narrow alley opens in the corner at the south end, and 

 leads into the second cave, which is about sixty feet long, eighteen high, and forty broad. Its sides 

 and roof are covered, in a wild and rough manner, with stalactites, columns of which are hanging 

 from the roof, others rising from the bottom, meeting the first in many whimsical shapes. 



" The air of this cave, as well as of all the rest, is always cool, and has, even in the height of sum- 

 mer, been found below temperate. Caution is therefore necessary to its visitors ; for it is remarkable 

 that people, having spent any time in this or the other caverns, always on their coming out again ap- 

 pear pale, which in part may be owing to the coolness of the air, and in part likewise to the particular 

 exhalations within the caves. A very narrow, winding and troublesome passage opens further into a 



" Third cave or chamber, of a roundish form, and about thirty feet diameter, covered all over with 

 stalactites. Very near its entrance there is a perpendicular descent of about twenty feet, into a 

 dark and frightful abyss ; a ladder must be brought to descend into it, and caution is necessary in 

 using it, on account of the rough and slippery stalactites. When you are down, you enter into a 

 gloomy cave, of about fifteen feet diameter and thirty feet high, making properly but a segment of 

 the third cave. 



" In the passage to this third cave, some teeth and fragments of bones are found ; but coming down 

 to the pit of the cave, you are every way surrounded by a vast heap of animal remains. The bottom 

 of this cave is paved with a stalactical crust of near a foot in thickness ; large and small fragments of 

 all sorts of bones are scattered everywhere on the surface of the ground, or are easily drawn out of 

 the mouldering rubbish. The very walls seem filled with various and innumerable teeth and broken 



