DISCOVERED AT KIRKDALE. 
175 
sents a smooth surface ; especially as these sharp ends would 
be liable to repeated fractures, in striking against the rocks. 
Besides, it is not easy to see how the ends of the bones 
should be sharp and untouched, if they were polished by 
the hyaenas, for they would be kicked about in the bottom 
of the den in all directions. Mr Buckland, indeed, speaks 
of their getting fixed, like the stones of a pavement, by 
being pressed down into some soft substance on the floor 
of the den ; but, by his own hypothesis, the mud was not 
introduced till the Deluge, when the process of polishing 
ceased; — and what other soft substance did he find, in 
which these polished bones were fixed and imbedded ? 
A misconception as to the situation in which the bones 
were found in the mud, seems to have made the Professor 
overlook what appears to me the true cause why some 
bones are polished on one side, and rough on the other. 
He speaks as if the bones were all lying on the floor, 
covered by the mud, the latter forming a stratum over 
them, which behoved to be removed before the bones were 
seen, and which he conceives to have been the means of 
preserving them. Now, the fact is, that the bones and 
mud were found mixed together ; some of the bones being 
wholly covered with mud, some partially covered, and 
some not covered at all. So far was the mud from being 
the means of preserving the bones, that those which lay 
above it were, in most instances, the best preserved ; and 
where a bone was found lying flat on the surface, the up- 
per side retained its freshness and its polish ; while the un- 
der side that touched the mud, was partially decomposed 
and rough, having lost whatever polish it may have had 
when deposited. This circumstance I can state, not only 
from my own observations, but from those of William Sal- 
niond, Esq. of York, a gentleman who spent several weeks 
in exploring the branches of the cavern. Among his last 
