DISCOVERED AT KIRKDALE. 
179 
than to attempt to pull their jaws to pieces, and bear off 
their ponderous teeth as a kind of spolia opima. The 
grinder of a large elephant, such as I have seen fragments 
of from the cave, would be a most unlikely morsel for a 
hyaena to chew; nay, it appears impossible that an ele- 
phant's grinder could be broken into such splinters by the 
force of a hyaena's jaws. But, on the supposition that the 
animal matter was drifted in, detached from some large 
mass or masses of animal matter, composed of the remains 
of animals mixed up in a state of great confusion, the dis- 
proportion of the teeth to the bones, and of the hytenas' 
bones to the other relics, creates no difficulty ; for chance 
would principally determine, what quantity of animal mat- 
ter, and what kind, should form any particular deposit or 
collection : only we might expect the heaviest matter, such 
as teeth, to be lodged most plentifully in the lowest situa- 
tions. 
The Professor displays great ingenuity in getting over 
some of the difficulties attending his hypothesis ; yet some 
of them are by no means removed. To account for our not 
finding any entire skeletons of hyaenas, he not only sup- 
poses that they fed on one another, but that they kept so 
good a look-out at the Deluge, that the whole colony es- 
caped to the mountains, on the rising of the waters. But 
surely, if the majority of such a large tribe escaped, it is 
not too much to expect in the den the skeletons of some of 
their young, or of the very old and infirm that were unable 
to flee. Indeed, it seems more likely that they would take 
refuge in their den, than seek shelter elsewhere. 
But there are other difficulties which Mr Buckland has 
not set aside. Some of the bones or fragments were found 
on the sides and near the roof of the cavern, incrusted with 
stalactite. How came they to be lodged there, on the Pro- 
fessor's h3/pothesis ? Did the hyaenas toss up bones by way 
M S 
