180 FOSSIL REMAINS OF QUABUUPEDS, &C. 
of amusement; or lay them purposely on shelves of the 
rock ? If the bones were drifted in, it is easy to account 
for this phenomenon ; for the jerking of the water into the 
cavern would throw up bones and splinters on ledges of the 
rock, where some of them would remain, when the waters 
withdrew. Of the fact I am fully assured, as a gentleman 
belonging to Whitby knocked off with his own hands, from 
the upper part of the cave, a specimen of stalactite with a 
piece of bone imbedded in it. 
A stronger objection to Professor Buckland's hypothesis, 
arises from the discovery of so many bones of birds, rats, 
mice, and other small animals. He insinuates, that some 
of these may have entered the cavern since the Deluge, the 
cave being not completely shut ; for he is not sure whether 
the entrance was found covered by the common alluvium, 
or by the debris that had fallen down from the upper part 
of the bank. On this subject, however, I can speak with 
the utmost certainty, both from my own observations and 
those of others. The mouth of the cave, as is stated in the 
Geological Survey, is closed up by the same alluvial beds 
which cover the rest of the bank ; and the undisturbed state 
of these beds clearly shewed, that no living creature had 
entered there since they were deposited. If we should sup- 
pose that rats, mice, or weasels, could enter by some small 
crevice or outlet, why were none of their skeletons found ? 
Why were their bones broken, dispersed, and mixed up 
with those of the hysena, the rhinoceros, and the stag ? 
Mr Buckland himself allows many of these minute bones 
to be of the same antiquity with the larger bones. 
In noticing this subject, the Professor has overlooked, or 
but slightly noticed, the grand difficulty arising from the 
existence of these relics in the cavern, in the state described. 
The main question is not. How came the hyaenas to eat 
rats, mice, and fowls ? but, How came they to tear such 
4 
