36 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
[6 or 7 feet wide.] 
Fig. 3. — Section of cave. 
a Angular piece of Limestone, Sand, etc 
Stalagmite, c Osseous remains, Sand, Silt, etc. 
d Stalagmite, e Open cave. J" Limestone. 
saud and silt, the workmen exhumed a human skull and a quan- 
tity of bones, some undoubtedly human, and others belonging to the 
lower animals. The human skull according to its phrenological de- 
velopment, seems to indicate a low intellectual capacity, the forehead 
being low, and the circumference under the average standard. There 
is also a fragment of a skull which 
seems to have belonged to a toler- 
ably large animal, as it measures 
three and a quarter inches from the 
medial line to the outside beside 
the ear, giving a breadth of six and 
a half inches for the whole skull ; 
then if the integuments, hair, etc. 
be added, we should have a physio- 
gnomy little short of nine inches 
wide, and this creature may have 
been that of one of the principal 
tenants of the cave, and which pro- 
bably devoured the others. Inter- 
mixed with the rem.ains are very 
small pieces of bone, etc., partially 
cemented together by calcareous 
matter, and occurring in patches r.t 
different places ; these have the appearance of coprolites. The bones 
are nearly all fragmentary, and much broken ; the fractures being of 
an ancient date, thereby showing that the remains had been subject 
to violence and fracture before they were imbedded in their calca- 
reous tomb. 
How long these remains have lain in the cave ? by what means they 
have been carried and entombed there ? whether the animal-remains 
belong to existing or to extinct species ? and how the fractured bones 
are to be accounted for ? are all very interesting palseontological 
problems. 
The cave has in all probability been occasionally inhabited by 
wolves, foxes, etc., which would sally forth, seize their prey, and re- 
turn to devour it, leaving the bones to be covered over by the stalag- 
mite as we find them ; the coprolites before mentioned seem to point 
to this conclusion. There seems to be not so much mystery about 
the animal bones being found there ; but the case is quite different 
as regards the human. There is always something strange and start- 
ling in such occurrences, when human remains are found otherwise 
than reposing in the silent and hallowed precincts of a regular bury- 
ing-place. 
During the interment of these relics of some of the perhaps earliest 
members of our race, the rippling of running water on the cavern 
floor, the monotonous drippings from the roof, the growling perhaps 
of wolves, or the barking of foxes, and the bellowing of the wind 
through the gloomy chambers of the cavern, would form the only 
requiem. 
