COkRESPONDENCf!. 
525 
Occasionally, I believe, there is an appearance of stratification in 
these deposits. But this by no means contradicts the hj^Dothesis 
here offered. It might very well happen that a cave of this sort 
would be frequented by different genera of beasts of prey in succes- 
sion — the cave-bear, hycena, and tiger — each of which might occupy 
it exclusively for a lengthened period, and bring in different kinds of 
soil, as it sought its prey in the marshes, the meadows, the woods, 
or on the mountain-side. And, in M. Fontan's account, there seems 
to be proof that something of this kind had happened, for he found 
loamy sand in the upper cave, and a blackish earth in the lower, — a 
distribution of material very well agreeing with the view here taken, 
but not quite consisting with the notion of deposit by water ; as sand 
and loam are usually heavier substances than black earth, and would 
rather than the latter have been left on the lower level. 
I think, then, that the deposits of the open caverns may be as- 
cribed for the most part to the carnivora frequenting them, which 
must have brought in, adhering to their own feet and fur, and to those 
of their prey, a prodigious quantity of earth a*id stones, Avliich we 
must needs believe would remain where they left it, mixed with the 
fragments of the bones they guawetl, unless we are prepared to say 
that the floods washed all that out first to make way for a similar 
deposit brought from somewhere else. 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
CREATION BY LAW. 
Sir, — I make no excuse for oftcring to tlic intellig-eut rcadci's of the Geolo- 
gist" — a periodical in wliicli tlio freest discussion has been invited and cai-ried 
on respecting the " Origin of Species" — the remarks which a careful perusal 
of the latest published -works on the subject have led me to express. I alludo 
chiefly to Professor Owen's " I'alicontology," a second edition of which has 
recently been given to an admiring world, and to the excellent little work by Mr. 
David Page, which you noticed in the " Geologist" for September. 
In both these works there is a strong appeal made in favour of a " constantly 
operating secondary laAv," by which the several species of animals have been 
called into being. Prof. Owen's generalizations ai^e as follows : — 
" Palaeontology has yielded most important facts to the highest range of 
knowledge to which the human intellect aspires. It teaches that the globe 
