428 
beneath the surface to a depth of a few feet, and afterwards 
become hermetically sealed up, as it were, by the crust of 
Stalagmite that now forms the solid pavement.* 
Now, although this explanation of my late worthy friend 
may appear plausible at first sight, I really think it is 
untenable. I am ready to admit that part of it which 
illustrates the subsidence and emergence of the land, and that 
the remains of extinct animals may have been so drifted into 
the cavern ; but why not the human remains also ? Here 
we find an association of bones belonging to quadrupeds and 
man, with relics of human art, all deposited in one bed of 
loam, and all hermetically sealed over by one layer of 
Stalagmite ; yet the bones of the animals are referred to one 
period, and those of man to another, and without, as it 
appears to me, a satisfactory explanation. 
If we only admit the probability that man and the extinct 
animals of the superficial deposits at least were contemporary, 
all is clear and easy to comprehend. But the moment we 
reject this supposition, all becomes perplexing and obscure. 
In this instance, we must either admit that centuries elapsed 
from the extinction of the quadrupeds, the deposition of their 
carcases, and their subsequent emergence ; or that their 
destruction and the subsequent elevation of the district, with 
their bones, was comparatively rapid. The former excludes 
the occurrence of man and his works in the same deposit with 
the bones of animals, and is also opposed to the compara- 
tively slight accumulation of sedimentary material the fissures 
contain. The latter is contrary to the usual order of nature, 
if the destruction of the extinct races was brought about by 
physical causes alone. 
If we allow, with Dr. Mantell, that the fissures of the 
rocks, already containing the bones of Mammalia, were 
gradually drained after emergence, then the mud must have 
* Archaeological Journal, vol. vii., p. 341. 
