SS8 Dr Fleming on the Geological Deluge . 
caves in limestone rocks at Plymouth. Instead of having re- 
course to hyaenas as carriers of the bones, he says, 66 that the 
animals had fallen during the antediluvian period into the open 
fissures, and there perishing, had remained undisturbed in the 
spot on which they died, till drifted forwards by the diluvian 
waters to their present place, in the lowest vaultings with which 
these fissures had communication.” Rel. DU. 78. 
The safest way of proceeding, in such circumstances, is to en- 
deavour to discover some analogous phenomena, the history of 
which is not involved in obscurity, and apply the explanation 
which offers itself in the last cases to the illustration of those 
which are more ancient and obscure. Fortunately such cases 
are accessible. In Wokey Hole, in the Mendip Hills, a cave 
occurs with lateral chambers ; mud likewise occurs ; and in this 
mud are found human bones, and a piece of a sepulchral urn. 
These hones are said to be “ very old, but not antediluvian.” 
Where is the proof ? or how are we to distinguish between ante- 
diluvian and postdiluvian bones ? The mud, too, is u evi- 
dently fluviatile, and not diluvian. How are we to distinguish 
between fluviatile and diluvian mud ? Not by their contents, for 
bones are present in both. Not by a difference in juxtaposition, 
for both occur in caves with the floor as their bed, and stalag- 
mite as a covering. The evidence, however, of the mud being 
fluviatile, may be considered as complete, as the spot on which it 
rests is within reach of the highest floods of the adjacent river. 
It may thus be assumed as a fact, that local inundations or floods 
are capable of conveying mud into caverns, and depositing it on 
their floors, under circumstances perfectly analogous to the so-call- 
ed 66 diluvian mud,” and of surrounding 66 postdiluvian bones” 
as the diluvian mud is supposed to have surrounded antedi- 
luvian bones.” In another cave in the same neighbourhood, 
numerous bones and skulls of foxes were found. It is likewise 
stated by Professor Buckland, that, at a little distance from the 
Cliff of Paveland, u is an open cavern, to which it is possible to 
descend only by a ladder, and which, like the open fissure at 
Duncombe Park, contains at its bottom, and in the course of its 
descent, the uncovered skeletons of sheep, dogs, foxes, and other 
modern animals, that occasionally fall into it and perish.” In re- 
ference to these natural pitfalls and accumulations of bones, the 
