181 
neighbourhood. It seems clearly proven, that some of the 
deepest recesses were quietly tenanted by large bears of three 
or four distinct species, one of which was the sabre-toothed 
variety before alluded to — a bear with the teeth of a tiger. 
These held undisputed sway in what may be called the aristo- 
cratic portion of the caveim, whilst at the same time, as it 
would seem, the rest was held possession of by troops of hyenas, 
of a size about one-third larger than any now in existence, and 
furnished with teeth of even more than proportionate power. 
These were the commonalty of the cavern ; no doubt, according 
to the habits of the tribe, ranging through all the surrounding 
country by night; their brightly-gleaming eyes discerning all 
objects in the faintest light, and hunting out all carrion, in 
which they especially delight, by their keen smell, dragging in 
piecemeal the remains of the huge beasts whose remains were 
met with. In addition to the mammoth, to which I shall 
devote further attention, the rhinoceros is one of the most 
remarkable of these. There are very abundant remains of a 
small thick-headed, large-teethed horse, which must have much 
resembled those figured in my paper on the “ Early Dawn of 
Civilization.” Beside the dwellers in the cave which I have 
mentioned, an innumerable multitude of smaller rodentia must 
have found their subsistence on the remains of the feasts of 
the gaunt hyenas. 
These, together with the bears and the hyenas, apparently 
perished together in that irruption of a flood which McEnery 
calls the Diluvium, which left its traces everywhere, and with 
surprising violence drove the bones and the carcases together 
into vast cemeteries, still so foetid with their remains, that the 
author of the above description nearly lost his life, and certainly 
impaired his health, in the research. It is probable that few 
persons will read the unfinished desci’iptions he has left ; but 
multitudes have given the fullest credence to the abundant lite- 
rature of the Cave, a large portion of which I myself perused 
before I was even aware of the existence of McEnery’s MS., 
which antedates much since written. 
I should recommend all who explore these caverns not to 
trust to the light provided by their guides, but to carry with 
them the bright guidance of their own common sense ; or, if 
this be considered too fatiguing, to receive at my hands the 
torch of a salutary scepticism, which will disclose the unreality 
of the spectres that meet their view. 
Doubt and uncertainty are perhaps all our acquisitions from 
these later researches ; but these stimulate inquiry. For my- 
self, I must say that I was thus led to study the surroundings 
of the cavern more carefully. 
•/ 
o 2 
