Bones discovered in a cave at Kirkdale, in Yorkshire. 177 
grooves and pits that cover great part of its interior, show 
that there was a time when its dimensions were less than at 
present ; though they fail to prove by what cause it was origi- 
nally produced. There are but two or three places in which it 
is possible to stand upright, and these are where the cavern is 
intersected by the fissures; the latter of which continue open 
upwards to the height only of a few feet, when they gra- 
dually close, and terminate in the body of the lime-stone : 
they are thickly lined with stalactite, and are attended by no 
fault or slip of either of their sides. Both the roof and floor, 
for many yards from the entrance, are composed of horizontal 
strata of lime-stone, uninterrupted by the slightest appear- 
ance of fissure, fracture, or stony rubbish of any kind ; but 
farther in, the roof and sides become irregularly arched, pre- 
senting a very rugged and grotesque appearance, and being 
studded with pendent and roundish masses of chert and sta- 
lactite ; the bottom of the cavern is visible only near the 
entrance ; and its irregularities, though apparently not great, 
have been filled up throughout to a nearly level surface, by 
the introduction of a bed of mud or sediment, the history of 
which, and also of the stalactite, I shall presently describe. 
(See Plate XVI. fig. 2). 
The fact already mentioned of the engulphment of the Rical 
Beck, and other adjacent rivers, as they cross the lime-stone, 
showing it to abound with many similar cavities to those at 
Kirkdale, renders it likely that, hereafter, similar deposits of 
bones may be discovered in this same neighbourhood ; but 
accident alone can lead to such discovery, as it is probable 
the mouths of these caverns are buried under diluvian sand 
and gravel, or post-diluvian detritus ; so that nothing but their 
mdccccxxii. A a 
