Bones discovered in a cave at Kirkdale, in Yorkshire. 181 
to those in the cave at Kirkdale, and this from the same cause, 
viz. their having been protected from the access of atmos- 
pheric air, or the percolation of water, by the argillaceous 
matrix in which they have been imbedded : whilst similar 
bones that have lain the same length of time in diluvial sand, 
or gravel, and been subject to the constant percolation of 
water, have lost their compactness and strength and great 
part of their gelatine, and are often ready to fall to pieces 
on the slightest touch ; and this where beds of clay and gra- 
vel occur alternating in the same quarry, as at Lawford. 
The workmen on first discovering the bones at Kirkdale, 
supposed them to have belonged to cattle that died by a mur- 
rain in this district a few years ago, and they were for some 
time neglected, and thrown on the roads with the common 
lime-stone ; they were at length noticed by Mr. Harrison, 
a medical gentleman of Kirby Moorside, and have since 
been collected and dispersed amongst so many individuals, 
that it is probable nearly all the specimens will in a few years 
be lost, with the exception of such as may be deposited in public 
collections. By the kindness and liberality of the Bishop of 
Oxford (to whom I am also indebted for my first information 
of the discovery of this cave) and of C. Duncombe, Esq. and 
Lady Charlotte Duncombe, of Duncombe Park, a nearly 
complete series of the teeth of all these animals has been pre- 
sented to the Museum at Oxford; whilst a still better collec- 
tion both of teeth and bones is in the possession of J. Gibson, 
Esq. of Stratford in Essex, to whose exertions we owe the 
preservation of many valuable specimens, and who is about 
to present a series of them to our public collections in Lon- 
don. W. Salmond, Esq. also, since I visited Kirkdale in 
December last, has been engaged with much zeal and acti- 
