Bones discovered in a cave at Kirkdale, in Torkshire. 189 
other animal is thrown, which, acting in concert, they some- 
times drag to a prodigious distance.” Sparman and Pen- 
nant mention that a single hyaena has been known to carry 
off' a living man or woman in the vicinity of the Cape. 
The strength of the hyaena’s jaw is such, that in attacking 
a dog, he begins by biting off his leg at a single snap. The 
capacity of his teeth, for such an operation, is sufficiently ob- 
vious from simple inspection, and had long ago attracted the 
attention of the early naturalists ; and, consistent with this 
strength of teeth and jaw, is the state of the muscles of his 
neck, being so full and strong, that in early times this animal 
was fabled to have but one cervical vertebra. They live by 
day in dens, and seek their prey by night, having large pro- 
minent eyes, adapted, like those of the rat and mouse, for 
seeing in the dark. To animals of such a class, our cave at 
Kirkdale would afford a most convenient habitation, and the 
circumstances we find developed in it are entirely consistent 
with the habits above enumerated. 
It appears from the researches of M. Cuvier, that the fossil 
hyaena was nearly one third larger than the largest of the 
modern species, that is, the striped or Abyssinian ; but, in the 
structure of its teeth, more nearly resembled that of the Cape 
animal. (See Plate XVIII. fig. 1, 2, 3.) Its muzzle also was 
shorter and stronger than in either of them, and consequently 
its bite more powerful. The length of the largest modern 
hyaena noticed is 5 feet 9 inches. 
The fossil species has been found on the Continent in situ- 
ations of two kinds, both of them consistent with the circum- 
stances under which it occurs in Yorkshire, and, on compar- 
ing the jaws and teeth of the latter with those of the former 
