Bones discovered in a cave at Kirkdale, in Yorkshire, lgg 
more hyaenas that died last, and left no survivors to devour 
them ; we find a sufficient reply to this question, in the cir- 
cumstance of the probable destruction of the last individuals 
by the diluvian waters : on the rise of these, had there been 
any hyaenas in the den, they would have rushed out, and fled 
for safety to the hills ; and if absent, they could by no pos- 
sibility have returned to it from the higher levels : that they 
did so perish on the continent is obvious, from the discovery 
of their bones in the diluvial gravel of Germany, as well as 
in the caves. The same circumstance will also explain the 
reason why there are no bones found on the outside of the 
Kirkdale cave, as described by Busbequius on the outside of 
the hyasnas' dens in Anatolia ; for every thing that lay with- 
out, on the antediluvian surface, must have been swept far 
away, and scattered by the violence of the* diluvian waters ; 
and there is no reason for believing that hyaenas, or any other 
animals whatever, have occupied the den at any period sub- 
sequent to that catastrophe. 
Although the evidence to prove the cave to have been in- 
habited as a den by successive generations of hyaenas, appears 
thus direct, it may be as well to consider what other hypo- 
theses may be suggested, to explain the collection of bones 
assembled in it. 
ist. It may be said, that the various animals had entered 
the cave spontaneously to die, or had fled into it as a refuge 
from some general convulsion : but the diameter of the cave, 
as has been mentioned before, compared with the bulk of the 
elephant and rhinoceros, renders this solution impossible as 
to the larger animals ; and with respect to the smaller, we 
can imagine no circumstances that would collect together. 
