Bones discovered in cave at Kirkdale , in Yorkshire. 205 
tenanted by the hyaenas. The removal of the mud, which now 
entirely covers the floor, would be necessary to ascertain the 
exact quantity of stalagmite referable to this period ; but it 
cannot be very great, and can only be expected to exist where 
there is much stalactite also upon the roof and sides. 
The 2d period was that during which the cave was inha- 
bited by the hyaenas, and the stalactite and stalagmite were 
still forming. The constant passage of the hyaenas in so 
low a cave, would much interrupt this formation ; as they 
would strike off the former from the roof and sides by their 
constant ingress and egress ; and accordingly in some speci- 
mens of the breccia, we find mixt with the bones, fragments 
of stalactite, that seem to have been thus knocked off from 
the roof and sides of the cave, whilst it was inhabited by 
hyasnas before the introduction of the mud ; I have one exam- 
ple of a hollow stalactitic tube that lay in an horizontal posi- 
tion in the midst of, and parallel to, some long splinters of 
bone and the unbroken ulna of a rat : all these are united by 
stalagmite ; and it is impossible that this stalactitic pipe could 
have been formed in any other than a vertical position, hang- 
ing from the roof or sides. In other specimens of the brec- 
cia, I have split fragments of the teeth of deer and hyaena ; 
and in almost every portion I have seen, either of this 
breccia or of the antediluvian stalagmite, there are teeth of 
the water rat. Mr. Gibson possesses a mass exceeding a 
foot in diameter, composed of fragments of many large 
bones, mixed with some teeth of rhinoceros and several of 
the larger animals, and also of rats, all adhering firmly 
together in a matrix of stalagmite. It did not occur to me, 
whilst on the spot, to examine whether the bottom of the 
