224 Th e Rev. Mr. Buckland's account of Fossil Teeth and 
caverns, does not, however, depend so much on comparisons 
between the stalactitic matter and earthy sediments which 
they contain, as on the agreement in species of the animals 
entombed in them, viz. in the agreement of the animals of 
the English caves, with those of the diluvian gravel of the 
greater part of Europe ; and, in the case of the German 
caves, on the identity of the extinct bear with that of the dilu- 
vian gravel of Upper Austria, and the extinct hyaena with that 
of the gravel at Canstadt, in the valley of the Necker ; and 
at Eichstadt, in Bavaria ; to these may be added the extinct 
rhinoceros, elephant, and hippopotamus, which are common 
to gravel beds as well as caves. And hence it follows, that 
the period at which all these caverns were inhabited by the 
animals in question, was antecedent to the formation of that 
deposit of gravel, which it seems to me impossible to ascribe 
to any other origin than a transient deluge, affecting univer- 
sally, simultaneously, and at no very distant period, the entire 
surface of our planet. 
The bones found in these caverns are considered by M. 
Cuvier, to be of older date than those of the osseous breccia, 
which, at Gibraltar and various places along the coast of the 
Mediterranean and Adriatic, occur in vertical fissures of lime- 
stone. This breccia contains fragments of bones and teeth 
of various ruminating and gnawing animals ; that is, of ox, 
deer, antelope, sheep, rabbits, rats, mice ; also of the horse 
and ass, of snakes and birds, mixed with land shells, and 
angular fragments of the adjacent rock ; all united into a 
solid breccia by ochreous stalactite. The greater number 
of these animals agree with species that now exist, and are 
supposed by M. Cuvier to have fallen into the fissures in 
