KIRKDALE CAVE. 
141 
which was studded with pendent stalactite, and by currents down the 
sides of the cavity, which were also partially lined with the same cal- 
careous incrustation. The bones lay dispersed in the mud and in the 
stalagmitic crust, broken into angular fragments and chips, but “not 
bearing the least appearance of having been rolled in water : nor was 
a single pebble found in the cave.” The fractures appeared all to have 
been occasioned by violence, and many of the fragments were marked 
with impressions, such as a living hyaena has been found to imprint on 
similar bones submitted to his powerful jaws. These circumstances, 
combined with the evidence derived from the album grsecum, and the 
extraordinary number of teeth of hyaenas, in every condition from that 
of the milk-tooth to the aged grinder worn to the gums by mastication, 
seem to fully justify Dr. Buckland’s opinion that this was a den of 
hyaenas who dragged into it piecemeal the other animals, for food. 
The quantity of the reliquiae seems to shew that the cave was 
tenanted for a long succession of years ; and a comparison of these re- 
mains with others found in diluvial gravel, determines that they belong 
to the same extinct species. As there is no evidence that such animals 
have existed in this country (or, indeed, in any part of the world) at 
subsequent periods, the only conclusion at present tenable is that the cave 
was an antediluvian den, of the same nature as Kent’s hole, and the bear 
caves of Franconia. We must, therefore, admit that in those early 
periods, this country was inhabited by a variety of animals which now 
dwell only in tropical regions, and the question of its ancient condition is 
answered in one of its terms. W e may further infer, that, since its 
inhabitants were analogous to those that now exist, its surface had the 
same general characters ; forests for the stag and the elephant, lakes for 
the rhinoceros and the hippopotamus, and rocky coverts for the prowling 
hyama, These animals might be fitted by constitution to support the 
rigours of a northern climate; but the general harmony of geological 
phenomena seems to be better preserved by admitting that tire northern 
regions of the earth were something warmer when they existed here 
than at present. Additional evidence on this subject is afforded in the 
following pages. 
