LETTER XXXI. 
CAVERNS IN GERMANY AND HUNGARY, CONTAINING FOSSIL BONES 
GAYLENREUTH, &C INQUIRY RESPECTING THE ANIMALS TO 
WHICH THEY BELONGED THE REMAINS OF TWO SPECIES OF 
BEARS DISCOVERED. 
It has been with considerable pleasure that I have heard you describe 
the terrific magnificence of the caverns of the Peak, and of several 
other similar caverns in this island. But these must yield to the 
caverns of Germany and of Hungary, in which we have not only to 
admire prodigious subterranean excavations, embellished with stalac- 
titic decorations, but to contemplate an inexhaustible accumulation of 
the remains of animals of a former world, some of which appear to be 
unknown to us in a living state. 
Many of these caverns have been noticed by different authors. Bau- 
man’s Cave, near Blankenbourg, has been described by Leibnitz, Pro- 
togcea, p. 7 ; and Einhornshoele, in Scharzfeld, in Hanover, has been 
described by the same author, and by M. de Luc, in his letters to the 
Queen. In the chain of the Hartz are several also, which have been 
described by Behrens, in Hercynia Curiosa. Hungary, also, has 
several similar caverns, which have deservedly engaged the attention 
of several learned men. 
Among the most remarkable of these caverns are those of Gaylen- 
reuth, on the confines of Bayreuth. The opening to these, which is 
about seven feet and a half high, is at the foot of a rock of limestone 
of considerable magnitude, and in its eastern side. Immediately be- 
yond the opening is a magnificent grotto, of about three hundred feet 
in circumference, which has been naturally divided by the form of the 
roof into four caves. The first is about twenty-five feet long and 
