430 
from this cavern to another, five and twenty feet in height, which is 
every where beset with teeth, bones, and stalactitic projections. This 
cavern is suddenly contracted, so as to form a vestibule of six feet 
wide, ten long, and nine high, terminating in an opening close to the 
floor, only three feet wide and two high, through which it is necessary 
to writhe with the body on the ground. This leads into a small cave, 
eight feet high and wide, which is the passage into a grotto twenty - 
eight feet high, and about three and forty feet long and wide. Here 
the prodigious quantity of animal earth, the vast number of teeth, 
jaws, and other bones, and the heavy grouping of the stalactites, pro- 
duced so dismal an appearance, as to lead Esper to speak of it as a 
perfect model for a temple for a god of the dead. Here hundreds of 
cart-loads of bony remains might be removed, pockets might be 
filled with fossil teeth, and animal earth was found to reach to the 
utmost depth to which they dug. A piece of stalactite being here 
broken down, was found to contain pieces of bones within it, the 
remnants of which were left imbedded in the rock. 
From this principal cave is a very narrow passage, terminating in 
the last cave, which is about six feet in width, fifteen in height, and 
the same in length. In this cave were no animal remains, and the 
floor was the naked rock. 
Thus far only could these natural sepulchres be traced ; but there 
is every reason to suppose that these animal remains were disposed 
through a greater part of this rock*. 
Whence could this immense quantity of the remains of carnivorous 
animals have been collected, is a question which naturally arises ; but 
the difficulty of answering it appears to be almost insurmountable. 
It will not appear surprising, that these extraordinary accumulations 
should have considerably bewildered those who have attempted to ex- 
plain their origin and formation, and have led them to the most extra- 
* Description des Zoolithes nouvellement decouvertes d’animaux quadrupedes inconnus, et 
des cavernes qui les renferment, &c. par J. F. Esper. 1774. 
