116 
HISTORY OF THE EARTH. 
there is, is these representations, such as it is difficult for a mind 
warmed with the enthusiasm created by new and important dis¬ 
coveries to avoid altogether, but the consent of the Naturalists of 
all countries, proves the great principle asserted in them to be 
correct and true—that the figure, and manner of life, of a race of 
animals long since extinct, may be ascertained from the form and 
structure of their bones. 
The science of comparative anatomy has been brought to bear 
upon the animal remains found in the Kirkdale cave, and it ap¬ 
pears that the bones of the 23 species mentioned, are mingled to¬ 
gether there. 
That the drift and bearing of what is immediately to follow, 
may be the better understood, it may be well to state before pro¬ 
ceeding farther, the conclusions at which Dr. Buckland arrived 
respecting this cave—that it was the den of a species of antedilu¬ 
vian hyena, and that the bones it contains, are the remains of the 
animals which the hyenas dragged into it for the purpose of eat¬ 
ing them there. 
The three living species of hyena now known, differ somewhat 
in their habits, but that which is most common, inhabiting Abys- 
sina, and other hot countries, preys upon dead carcases, which he 
devours even to the bones. He sleeps during the day, and prowls 
about the cities and villages at night, carrying ofl' to his den, any 
dead animals he may happen to find. He descends into the 
graves and feeds upon human bodies. His jaws are more pow¬ 
erful than those of any known animal of nearly equal size. Dr. 
Buckland saw the keeper feed one that was carried for exhibition 
through England. He gave him bones. The shin bone of an 
ox he first gnawed at its upper part, and then broke into splint¬ 
ers which he swallowed whole, leaving the hard and solid part 
below the marrow untouched, the shin bone of a sheep, he broke 
into two pieces, and then swallowed without any mastication. 
From this account of the habits of the hyena, we revert to the 
contents of the cave. It has been stated that immense quantities 
of bony fragments were found enveloped in the loam, or in the 
stalagmite. These consist of the harder parts of the skeleton to 
which they belonged. On manjq there are marks which corres¬ 
pond exactly to the hyena teeth that lay strewed over the floor 
of the cavern. The leclk of the various animals were also found 
in great quantities, so that the number of the teeth, and of the 
solid bones, of the tarsus, and carpus, was more than twenty 
times as great as could have been supplied by the individuals 
whose other bones were found mixed with them. One gentle¬ 
man collected more than three hundred canine teeth of the hyena, 
which must have belonged to at least, seventy-five individuals, 
and adding to these the canine teeth derived from the same spot, 
that are in other collections, the whole number of hyenas of 
whose existence here there is evidence, cannot be estimated at 
less than two or three hundred. When this fact is viewed in 
