YEALM BRIDGE CAVE. 
83 
As therefore I have once before said, Southern 
Devonshire in the immediately preceding epoch to 
the “ Great Deluge,” harboured a race of ravenous 
quadrupeds which preyed on another race of the 
harmless or herbivorous kind. Besides which, 
there existed with these, other creatures of a some¬ 
what intermediate character, or less decidedly pre¬ 
daceous, and again, others whose exact relation to 
the series cannot be determined ; these however, 
were mingled wfith the general mass, and there 
occurred in the last place, solitary teeth of the large 
mammals, which I rather conclude w r ere driven in 
amidst the diluvial clay, &c. at the time of the de¬ 
luge, than conveyed thither by the hyaenas whilst 
connected with the carcasses. 
OSSIFEROUS CAVERN AT YEALM BRIDGE. 
In the summer of 1835, having casually heard of 
certain bones, met with in the progress of working 
a limestone quarry at Yealm Bridge, I undertook 
to investigate their value, and the circumstances 
under which they occurred, the present account 
regarding only the bare facts wdiich obtruded them¬ 
selves to view. 
Lime-rock abounds at Yealm Bridge, and caverns 
and fissures are not unfrequently disclosed to view 
during its removal for economical purposes. That, 
on the southern side of the river at this spot, rises 
to a great height; and before its consumption com¬ 
menced, its bed projected to the banks of the river. 
It was in the upright surface of the rock, that the 
opening or openings of the cave probably formerly 
existed ; but the memory of man can render no 
account concerning these original entrances. I say 
