THEORIES OF LYELL AND FLEMING. 
99 
It is now very much the fashion to adopt the 
notions of Mr. Lyell and others, in considering 
present agencies as the powers which have in lapse 
of time caused the several stratified deposits of the 
earth, and brought fossilized animals into their im¬ 
pacted or other positions. Again, Dr. Fleming 
expresses his opinion that our cave-animals w'ere 
not destroyed by the (a) Flood, but, were extermi¬ 
nated by the influence of man their cotemporary. 
With regard to the first idea, I think it the most 
untenable of all modern doctrines, and with respect 
to the latter, it has its refutation in the absence of 
all remains of human bodies and human art, from 
the same stratum and same condition wherein the 
bones of the animals themselves are laid. To which, 
and the other proofs usually adduced against this 
fallacious argument I will here add, that if the 
sheep, ox, and horse were at this said aera subjected 
to man, a large portion of what would constitute 
the quarry of the hyaenas, wolves, and foxes is 
withdrawn, and the series which seems so perfect 
in regard of proportion between the rapacious and 
the herbivorous tribes, is broken up. It seems also 
very unlikely, that these aboriginals unversed in 
the arts of altering through domestication the sizes 
of their retained animals, should have had horses 
of such varying stature as the teeth from the Yealm 
Bridge cave indicate there existed as distinct 
species at the period of the occupation of ourcoun- 
' try by this series of quadrupeds. 
Whenever it can be shewn that human bones are 
actually at times fairly associated with animal 
adjoining Yealmpton Village, a bone seemingly of an ox is fixed 
partly in the stalagmite, and is no doubt due, as Dr. Buckland 
above says, to the habit of foxes which habitually convey their 
food to the recesses of caves (where such are conveniently situa¬ 
ted) for the purpose of secret consumption. 
N 2 
