716 P L Y M 
were embedded teeth and bones belonging to the rhino¬ 
ceros, deer, and bear, as it was fuppofed; but, there 
being no teeth nor horns, nor any part of the head, the 
genus could not be pofitively afcertained. It was ftated 
by Mr. Whidbey, and confirmed by the workmen, that 
neither of thefe caverns bore the appearance of ever 
having had an opening to the furface, or any communi¬ 
cation with it whatever; but that they were doled all 
round with the fame compaft fubftance as that which 
forms the body of the rock ; that in many caverns of the 
fame rock ftaladite was found, but none in either of 
thefe. 
Since the publication of Mr. Buckland’s paper, (fee 
Pickering, p. 379.) namely, in the year 1822, a third 
cave, or rather feries of caves and galleries, has been dif- 
covered at Orefton, running in various diredions through 
the compaft limeftone rock, in which were found a vail 
quantity of bones, horns, fkulls, and teeth, fome covered 
with mud and clay, others adhering to the fides of the 
caverns, lying on projecting ledges of rock, at various 
elevations, or crammed into crevices, or fiffures. They 
confift of the remains of oxen, horfes, deer, wolves, and 
various other animals, with a fmall proportion of the 
jaws and teeth of the hyaena. Among them were alfo 
found horns of various kinds, and in one cavity was a 
number of fkulls mixed with fand. The bones of the 
granivorous animals were mingled together in the fame 
cavity: but thofe of the carnivorous were at a confide- 
rable diftance from each other. The only fpecimen 
which bears any apparent marks of teeth is a portion of 
the radius of a young wolf, which, in two or three places 
on the furface, has the impreflion of the incifores and 
canine teeth of fome fmall animal, of the fize of a weafel. 
It h as never been afcertained that fome of thefe 
caverns, if not all of them, have a communication with 
the upper furface of the rock, but that they are firmly 
clofed by the ("olid limeftone on tiie fide next to the Cat- 
water, Wjhich is that on which the quarrying is carried 
on; confeauently on the firft opening of one of thefe 
caverns, it has all the appearance of being a feparate and 
detached chamber in the midft of the lolid rock : and to 
this circumftatice was owing the miftake of their being 
defcribed as fuch in the Philofophical TranfinTtions for 
1822. Mr. Whidbey, however, anxious to afcertain the 
real ftate of the cafe, has fubfequently traced an internal 
communication between them, by means of galleries, or 
narrow paflages, running in oblique dire&ions through 
the very heart of the rock, in angles of about 45 0 with 
the horizon, fometimes afcending, and then defcending. 
From rhe principal and lowed: cavern, which is about 35 
feet above the high-water of fpring-tides, and 600 feet 
from tire original face of the quarry, one of thefe flam¬ 
ing galleries leads upwards into a fiecond cavern, from 
which another gallery continues in the fame direftion to 
a part of the rock near the furface, confiding of feparate 
maffes of limeftone, intermixed with clay; but fo coin- 
pad and indurated, that it required to be blafted with 
gunpowder to eft'eft a paffage through it. The width of 
this feam was from ten to twelve feet; and, on exami¬ 
nation, it was found to continue of the fame nature to 
the furface of the country, a height of about fifteen feet. 
From this fhaft (if we may fo call it) another gallery 
branched off ftill deeper into the rock, at the extremity 
of which was another large chamber; and in this too 
were found feveral bones and teeth. Another narrow 
gallery, not of fufficient width to admit the body of a 
man, proceeded apparently in the fame direction out of 
this chamber. The fides of the caverns, and of the paf- 
fages or galleries, were, for the mod part, folid limeftone ; 
fometimes, however, they were partially covered with 
clay, and in fome places with ftaladtite. 
We (hall be curious to fee Mr. Buckland’s fpeculations 
on thele recently-difcovered chambers in the limeftone 
rock of Orefton, and (hall take the opportunity of fome 
future article to notice them. We underftand he has 
O U T H. 
minutely examined them in company with Mr. War- 
burton, a celebrated geologift; and that all the teeth, 
bones, horns, and ftiells, have been fent up to the College 
of Surgeons in order to be examined and claflified. The 
number of hyaena’s teeth hitherto difcovered would ap¬ 
pear to be inlufficient to juftify the idea of the chambers 
having been the dens of thefe creatures. We do not 
find that marks of their fangs have been obferved on the 
bones and horns with which they were mixed. Befides 
the gallery which leads to the lowed cavern, where the 
greater part of the bones were difcovered, is not more in 
one part than a foot wide, and in this the defcent is per¬ 
pendicular; both of which circumftances are againft the 
paffage of a large hyaena. This, however, may not, per¬ 
haps, be confidered as a folid objection, as the bones 
might have been dragged into the fuperior chamber, 
into which is the broad and open paffage, from whence 
they may be fuppofed to have dropped into the inferior 
one. The fhaft we have fpoken of as now filled with 
rubble and indurated clay, might have been clofed fubfe¬ 
quently, and the fifteen feet of the fuperincumbent clay 
and rubble brought upon it at the lame time by the 
waters of the flood. That the bones w'ere introduced 
through this lhaft there can be no doubt whatever; and 
the only queftion is whether dead or alive. As a common 
entrance into the firft chamber, it is convenient enough 
for a hyaena's den ; but molt of the indications of the 
ICirkdale (Pickering) .den and its bones are wanting. 
Inftead of the remains of the animals being covered with 
a cruft of mud or clay, as at Kirkdale, they here reft upon 
a bed of the latter, which in the loweft cavern, where the 
grated: quantity of thefe remains are found, extended 
to the depth of forty feet, or fix feet below the low-water 
mark of fpring-tides, the whole being a folid mafs of clay, 
in which were found only fome lumps of argillaceous 
iron ore. Perhaps it will be argued that either the car- 
cafes of the various animals, or their bones, have been 
carried in by the rulh of waters. In the firft cafe, it 
would be difficult to explain how all thefe various 
animals happened to be together on the fame fpot, and 
why nothing like one complete Ikeleton of any one of 
them has been found. On the fecond fuppofition, the 
bones would have been rounded by attrition, and mixed 
with rolled (tones and gravel, neither of which is the 
cafe; the circumftance of fand being found in the fame 
cavern with the lliells is only one that favours their being 
floated in by water. There remains but another hypo- 
thefis, and that is, that the animals have fallen in by 
accident. This is undoubtedly the cafe in fome of the 
caves of the continent, in which, the mouths being ftill 
open, there are found the remains of the antediluvian 
bear and hyaena, with thofe of the now-exifting fpecies 
of animals. This, according- to Cuvier, muff have been 
the cafe with regard to the olfeous breccias in the rock 
Gibraltar, compofed of the remains of animals agree¬ 
ing with fpecies that now exilt ; and indeed nothing 
is more common at the prefent day than the falling 
of animals into the deep fiffures of rock, where they 
are left to perifti. But we will not attempt to an¬ 
ticipate Profelfor Buckland, who, we make no doubt, 
will produce a theory ftufficiently plaufible to account 
for the contents of Orefton caverns. 
We have only to add, that thefe bones from Plymouth 
contained fo little animal matter, that muriatic acid dil- 
folved them, leaving fcarcely anything of that nature : 
but teeth of the animal incognitum, or maftodon, from 
the blue clay of the banks of the Ohio, and of the bear 
from the caverns at Gaylenreuth, have retained their 
animal matter 1b entirely, that, when muriatic acid dil- 
folves their earth, it leaves the animal matter in the 
form of the bone. This is the cafe with the bones of the 
elephant that has been found in the blue clay at Brent¬ 
ford, Ilford, and other places near the Thames. All the 
bones from the Plymouth caverns and beds were thole 
of now exifting animals ; viz. the horie, the hyaena, the 
2 wolf. 
