1822-1824.] 
HYENAS . 
59 
which bone had been cracked by Billy and which by the 
aboriginal hyena of Kirkdale. Again, Billy polished with 
his feet and hide the sides and floor of his den of wood, 
as his ancestors did the sides and floor of their den of 
stalactite in the Yorkshire hills ; and as the ancient beasts 
deposited album grcecum in abundance after a dinner of 
bones, so did Billy deposit pounds of the same substance, 
even in this minute circumstance illustrating the history 
of his ancient British forefathers.” 1 
No one then believed either in the probability or 
possibility of wild beasts, which now exist only in warm 
climates, having lived and died in our Yorkshire wolds. 
Hence Dr. Buckland was bound to give proof of his 
assertions, and, as usual, spared no pains or trouble in 
verifying the novel and extraordinary results of his 
examination of the cave. He took Sir Humphry Davy 
to visit it, and writes to the Rev. W. Vernon Harcourt that 
the eminent scientist “ is satisfied with the accuracy of my 
facts.” He adds : “We have had this week in Oxford 
a Cape hyena who has performed admirably on shins 
of beef, leaving precisely those parts which are left at 
Kirkdale and devouring what are there wanting, and 
leaving splinters and scanty marks of his teeth on the 
residuary fragments which are not distinguished from 
those in the den.” 
Dr. Buckland’s interest in hyenas caused some amusement 
to his friend Lyell, who writes to Dr. Mantell, in 1826: 
“ Buckland has got a letter from India about modern 
hyenas, whose manners, habitations, diet, etc., are every- 
Frank Buckland’s “Curiosities of Natural History,” 2nd series. 
