36 ACCOUNT OF FOSSIL TEETH AND BONES 
bones would have been found lying on the surface of the mud before 
it was disturbed by digging: as no observations were made in season 
as to this point, it must remain unsettled, till the opening of another 
cave may give opportunity for more accurate investigation. This 
uncertainty, however, applies not to any of the extinct species, or to 
the larger animals, whose habit it is not to burrow in the ground, nor 
even to those of the smaller ones, (e. g. the water rat,) fragments of 
whose bones and teeth are found imbedded in the antedduvian 
stalagmite, and cemented by it both to the exterior and internal 
cavities of bones belonging to the hyaenas and other extinct species, 
which, beyond all doubt, were lodged in the den before the period 
of the introduction of the mud. Should it turn out that since this 
period the cave has been accessible to foxes and weasels, it is possible 
that some of the birds may also have been introduced by them. The 
evidence of this, however, rests on a fact not yet carefully ascertained, 
viz. whether the bones in question were buried, like those of the 
extinct animals, beneath the mud, or lay on its surface; the state of 
one of the ravens’ bones, containing stalagmite in its central cavity 
(see Plate XL fig. 22, 23), seems to indicate high antiquity; and the 
quarryman, who was the first to enter the cave, assured me, that he 
has never seen a single bone of any kind on the surface, nor without 
digging into the substance of the mud, with the exception of a very 
few such cases as that of the specimen I have described in the pos¬ 
session of Mr. Smith. 
As ruminating animals form the ordinary food of beasts of prey, 
it is not surprising that their remains should occur in such abundance 
in the cave (see Plate VIII. fig. 1 to 14); but it is not so obvious by 
