48 
CHRONOLOGICAL INFERENCES FROM 
xnical, is a question the discussion of which is foreign to the object of 
the present memoir. 
Having thus far described the principal facts I observed in the 
interior of the den at Kirkdale, and pointed out the most important 
conclusions that seem to arise from them, I proceed to consider the 
chronological inferences that may be derived from the state of the 
bones, and of the mud and stalagmite that accompany them, and to 
extract the following detail of events that have been going on suc¬ 
cessively within this curious cave. 
1st. There appears to have been a period (and if we may form an 
estimate from the small quantity of stalagmite now found on the 
actual floor of the cave, a very short one,) during which this aperture 
in the rock existed in its present state, but was not tenanted by the 
hyaenas. The removal of the mud, which now entirely covers the 
floor, would be necessary to ascertain the exact quantity of stalagmite 
referable to this period; but it cannot be very great, and can only be 
expected to exist where there is much stalactite also upon the roof 
and sides. 
The 2d period was that during which the cave was inhabited by 
the hyaenas, and the stalactite and stalagmite were still forming. 
The constant passage of the hyaenas in so low a cave would much 
interrupt this deposition; as they would strike off the former from 
the roof and sides by their constant ingress and egress ; and accord¬ 
ingly in some specimens of the breccia, we find mixed with the bones 
fragments of stalactite, that seem to have been thus knocked off from 
the roof and sides of the cave, whilst it was inhabited by hyaenas 
