THE STATE OF THE CAVE AT KIRKDALE. 
49 
before the introduction of the mud. I have one example of a hollow 
stalactitic tube that lay in an horizontal position in the midst of, and 
parallel to some splinters of large bones, and the unbroken ulna of a 
rat: all these are united by stalagmite; and it is impossible that this 
stalactitic pipe could have been formed in any other than a vertical 
position, hanging from the roof or sides. In other specimens of the 
breccia, there are split fragments of the teeth of deer and hyaena; and 
in almost every portion I have seen, either of this breccia or of the 
antediluvian stalagmite, there are teeth of the water rat. Mr. Gibson 
has presented to the British Museum a mass exceeding a foot in 
diameter, composed of fragments of many large bones, mixed with 
some teeth of the hyaena, ox, and several other animals, and also of 
rats, all adhering firmly together in a matrix of stalagmite. During 
the formation of the stalagmitic matter, no mud appears to have 
been introduced; and had there been any in the cave at the time 
whilst the osseous breccia was forming, it would either have excluded 
all access of the stalagmite to the bones, or have been mixed and 
entangled with it, forming a spongy mass, as it does at the root of the 
staglamites that lie on its surface. The universal cover of mud pre¬ 
vented me from ascertaining whether the bottom of the cave is any 
where polished (like the tiger’s den before alluded to), in those parts 
which must have been the constant gangway of the hyaenas. 
The 3d period is that at which the mud was introduced and the 
animals extirpated, viz. the period of the deluge. I have already 
stated that the animal remains are found principally in the lower 
regions of this sediment of mud, which appears to have been intro¬ 
duced in a fluid state, so as to envelope the bony fragments then 
H 
