THE STATE OF THE CAVE AT KIRKDALE. 
51 
periods, during and before which, the cave was tenanted by hyaenas. 
In the whole of this 4th period no creature appears to have entered 
the cave, with the exception possibly of mice, rats *, weasels, rabbits, 
and fox^.s, until it was opened last summer; and no other process of 
any kind appears to have been going on in it except the formation of 
stalactitic and stalagmitic infiltrations: the stratum of diluvial sedi¬ 
ment marks the point of time at which the latter state of things began 
and the former ceased. As there is no mud at all on the top or sides 
of the cave, we have no mark to distinguish the relative quantities of 
stalactite formed on those parts during the periods we have been 
speaking of: should it however contain in any part a fragment of 
bone or tooth of any of the extinct animals, it will be probable that 
this part was antediluvial. A farther argument may be drawn from 
the limited quantity of postdiluvian stalactite, as well as from the 
undecayed condition of the bones, to show that the time elapsed since 
the introduction of the diluvial mud has not been one of excessive 
length, nor at all exceeding that which M. Cuvier, after comparing 
the traditions of a deluge that prevail among all nations with natural 
phenomena, infers to have elapsed since that great and universal 
inundation which has overwhelmed the earth, at a period which, he 
says, he is of opinion with De Luc and Dolomieu, cannot have ex¬ 
ceeded five or six thousand years ago. 
* Mr. Salmond has a portion of the upper stalagmite, with the entire skeleton of a 
rat, embedded between two of the upper laminae of the stalagmitic crust. This animal 
must have entered the cave, and died there, not long ago. 
