no general state of the floor, and position 
of various ages and formations. The general state of their interior is 
nearly as follows. 1. The first thing we see on entering them is 
an irregular carpet or false floor of stalagmite : this has been much 
broken, and almost wholly destroyed, in those which have been ran¬ 
sacked for centuries in search of bones ; but in the newly discovered 
caves, and in others, which, containing but few bones, have not been 
broken up, its extent is great, and sometimes total. 2. Between 
this crust, and the actual floor of native rock, there is usually a bed 
of loam or diluvial mud, interspersed with rolled pebbles, angular 
stones, and bones, and varying in thickness from a few inches to 
20 or SO feet; there is no alternation of the mud or pebbles, with 
any second or third general crust of stalagmite, nor any thing to 
indicate that the cause which introduced them has operated more 
than once. 3. Beneath this mud, we arrive at the native rock, or 
actual floor of the den, the surface of which is very uneven, and 
sometimes polished, as if by the trampling of its antediluvian in¬ 
habitants. 
In those caverns, which appear to have been occupied as dens of 
wild beasts, before the introduction of the mud, the quantity of 
bones contained in the uppermost chambers is comparatively small; 
but, as we descend deeper, we find them more and more abun¬ 
dant, till, at length, in the lower vaultings, or cellarage, they are 
accumulated in enormous heaps, and the vaults themselves become 
filled and entirely choked up with a congeries of bones, pebbles, an¬ 
gular stones, and mud, piled confusedly together. In many portions 
of this mass the earth is loose, and the bones may easily be extracted; 
in other parts it is consolidated by stalagmitic infiltrations into a hard 
