CAUSE OF ITS PECULIARITIES. 
141 
pebbles from without, or the removal of the animal remains from 
within, the cause of the anomaly we are considering will be explained. 
By referring to Plate XVIII. it will be seen that the throat of the 
cave f, by which we ascend from the mouth e to the interior g, is 
highly inclined upwards, so that neither would any pebbles that were 
drifting on with the waters that excavated the valley ascend this in¬ 
clined plane to enter the cave g, nor would the external currents, 
however rapidly rushing by the outside of the mouth e, have power 
to agitate (except by slight eddies in the lower part of the throat f) 
the still waters that would fill the body of the cavern, and which being 
there quiescent, would, as at Kirkdale, deposit a sediment from the 
mud suspended in them upon the undisturbed remains of whatever 
kind that lay on the floor. From its low position, it is also probable 
that this vault formed the deepest recess of an extensive range of in¬ 
habited caves, to which successive generations of antediluvian bears 
withdrew themselves from the turbulent company of their fellows, as 
they felt sickness and death approaching; the habit of domesticated 
beasts and birds to retire and hide themselves on the approach of 
death, renders it probable that wild and savage animals also do the 
same. The unusual state of decay of the teeth and bones in this 
black earth may be attributed to the exposed state of this cavern, 
arising from its large mouth and proximity to the external atmosphere, 
and to the absence of that protection which in closer and deeper 
caves they have received, by being secluded from such exposure, or 
embedded in more argillaceous earth, or invested with, and entirely 
sealed up beneath a crust of stalagmite. 
