152 ANIMALS, WHY GRAMINIVOROUS. 
caves would allow no such circumstance to have occurred in them. 
4tli. A fourth difference arises from the remains being chiefly those of 
graminivorous animals; and this is consistent with the circumstance 
I mentioned when speaking of the recent bones in Buncombe Park, 
that such animals are more liable than beasts of prey to fall into open 
fissures, from their constant habit of traversing the surface in the act 
of cropping the grass which forms their food. All these differences 
may be explained on the theory I am maintaining, that the bones 
in the osseous breccia are of antediluvian origin, and coeval with the 
remains we find in the caves and fissures of Germany and England. 
M. De Luc has expressed precisely the same opinion at the con¬ 
clusion of his description of the bones, earth, and breccia contained 
in the caverns of the Hartz. “ L’aspect de la couclie d’ou Ton tire 
ces os, ne permet pas de douter de leur origine; elle est la mc'me 
que celle des os de Dalmatie et de Gibralter, ainsi que de tous les 
autres corps terrestres ensevelis dans les couches de nos continens.” 
By which latter he means the bones of elephant, rhinoceros, &c. that 
occur so universally in the diluvium.—De Luc’s Lettres Phys. et 
Mor. vol. iv. p. 90. 
Mr. Allan, in his paper just quoted, designates the earthy matrix of 
these bones as “ Red indurated clayand adds also, that “ with the 
bones are rounded pebbles of limestone.” He also states his opinion, 
that the bones have been deposited in two distinct eras, which, I have 
no doubt, will on explanation turn out to be the same antediluvian 
and postdiluvian periods to which I have assigned respectively the 
introduction of different bones into the fissures of Plymouth and Dun- 
combe Park. “ On the castle rock at Nice,” says he, “ the bones occur 
