TOO 
Organic Bemainsofa Former World, 
with its enamel quite perfect, vising 
through the stalactitic mass svhich invests 
the bone. In this cavern the stalactites 
begin to be of a larger size, and of a more 
columnar form. 
Passing on, through a small opening In 
tlie rock, a small cave, seven feet long 
and five feet high, is discovered : ano¬ 
ther small opening, out of which leads to 
another small cave ; from which a sloping 
descent leads to a cave twenty-five feet in 
height, and about half as much in its di¬ 
ameter, HI which is a truncated colum¬ 
nar stalactite, eight feet in circumfer¬ 
ence. 
A narrow and most difficult passage, 
twenty feet in length, leads from this 
cavern to another, five and twenty feet in 
height, which is every-where beset with 
teeth, bones, and stalactitic projections. 
This cavern is suddenly contracted, so as 
to form a vestibule of six feet wide, ten 
long, and nine high, terminating in an 
opening close to the floor, only three feet 
wide and two high, through which it is 
necessary to writhe with the body on the 
ground. This leads into a small cave, 
eight feet high and wide, which is the 
passage into a grotto twenty-eight feet 
high, and about three and forty feet long 
and vvide.^ Here the prodigious quantity 
of animal earth, the vast number of 
teeth, jaws, and other bones, and the 
heavy grouping of the stalactites, pro¬ 
duced so dismal an appearance, as to 
lead Esper to speak of it as a perfect 
model for a temple for a god of the dead. 
Here hundreds of cart-loads of bony re¬ 
mains might be removed, pockets .might 
be filled with fossil teeth, and animal 
earth was found to reach to the utmost 
depth to which they dug. A piece of 
stalactite, being here broken down, was 
found to contain pieces of bones within 
it, the remnants of which were% left im¬ 
bedded in the rock. 
From this principal cave is a very nar¬ 
row passage, terminating in the last cave, 
which is about six feet in width, fifteen 
5n height, and the same in lengtli. In 
this cave were no animal remains, and 
jhe floor was the naked rock. 
Thus far only could these natural se¬ 
pulchres be traced ; but there is every 
reason to suppose that tiiese animal re¬ 
mains were disposed through a greater 
part of this rock. 
Whence could this immense quantity 
of the remains of carnivorous animals 
bare been collected, is a question which 
naturally arises} but the difficulty of an¬ 
swering it appears to be almost Insufii 
mouqtable. 
FOSSILS CONSIDERED IN CONNECTION 
WITH THE STRATA IN WHICH THEY 
ARE CONTAINED. 
For calling the attention of geologists 
to this mode of directing their inquiries, 
we are much indebted to Mr. William 
Smith, who, long since, not only pointed 
out the necessity of ascertaining the fos¬ 
sils belonging to each particular stratum, 
but also collected and preserved, for the 
information of others, specimens of nu¬ 
merous strata, with some of their peculiar 
fossils. 
Without the hope of making any im¬ 
portant addition to our knowledge of 
these subjects, but merely wiiii the wish 
of showing how beneficial our inquiries 
may prove when thus connected, I will 
endeavour to ascertain tlie proper strata 
of some of the fossils mentioned in tliis 
work. To perform even tliis, I must 
avail myself of the observations made by 
the gentleman above-mentioned, and by 
Mr. John Farey, author of several excel¬ 
lent essays on Stratification. To IMr. 
Farey I acknowledge consider.,ble obliga¬ 
tions for his exceedingly liberal and un¬ 
reserved communications on subjects 
connected with these inquiries. 
According to the actual observations of 
Mr. Smith, as given by Mr, Farey, in his 
General View of the Agriculture and 
Minerals of Derbyshire, vol. I. p. Ill, 
the following are the upper strata which 
have been discovered in this island, 
disposed in the order in which they 
occur. 
1. Sand. 
2. Clay, with septaria. 
3. Sand, with shells, varying in tliick- 
ness and in mixture with other sab- 
stances. 
4. Soft chalk with flinty nodules. 
5. Hard chalk. 
C. Chalk marl. 
7. Aylesbury limestone. 
8. Sand and clay strata, in one of which 
is a dark-coloured shelly iiiiiestone, called 
Sussex marble. 
9. Woburn sand, in which is a stratum 
of fuller’s earth. 
10. A thick clav, called the cluncfi 
clav. 
11. Bedford limestone. 
12. A thick clay. 
13. Ragstone of Barnack, &:c. 
14. Limestone and grey slate of Stuns- 
field, Colley Vi ater, &c. 
15. Sand. 
