Ossiferous Caves, and Fissures in the Rocks.
The land animals mentioned in the last section appear to have been, for a considerable geological period, inhabitants of the countries where their remains are buried in the gravel; for their bones are also found in caves, and fissures of the rocks, under circumstances generally indicative, and often demonstrative, of their habitual existence in the cave, or the vicinity of it. Here, buried in mud, or covered by calcareous deposits, inclosed and perfectly preserved, lie the separated bones of many kinds of extinct quadrupeds, young and old,—entire, broken as by falling into a pit,—worn by currents of water, or gnawed by ravenous beasts; but often perfectly recognisable, and capable of being rigorously compared with living races of mammalia.
The result is extremely remarkable: instead of a large proportion of the existing species of animals, which, during the early periods of history, if not in later times, might have been expected to fall into fissures, retire into caves, or be dragged by wolves to their dens; we find the greater number of bones to belong to elephants, large feline animals, the rhinoceros, hippopotamus, elk, hyaena, indiscriminately entombed with oxen, deer, and many smaller animals. The contents of the caves have a considerable general analogy in a given country, as England; but they exhibit some characteristic differences, when different districts, as Franconia and Yorkshire, or Narbonne, are compared. These local differences are important additions to the evidence afforded by the state of inhumation and conservation of the bones, in favour of the conclusion that the animals found in the caves were really the inhabitants of the neighbourhood. The following general list of the species of mammalia found in alluvial and diluvial deposits may be useful for reference. Man is included in the catalogue, though it appears improbable that the remains of the human race found in the caves of Bize, Belgium, &c. are really of the same date as the elephantine exuviæ in northern climates. (See Desnoyers' Report to the Geol. Society of France.)
