This much is certain, that the establishment of these animal_Essay on the Theory of the Earth

caves has taken place at a much later epoch than that at which the

great rocky strata have been formed, not only those which compose

the mountains in which the caves are situated, but the strata of

much newer origin. No permanent inundation has penetrated into the

subterranean dens, and formed a regular rocky deposit. The mud

arising from the proper decomposition of these animals, and the

stalactites that have been filtered through the wall of the caves,

are the only matters which cover these remains, and these stalactites

increase so rapidly, that M. Goldfuss already found a layer of them

covering the names of MM. Esper and Rosenmüller, whose visits did

not date thirty years before his own. The rolled stones that are met

with, and the marks of detrition observed on some bones, announce, at

the very utmost, but passing currents.

But how have so many ferocious animals which peopled our forests

been extirpated? All the reply we can make is, that they must have

been destroyed at the same time, and by the same cause, as the large

herbivora, which, like them, also peopled these forests, and of which

no traces remain at the present day any more than of them.

ACCOUNT OF THE CAVE CONTAINING BONES AT ADELSBERG IN CARNIOLA.

The following interesting account of the cave, slightly noticed at

pages 524 and 525, is extracted from a memoir by M. Bertrand Geslin,

Member of the Natural History Society of Paris, published in the

number of the _Annales des Sciences Naturelles_ for April 1826.

M. Cuvier, says Gesler, speaking of the Adelsberg Cave, from the

account published by M. Volpi of Trieste, says, that it was nearly

two leagues from the entrance where he discovered bones of animals.

Having visited this cave myself, I am obliged to say that M.

Volpi’s assertion as to this matter is not very correct. On my way

to Trieste, in July 1823, before going to Adelsberg, I had the

advantage of seeing M. Volpi. In shewing me the bones collected

by him at Adelsberg, he also assured me that they were found two

leagues from the entrance of the cave, and only in a very compact

block of several cubic feet, from which it was not possible to

procure more, as he had taken all that he could easily remove.

Notwithstanding this discouraging account, I betook myself to

Adelsberg, in order to see a sample of those immense caverns of

secondary limestone. The entrance of the cave is situated in a

white compact secondary limestone, lying in great beds inclined

to the south-west, at an angle of from 30 to 35 degrees. At fifty

paces from the entrance, we find ourselves as in a large apartment,

which crosses the torrent of the Pinka. After passing to the left

bank of this torrent, we enter a rather low and not long passage,

which leads to a second apartment of an elongated form. It is here

that the line of chambers truly commences. They are of large but

variable dimensions, and are situated nearly upon a horizontal

plane.

On entering this second chamber, I saw that the ground was formed

of a yellow and reddish clayey mud, from one to two feet thick,

and more or less impregnated and covered with crusts of yellow

stalagmites. In the places where it offered little resistance, I

dug it up with the point of my hammer, and was fortunate enough to

disunite some fragments of bone, although, from what had been said

to me, I ought not to have expected to find them. From this I was

convinced, that if M. Volpi had only found bones at a distance of

two leagues from the entrance, it was because he had not been at

the trouble to search for them nearer. I fell to work with more

ardour, and succeeded in digging up some in good preservation,

such as radii, cubiti, femora, humeri, fragments of jaws, calcarea,

toes, vertebræ, &c., belonging to bears of different sizes, of the

species termed _Ursus spelæus_. It would appear that the hyena

tribe is rather rare here, for I only procured a single bone

belonging to it. It was particularly in two small lateral chambers,

near the narrow passage, that I obtained a great quantity of these

bones, the clay there having been dug up by the guides, in order to

make the floor of the great apartment even with it.

I continued to dig as I advanced, and everywhere found bones more

or less broken and enveloped in the clayey mud. After proceeding

for half an hour, I fell in with a mass, in an apartment of

considerable dimensions, which was of a conical form, and composed

of blocks of compact white limestone, of all sizes, mixed with

yellowish clayey mud. These blocks had their edges as sharp as if

they had only been lately broken. The mass, which reached to the

right wall of the cave, might be fifteen feet in height, and twenty

in diameter at its base: it was covered with stalactite in several

places. It was in this mass, at about ten feet above the floor of

the cave, in the clayey mud that filled up the interstices between

the blocks, that I found the entire skeleton of a young bear, in a

space of two square feet at most. The bones which I dug out were

the frontal part of the head, the lower jaw of the left side,

the seventh cervical and eighth dorsal vertebræ; the eighth and

fourteenth ribs of the right side; two tibia, femora, and cubiti,

and two large canine teeth of another bear. If I could have raised

up the limestone blocks, between which these bones lay, I might

without doubt have procured a great part of this skeleton. There

are still found here and there in the cave some small heaps of

clayey mud, with fragments of white secondary limestone, as well

as large isolated limestone blocks, which the guides are daily

destroying, to make the floor even for the convenience of visitors.

I had only advanced an hour and a quarter’s progress into the cave,

always finding bones, when the oil of my lamps beginning to fail, I

was obliged to return without reaching the block in which M. Volpi

had found the first bones. This block is without doubt owing to the

same causes as the heap of which I have spoken above.

The manner in which these heaps exist, being composed of blocks of

compact white secondary limestone, similar to that which forms the

walls of the cave, with sharp edges, and piled upon each other,

made me imagine that they might have fallen from the roof. As I

returned, I examined the ceiling of the vaults with attention. As

it was all covered over with stalactites, I could not discover any

fissure.

From this short excursion in the Adelsberg cave, I am induced

to believe, that the bones exist along the whole extent of the

cave, and that they occur in two different ways; _1st_, scattered

in the clayey mud which forms the floor of the chambers; and,

_2dly_, buried in heaps formed of blocks of white secondary compact

limestone, and yellow clayey mud.

The hypothesis which M. Cuvier admits as the most probable for

explaining the presence of these bones in the caves, is that which

would make these caves to have served as a retreat to carnivorous

animals.

The presence of bones in the clayey mud of the floor of the

Adelsberg cave accords well with this hypothesis; but the case

is different with those which I found in the heaps of limestone

blocks and clayey mud. The bones are not at the surface of the

heap, but rather towards its middle part, buried among the blocks,

and crushed by them. From this position, and the height at which

the skeleton mentioned above occurs from the floor of the cave,

it cannot be supposed that it formed part of the bones with which

the bottom of the cave is strewed, nor that the blocks had fallen

upon it. The bones contained in the heap in question must have been

brought into their present position at the same time, and by the

same cause as the limestone blocks. They could not, therefore, have

belonged to animals which inhabited these caves, and died there

peaceably.

If it be remarked, that these blocks, which are sometimes very

large, heaped up above one another, and mixed with clayey mud, have

their angles perfectly fresh, and are of the same nature as the

limestone of the walls of the cave, it cannot be admitted that they

have been brought from a distance. This mode of arrangement could

only have been produced by their falling from the roof of the cave.

The following facts also give support to this opinion. In the cave

of Gaylenreuth, a fissure of the third grotto, was the means, in

1784, of disclosing a new one, fifteen feet long and four broad,

where the greatest quantity of hyena or lion bones were found.

_The aperture was much too small for these animals to have passed

through it._

In a cave discovered in 1824, in the district of Lanark in Upper

Canada, Mr Bigsby observed, that the floor was covered with debris

of brown granular limestone, similar to that of the walls, and

that the bones especially formed a heap there. He thinks that the

animal, whose bones have been found in this cave, was much too

large to have got into it alive or entire.--_Silliman’s Journal,

June 1825_, p. 354.

It must therefore be also admitted here, either that the bones

could only have got into the cave in the same manner as the heaps

of blocks found in the Adelsberg cave; that is to say, by falling

from the roof, or that the apertures have been closed since the

period at which the animals were buried.

If it be now considered, _1st_, That the surface of the secondary

limestone mountains of Carniola is covered with a layer of reddish

clay; and, _2dly_, That the clayey mud of the heap in the Adelsberg

cave is mineralogically the same as that which forms the floor

of the cave; may it not be supposed, that the same catastrophe

which produced the heaps in the cave may have, at the same time,

introduced into it the reddish clayey mud of the surface, which, by

extending itself over the floor of the cave, would have contributed

to cover the bones that were lying there?

Moreover, may it not have been the case, that, after the caves

had been inhabited by the carnivorous animals, the substances

falling from above, and coming from the surface of the soil, may

have carried along with the clayey mud and the bones of bears, the

spoils of large herbivorous animals, which they may have met with,

and which cannot be supposed to have sought refuge in these caves

during life.

There will, no doubt, be objected to me, that opinion which

maintains, that the bones of herbivora have been dragged into the

caves by the carnivorous animals. This might certainly have been

the case with regard to small species, but it is not probable that

the bones of large species could have been introduced in the same

manner.

Admitting as certain, at least with regard to the Adelsberg cave,

that the limestone blocks and the bear bones which accompany them,

have fallen from the ceiling, the phenomenon of caves containing

bones would connect itself pretty well with that of osseous brecciæ

in a geological point of view. As M. Cuvier observes, “The nature

of the rocks which contains the one and the other is not very

different; and, besides, the fissures of caves being generally

pretty wide, the bones would not have stuck, but would have fallen

to the bottom, while those of the osseous brecciæ being much

narrower, and not so deep, would have retained the bones at no

great distance from the surface of the soil.”

Thus, from the facts observed in the caves of Germany and England,

and from that of the Adelsberg cave, which I have described above,

we may conclude, _1st_, That the presence of bones in caves has

been produced at two different periods, which, without doubt, have

not been very distant from each other; the first, that when the

animals inhabited these caves; the other, that when they had been

transported there by a somewhat general catastrophe; _2dly_, That

the second epoch was contemporaneous with the osseous brecciæ, and

was produced, like them, by a phenomenon or process of filling up.

TABULAR VIEW

The GENERA of FOSSIL MAMMIFERA, CETACEA, AVES, REPTILIA, and INSECTA,

exhibiting their Geognostical Number and Distribution.

+----------------+------------------------------------------+-------------+

| | Genera which are found | Number of |

| | | Species. |

| +------+-------+------+------+------+------+------+------+

+----------------+------+-------+------+------+------+------+------+------+

|Ursus, | | * | | | | * | | 4 |

|Mustela, | | * | | | | * | | 2 |

|Canis, | | * | | | | * | | 4 |

|Hyæna, | | * | | | | * | | 1 |

|Felis, | | * | | | | * | | 2 |

|Phoca, | | * | | | | * | | 2 |

|Didelphis, | | * | | | | * | | 2 |

|Castor, | | * | | | | * | | 1 |

|Arvicola, | | * | | | | * | | 2 |

|Lagomys, | | * | | | | * | | 2 |

|Lepus, | | * | | | | * | | 2 |

|Megalonyx, | | | * | | | * | | 1 |

|Megatherium, | | * | * | | | * | | 1 |

|Elephas, | | * | | | | * | | |

|Mastodon, | | | * | | | * | | 6 |

|Hippopotamus, | | * | | | | * | | 4 |

|Sus, | | * | | | | * | | 1 |

|Anoplotherium, | | | * | | | * | | 2 |

|Xiphodon, | | | * | | | * | | 1 |

|Dichobunus, | | | * | | | * | | 3 |

|Anthracotherium,| | | * | | | * | | 2 |

|Adapis, | | | * | | | * | | 1 |

|Chæropotamus, | | | * | | | * | | 1 |

|Rhinoceros, | | * | | | | * | | 4 |

|Palæotherium, | | | * | | | * | | 8 |

|Lophiodon, | | | * | | | * | | 5 |

+----------------+------+-------+------+------+------+------+------+------+

+----------------+------------------------------------------+-------------+

| | Genera which are found | Number of |

| | | Species. |

| +------+-------+------+------+------+------+------+------+

+----------------+------+-------+------+------+------+------+------+------+

|Tapirus, | | * | | | | * | | 1 |

|Elasmotherium, | | | * | | | * | | 1 |

|Equus, | | * | | | | * | | 1 |

|Mus, | | * | | | | * | | 1 |

|Cervus, | | * | | | | * | | 5 |

|Bos, | | * | | | | * | | 4 |

|Myoxus, | | * | | | | * | | 2 |

| | | * | | | | | | |

|Manatus, | | * | | | | * | | 1 |

|Delphinus, | | * | | | | * | | 4 |

|Balæna, | | * | | | | * | | 3 |

| | | | | | | | | |

|Sturnus, | | * | | | | * | | 1 |

|Pelecanus, | | * | | | | * | | 1 |

|Charadrius, | | | | | | * | | 1 |

| | | | | | | | | |

|Testudo, | | * | | | | * | | 6 |

|Crocodilus, | | * | | | * | | | 6 |

|Plesiosaurus, | | | * | | | | | 1 |

|Ichthyosaurus, | | | * | * | | | | 4 |

|Pterodactylus, | | | * | * | | * | | 3 |

|Rana, | | * | | | | * | | 1 |

|Mosasaurus, | | | * | | * | | | 1 |

|Salamandra, | | * | | | | * | | 1 |

+----------------+------+-------+------+------+------+------+------+------+

+----------------+------------------------------------------+-------------+

| | Genera which are found | Number of |

| | | Species. |

| +------+-------+------+------+------+------+------+------+

+----------------+------+-------+------+------+------+------+------+------+

|Silpha,(b) | | * | | | | * | | |

|Curculio,(c) | | * | | | | * | | |

|Scorpio,(c) | | * | | | | * | | |

|Musca,(c) | | * | | | | * | | |

|Blatta,(c) | | * | | | | * | | |

|Tipula,(c) | | * | | | | * | | |

|Aranea,(c) | | * | | | | * | | |

|Ichneumon,(c) | | * | | | | * | | |

|Libellula,(d) | | * | | | | * | | |

|Scarabæus,(d) | | * | | | | * | | |

|Scolopendra,(d) | | * | | | | * | | |

|Papilio,(d) | | * | | | | * | | |

|Hemerobia,(d) | | * | | | | * | | |

|Carabus,(d) | | * | | | | * | | |

+----------------+------+-------+------+------+------+------+------+------+

(a) It is extremely difficult to make out the genera of the Birds,

whose remains occur in a fossil state, and there are more of them

than those mentioned.

(b) In the lignite; the number of species cannot be given in the

insects.

(d) In the fossil rocks, according to the old authors.

TABULAR VIEW

The CLASSES, ORDERS, or FAMILIES, of ANIMALS, occurring in a Living

and Fossil State, with their Geognostical Distribution.

(PART 1 of 2)

+----------------+-----------------------------------------------+-------+

| | Number of Genera which are found | |

| | | |

| NAMES OF +------+-------+------+--------+------+---------+ Total |

+----------------+------+-------+------+--------+------+---------+-------+

|Polyparia, | 23 | 30 | 52 | 47 | 19 | 36 | 105 |

|Stellaridæ, | | 4 | | | 2 | 4 | 4 |

|Echinidæ, | 2 | 6 | 3 | 7 | 8 | 5 | 11 |

|Annulosa, | | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 |

|Serpulacea, | 2 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 6 |

|Cirripeda, | 8 | 2 | | 1 | | 2 | 10 |

|Tubicolæ, | 1 | 3 | 2 | | | 5 | 6 |

|Pholadaria, | | 2 | | | | 2 | 2 |

|Bivalve shells, | 18 | 61 | 24 | 44 | 25 | 51 | 103 |

|Univalve shells,| 33 | 87 | 28 | 27 | 16 | 93 | 148 |

|Genera little | | | 4 | 3 | 1 | | 4 |

|Crustacea, | | 21 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 9 | 28 |

|Pisces, | | 54 | 6 | 11 | 2 | 55 | 60 |

|Mammifera & | | 24 | 12 | | | 36 | 36 |

|Aves,(a) | | 3 | | | | 3 | 3 |

|Reptilia, | | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 8 |

|Insecta, | | 14 | | | | 14 | 14 |

|Vegetabilia, | | 14 | 10 | 12 | 1 | 15 | 24 |

+----------------+------+-------+------+--------+------+---------+-------+

(PART 2 of 2)

+----------------+-------------+

| | Number of |

| | Species |

| NAMES OF +------+------+

|CLASSES, ORDERS,|In the|In the|

| OR FAMILIES. |living|fossil|

| |state.|state.|

| | | |

+----------------+------+------+

|Polyparia, | 527 | 414 |

|Stellaridæ, | 76 | 4 |

|Echinidæ, | 95 | 112 |

|Annulosa, | 17 | 29 |

|Serpulacea, | 36 | 69 |

|Cirripeda, | 50 | 17 |

|Tubicolæ, | 11 | 16 |

|Pholadaria, | 12 | 4 |

|Bivalve shells, | 1009 | 1104 |

|Univalve shells,| 1945 | 1544 |

|Genera little | | 5 |

| known, | | |

|Crustacea, | | 54 |

|Pisces, | | 183 |

|Mammifera & | | 89 |

| Cetacea, | | |

|Aves, | | 3 |

|Reptilia, | | 23 |

|Insecta, | | |

|Vegetabilia, | | |

+----------------+------+------+

(a) The fossil remains of birds being very difficult to be

recognized, the number of genera in that state is undoubtably much

more considerable.

THE END.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] See Note A, at the end of this Essay.

[2] See Note B.

[3] The opinion maintained by some geologists, that certain strata

have been formed in the inclined position in which they are now

found, admitting it true with regard to some particular strata

which might have been crystallized, as Mr Greenough supposes, like

the deposit which encrusts the inside of vessels, in which water

containing gypsum has been boiled, cannot at least apply to those

which contain shells or rolled stones, which could not have waited,

so suspended, the formation of the cement by which they were to be

agglutinated.

[4] See Note C.

[5] The conjecture of the Marquis de la Place, that the materials of

which the globe is composed, have perhaps existed at first in the

elastic form, and have successively assumed a liquid consistence on

cooling, and have at length been solidified, is well supported by the

recent experiments of M. Mitscherlich, who has composed, of all sorts

of substances, and crystallized by the heat of intense furnaces,

several of the mineral species which enter into the composition of

primitive mountains.--Note D.

[6] The Travels of Saussure and Deluc present a multitude of facts

of this description. These geologists imagined, that they could

only have been produced by enormous eruptions. De Buch and Escher

have recently employed themselves upon this subject. The memoir of

the latter, inserted in the Nouvelle Alpina of Steinmüller, vol. i.

presents the general results in a remarkable manner. The following is

a comprehensive view of them: Such of these blocks as are scattered

over the low parts of Switzerland and Lombardy, come from the Alps,

and have descended along their valleys. They occur every where, and

of all sizes, up to 50,000 cubic feet, over the great extent of

country which separates the Alps from the Jura mountains; and they

rise upon the sides of the latter facing the Alps, to a height of

4000 feet above the level of the sea. They are found at the surface,

or in the superficial layers of debris, but not in the strata of

sandstone, molasse, or conglomerate, which fill up almost every where

the interval in question. They are sometimes isolated, sometimes in

heaps. The height of their situation is not connected with their

magnitude; the smaller ones alone appear sometimes a little worn, but

the large ones are not so at all. Those which belong to the basin of

each river are found, upon examination, to be of the same nature as

the mountains of the tops or sides of the high valleys in which the

tributary streams of this river take their rise. They are already

seen in these upper valleys, and are particularly accumulated at the

places which are situated above some of the contractions of these

valleys. They have passed over the lower hills, when their height

has not been more than 4000 feet; and then they are seen upon the

other side of the ridges, in the cantons between the Alps and Jura,

and even upon the latter itself. It is opposite the mouths of the

valleys of the Alps that they are seen in the greatest quantity, and

at the greatest heights; those of the intervening spaces have not

been carried so high. Among the chains of the Jura mountains, which

are more remote from the Alps, they are only found in places which

are opposite the openings of the nearer chains.

From these facts, the author draws the conclusion, that the

transportation of these blocks has taken place at a period subsequent

to the deposition of the sandstones and conglomerates, and has

perhaps been occasioned by the last of the revolutions which the

globe has experienced. He compares the transportation in question to

that which still takes place from the agency of torrents; but the

objections presented by the consideration of the great size of the

blocks, and the deep valleys over which they must have passed, appear

to us to militate greatly against this part of his hypothesis.--Note

[7] Regarding the changes of the surface of the earth, known from

history or tradition, and consequently dependent on causes still in

operation, see the German work of M. de Hof, entitled “Geschichte der

Natürlichen Veränderungen der Erdoberfläche,” 2 vols. 8vo. Goth. 1822

and 1824. The facts contained in it are collected with equal care and

erudition.

[8] Note F.

[9] Note G.

[10] Voyage aux Terres Australes, t. i. p. 161.

[11] Note H.

[12] It is a common opinion in Sweden, that the level of the sea is

becoming lower, and that many places may even be forded or passed

dry-shod, which were formerly impracticable. Eminent philosophers

have adopted this popular opinion; and M. von Buch goes so far as

to suppose that the whole of Sweden is gradually rising. But it is

singular, that no one has made, or at least published, a series of

accurate observations, calculated to confirm a fact that had been

announced so long ago, and which would leave no doubt upon the mind,

if, as Linnæus asserts, this difference of level were so much as four

or five feet yearly. Note I.

[13] Mr Stevenson, in his observations upon the bed of the German

Ocean and British Channel, maintains that the level of the sea is

continually rising, and has been very sensibly elevated within the

last three centuries. Fortis asserts the same of some parts of

the Adriatic sea. But the example of the Temple of Serapis, near

Pouzzola, proves that the margins of that sea are, in many places,

of such a nature as to be subject to local risings and fallings. On

the other hand, there are thousands of quays, roads, and other works,

made along the sea-side by the Romans, from Alexandria to Belgium,

the relative level of which has never varied. Note K.

[14] When I formerly mentioned this circumstance of the science of

geology having become ridiculous, I only expressed a fact, to the

truth of which every day bears witness; but in this I did not profess

to give my own opinion, as some respectable geologists seem to have

believed. If their mistake has arisen from any thing equivocal in my

expressions, I here apologize to them.

[15] Burnet, Telluris Theoria Sacra. Lond. 1681.

[16] Woodward, Essay towards the Natural History of the Earth. Lond.

1702.

[17] Scheuchzer, Mém. de l’Acad. 1708.

[18] Whiston, New Theory of the Earth. Lond. 1708.

[19] Leibnitz, Protogæa. Act. Lips. 1683; Gott. 1749.

This much is certain, that the establishment of these animals in the