OF GREAT CAVERNS IN ENGLAND, AND GERMANY, CONTAINING BONES OF WILD
ANIMALS.
In several parts of England there are great caverns in limestone and
other rocks, which contain an immense quantity of the bones of such
animals as are now found only in wild countries with warm climates.
One of the most celebrated of these caves, is that of Kirkdale, in
Yorkshire. Of the bones which most of them contain, three-fourths and
upwards belong to bears, of a sort no longer to be found in the living
state. One-half, or perhaps two-thirds, of the remaining fourth, have
been traced to a species of hyæna, which is also unknown at the present
day. A smaller number may be referred to a sort of tiger or lion, and
to some species of the wolf or dog family. The smallest specimens are
of various small flesh-eating animals, such as the fox, the polecat,
and other kindred species. There are also in some of them bones of the
Elephant, Rhinoceros, and Hippopotamus.
[Illustration: PLATE III.
CAVE OF GAYLENREUTH]
But the largest and most remarkable of these caves, is at Gaylenreuth,
in Germany, of which the picture represents a section. You will
understand this representation, if you read the following account of it
by Dr. Buckland, the Professor of Geology, in the University of Oxford.
"The first grotto turns to the right, and is upwards of 80 feet long.
It is divided into four parts by the unequal heights of the vaulted
roof; the first three are from 15 to 20 feet high; whereas, the fourth
is only from 4 to 5. On the bottom of this part, and on a level with
the floor, there is an orifice only two feet high, which leads into
the second grotto. This runs first southward for 60 feet, being 40
wide and 18 high; it then turns to the west through a space of 70 feet,
becoming gradually lower till its altitude is only 5 feet. The passage
to the third grotto is very incommodious, winding through several
corridors. It is thirty feet wide, and only five or six high. The loam
of the floor is stuffed full of teeth and jaw-bones. Near the entrance
to it, is a gulf of 15 or 20 feet, into which visitors descend by a
ladder. After going down, they arrive at a vault 15 feet diameter by
30 feet in height; and on the side on which they descend, is a grotto
all bestrewed with bones. By going down a little further still, they
fall in with a new arcade which conducts to a grotto 40 feet long, and
a new gulf 18 or 20 feet deep. Even after this descent, another cavern
presents itself 40 feet high, quite covered with bones. A passage now
of 5 feet by 7 leads to a grotto 25 feet long and 12 wide; then alleys,
20 feet long, conduct into another cave 20 feet high; and finally,
a grand grotto expands, 83 feet in width, and 24 in height, more
copiously furnished with bones than any of the rest. The sixth and
last grotto runs in a northerly direction, so that the whole series of
caverns and corridors, describes nearly a semicircle.
"A rift in the third grotto, disclosed in 1784, a new grotto, 15 feet
long by 4 wide, where the greatest number of hyænas' and lions' bones
were found. The opening was much too narrow to have allowed these
animals to have entered by it. A peculiar tunnel which terminated in
this small grotto, afforded an incredible number of bones, and large
skulls quite entire."
It is supposed that these caves were inhabited by the fierce animals
whose bones they contain, and that the other more peaceable creatures
were dragged in by them for prey, since their bones have evidently been
gnawed and crushed as they would be by fierce and powerful carnivorous
animals.