Page:A Treatise on Geology, volume 1.djvu/330

 314

3. It is sufficiently ascertained, that some particular caverns, rich in bones, as Kirkdale Cave in Yorkshire, Kent's Hole at Torquay, &c., have not been filled by inrushing of water, nor by the voluntary retirement of wild animals for shelter or for quiet death, but heaped with bones by ravenous beasts, who used the cavern as a den, and dragged into it the carcases of other more peaceful quadrupeds then living in the vicinity. This inference is so important for the right understanding of the ancient condition of the country, both as to level, climate, and productions, that it appears proper to explain clearly the evidence on which Dr. Buckland founded his opinions.

Kirkdale Cave, accidentally discovered by workmen employed on the road, is about twenty-five miles N.N..E. of York, above the northern edge of the broad vale of Pickering, on the east side of the Hodge Beck, and thirty feet above its waters. (This is from our own measurement.) Its floor is upon the great scale, level for the whole length yet explored,—250 feet,—and nearly conformable to the plane of stratification of the coralline oolite in which it is situated. In some parts, the cave is three or four feet high, and roofed, as well as floored, by the level beds of this rock; in other parts, its height is augmented by open fissures, which communicate through the roof, and allow a man to stand erect. The breadth varies from four or five feet to a mere passage; at the outlet, or mouth, against the valley, was a wide expansion, or antechamber, in which a large proportion of the greater bones, ox, rhinoceros, &c. were found. This mouth was, it is believed, choked with stones, bones, and earth, so that the cave was found by opening upon its side in a stone quarry. On entering the cave, the roof and sides were found incrusted with stalactites; and a general sheet of stalagmite, rising irregularly into bosses and ridges, lay beneath the feet. This being broken through, yellowish mud was found about a foot in thickness, fine and loamy toward the opening, coarser and more sandy in the interior. In this loam chiefly,