Page:The Hunterian Oration,1838.djvu/42

34 submerged ; and, by frequent allusion to the many thousand years which must have elapsed while the earth was the theatre of these changes, he seems to have fully appreciated the necessity of an ample allowance of past time to account philosophically for the changes in question. Mr. Clift, who transcribed the manuscript of this paper, informs me, that it was originally dictated, not "many thousand years,” but "many thousand centuries," and he preserves the copy of the letter of the friend of Hunter, who advised the change of expression in conformity with the popular notion of the world’s age. Geologists now know that the latter expression is nearer the truth. I will only further remark, that, of three hypotheses which he suggests for the occurrence of the countless bony remains in the Gailenreuth caverns, he inclines to that which has been adopted by the distinguished Professor Buckland for the analogous collection in the caves of Kirkdale, viz. that the caves were the habitual retreat of the extinct species while living; that there they brought the carcases of their prey, and fed; and that there they came and died.

This interesting paper, if candidly perused, must, I think, be considered as the dawning of that glorious daylight with which fossil anatomy, the hand-maid of geology, has since overspread the summits and penetrated the depths, and thus illumined the