ed a neck resembling a large serpent, with the tail cut off, and the remaining half fastened to a trunk, the propor tions of which, differed from those of many other animals. The tail, especially, by its shortness, could scarcely remind one of a reptile, and hence this animal must have displayed a form so much the more singular, as its extremities, like those of the ichthyosaurus, were genuine fins, similar to those of the whale tribe.

That this animal was aquatic in its habits, is evident from its fins, and that its element was the sea, may be equally inferred, from the marine remains, with which its bones are everywhere associated. Its motion on the land, like that of the ichthyosaurus, must have been awkward and difficult, and its long neck would impede its progress through the water. It was an air-breathing animal, and Mr. Conybeare suggests whether it might not have swam along the surface, arching its neck, like the swan, and now and then darting down its head to catch the fish below.

BONE CAVERNS.

Professor Buckland, in consequence of the publication of his great work, "Reliquiæ Diluviane," has made the subject of osseous caverns highly interesting and instructive. Before the appearance of that work, little was known on this subject, nor was it, indeed, considered by geologists as of much importance. The bones of some animals found in caves, had occasionally attracted notice, but no one appears to have inquired how, or under what circumstances, they could have found their way into such places. Nor was it until after the celebrated cavern of Kirkdale was discovered and described, that the contents of other caverns became the subjects of geological investigation.

We have already given some account of the Kirkdale cave under the article. "Change of Climate," for the purpose of showing that England was once the native country of the elephant, rhinoceros, and hyena.

Since the description of that cave, notices of others, containing bones, have become so numerous, that we have not room even for a catalogue of their names and places; and there is little doubt, but these will ultimately be the

means of producing a body of geological evidence of much importance.

It appears that all extensive limestone formations, contain more or less such caverns as that of Kirkdale, some of which are of great extent, and have long been admired for the brilliancy of their stalactites, and the pillar-like forms which they assume. The island of Crete contains a great cavern, which has long been the wonder of travellers, and throughout the same island, Tournefort says, there is a world of Caverns.

In the limestone districts of England, these caves abound. In Derbyshire alone, Mr. Farey enumerates twenty-eight remarkable caves, and as many fissures locally called "snake holes," or "swallow holes," from their swallowing up the streams and brooks, which sometimes in that district disappear suddenly, without, so far as is known, ever rising again to the surface.

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Of the bone caverns of Germany, Cuvier says, nothing is more truly curious, than the new theatre to which I am about to transport my readers. Numerous grottos, brilliantly decorated with crystalline stalactites of every form, succeeding each other to a great extent, through the body of the mountains, communicating together by openings, so narrow that a man can hardly proceed by crawling on his hands, yet with their floors all bestrewed with enormous heaps of bones of animals of every size—form undoubtedly, one of the most remarkable phenomena which the fossil kingdom can present to the meditations of the geologist, more especially, when we consider, that this scene of mortality is repeated in a great many places, and through far distant lands. No wonder then, that these vaults of death have become the objects of research among the ablest naturalists, and their bony relics have been often described and figured."

Prior to these philosophical inquiries, however, these bones were famed among the populace, and were long dug up, and sold to apothecaries as the bones of the fossil unicorn, and who again portioned them out to their patients as sovereign remedies in various diseases. There is no doubt but this strange traffic, contributed mainly to the investigation of old caves, and the discovery of new ones, long before geologists took the subject in hand.

Having already given such an account of the Kirkdale cave as our limits will allow, and to which the reader is

referred, we will here notice several other osseous caverns in different parts of the world.

In Germany, there are many caves, where bones have been found, but among these, that of Gaylenreuth has attracted most attention, on account of its great extent and beauty, as well as the number of fossil bones it contains. This cave is situated in Franconia, and in the same neighborhood with several others, the whole of which have been described by Professor Goldfuss, of Bonn, in a treatise expressly devoted to this subject.

The gateway, or entrance to the cavern of Gaylenreuth, is seven and a half feet high, and faces to the east, and of this wonderful place, Professor Buckland gives the following description.

The adjoining section is diminished from that drawn by Professor Buckland, in 1816.

The first grotto turns to the right, and is upwards of eighty feet long. It is divided into four parts, by the unequal height of the vaulted roof; the first three are from fifteen to twenty feet high, whereas, the fourth is only four or five. 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 sixty feet, being forty feet wide, and eighteen high; it then turns to the west through a space of seventy feet,

becoming gradually lower till its altitude is only five 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 on this floor is stuffed full of teeth and jaw bones. Near the entrance to it, is a gulf of fifteen or twenty feet wide, into which visiters descend by a ladder. After going down, they arrive at a vault fifteen feet in diameter, by thirty 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 forty feet long, and a new gulf eighteen or twenty feet deep. Even after this descent, another cavern presents itself, forty feet high, quite covered with bones. A passage now, of five by seven feet, leads to a grotto, twenty-five feet long, and twelve wide; then an alley twenty feet long, conducts into another cave, twenty feet high, and finally, a grand grotto expands, eighty-three feet in width, and twenty-four 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, fifteen feet long by four wide, where the greatest number of hyenas' and lions' bones were found. The opening was much too narrow to have allowed these animals to have entered it. A peculiar tunnel which terminated in this grotto, afforded an incredible number of bones, and large skulls, quite entire.

The excavation on the extreme right and lowest part of the figure, does not form a part of the original cavern, but has been sunk for the purpose of finding bones. Several cavities have been dug in different directions from this well, for the same purpose, in one of which there is, in the cut, the figure of a man holding a torch.

"The cavern of Gaylenreuth is one," says Dr. Ure, "whose bony relics are best known, in consequence of the researches which have been so long carried on with regard to them by men of eminent science, such as Esper, Humboldt, Ebel of Bremen, Rosenmueller, Goldfuss, &c., as well as by the rich collections which these researches have furnished.

These collections have been examined by that great fossilist, Baron Cuvier, who has ascertained that the bones

composing them, belong in the proportion of three-fourths to bears, and that next to these in numbers, were the bones of hyenas, foxes, wolves, gluttons, and polecats. A few, only, of the remains of the feline tribe, have been found in this cave, and still more few, of those of the elephant tribe."

Near this cavern are several others. One called Holeberg, or hollow mountain, has eight or ten grottoes, forming a suit of apartments two hundred feet in length, with two outlets. Another called Wonder hole, has a circuit of one hundred and sixty feet, and still another called Klaustein, is composed of four grottoes, and is two hundred feet deep. In all these, more or less bones have been found. The rocks in which they are situated are of limestone, like that of Kirkdale, and indeed like those of all other caverns of a similar description.

One of the most interesting facts developed, by the examination of these caverns, and others which we have no room to describe, is, that they all, with an exception or two, contain the bones of the same species of bear, and in a similar proportion to the other bones. This has been found to be the case, even to the extent of more than five hundred miles, at which distance, some of these caves are situated from the others. The exceptions to this general fact exists in two or three caves, situated in England, which contain a preponderance of hyenas' bones.

How are we to account for the existence of so many bones, and of all kinds of animals in these caverns? One of the most natural questions which would occur to the mind, after having read the above account, would be how these bones came into these caverns. The solution of this question is attended with doubts and difficulties.

erns.

"It is scarcely possible," says Cuvier, "to imagine any other than the three following general causes, that can have placed these bones in such quantities in these cavFirst, they are either the remains of animals which dwelt and died peaceably in these chambers; or, Second, of animals which inundations and other violent causes carried in; or, Third, of the animals which had been enveloped in the stony strata, whose watery solution pro duced the caverns themselves, but the soft parts were dissolved away by the agent that scooped out the mineral substance of the caves.'