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minated by a small chamber, three yards square, in which' all the human bones are found. They lie in the utmost confusion, in the paste or matter that unites them, and are in quantities so great as to form more than half of the bed. The bones are partly filled with an extremely fine calcareous earth, colored by oxide of iron. The deposite is here raised more than half a foot above the true floor, which is covered with human bones, some of which are insulated from the rest; a great number are united to the rock, to which they have been fixed by calcareous incrustations. The bones are chiefly those of the head, thigh, and arms. They lie without any relation to the system, and many are wanting, so that an entire skeleton has never been found. They are not worn, or rolled, so that they could not have been transported from a distance. They are not mineralized, but retain a portion of gelatine. These bones belonged to adults both of men and women, and some of them to children.

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How these human bones came in such a place is the main question, and its answer is by no means easy. M. de Serres, the author of the above description, says that the difficulty of the entrance would have opposed an invincible obstacle to the introduction of the bodies after death. The people of the country have a tradition, that at some remote and unknown period, these bones were brought from a distance and deposited there.

Mr. Granville Penn has no doubt but these are antediluvian bones, and thinks there is as much reason to believe them so, as there is in the case of the elephant's bones in the cave of Kirkdale. "It will be plain," says this author," to every one who compares the descriptions of the two caves, that the leading circumstances, geologically considered, are so peculiarly analogous, that if we read, in the Durfort account, young and full grown elephants,' &c. instead of young and adult human subjects,' we shall almost seem to be reading the Kirkdale report."

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Unless there is some other entrance than that already described, (and after much search, none has been found,) it is difficult to imagine how these bones could have been conveyed into such a cavern, and for what purpose. It is much easier to believe, did many such examples exist, that they were embedded during the formation of the limestone rock, in which they are found, than that they were

conveyed there by human hands.

As these bones exhibit no marks of teeth, there is no reason to suppose that they were carried there by rapacious beasts. Penn's Comp. Estimate. Vol. ii. p. 400.

The Quarries of Kosritz, where other human bones have been also found, are in Upper Saxony, and the account is given by Baron Von Schlottheim. The formation is of limestone, accompanied by secondary gypsum. In the fissures or cavities of the limestone, have been found the remains of the ante-diluvian rhinoceros and hyena, and other extinct species. In the fissures or cavities of the subordinate gypsum, human bones have been found, together with the bones of small quadrupeds and birds, at the depth of from sixteen to thirty feet below the surface. These occur in every quarry which has been opened, and not in caverns, but in the loam, which has formed there, and such as envelopes the bones of Gaylenreuth. The Baron supposes that the human bones are not, however, of the same antiquity with those of the ante-diluvian animals, with which they occur. Still the Baron says, "It is quite evident, that in the country near Kosritz, human bones are found intermingled, without order, with the bones of animals of the ancient world, and with those of existing species; and under precisely the same circumstances, being firmly enveloped and compacted in the loamy deposite, which occupies the fissures and cavities of the bed of gypsum that occurs in that vicinity. All these considerations give, on the first view, a probability to the conclusion, that the other animals were destroyed at the same time with man; an opinion which I have already advanced."

M. V. Schlottheim, afterwards became doubtful of the accuracy of this conclusion from the single circumstance, that remains of existing as well as of extinct animal species, were found with the human bones.

Had the Baron seen Professor Buckland's account of the Kirkdale cavern, which was printed afterwards, this circumstance alone, probably would not have raised a doubt, since there were found both extinct and existing species mingled together, and yet no doubt has arisen that they were not all ante-diluvian.

These facts and circumstances, in the opinions of several able geologists, leave little or no doubt but these bones

were real fossils, and that they belong to a period before the flood, while others think the evidence not sufficient to establish so important a geological fact. The inqui ring reader will find this subject fully discussed in "Penn's Comparative Estimate of the Mineral and Mosaical Geology," vol. ii.

Professor Buckland also found human bones, in the same caves with those of ante-diluvian animals, and yet, he seems to suppose that the former were much less ancient than the latter, the human bones having fallen in. through some crevice, formerly open, but now closed. Although a strong advocate of the truth of the Mosaie history, he denies the existence of fossil human remains, though, had the bones of some species, considered extinct, been found under the same circumstances, no doubt it is believed, would have been entertained of their ante-diluvian origin. This reluctance to admit their discovery and existence, appears extraordinary and unaccountable in an advocate for the truth of the Scriptures; since, if men and animals were created within a few days of each other, their remains ought to be found together. "It is said"" says Dr. Macculloch, " to be a proof of the especially recent formation of man, that his remains are not found in the same alluvia as those of other animals. What support of Scripture is this? That record says, man and animals were created in one short period. If they ought thus equally to be found, and are not, it is evidence against the record, and not in its favor."-Geology, vol. i. p. 451.

In what manner bones might be thrown into caverns. Perhaps every limestone country contains more or less subterranean caverns which admit streams of water to pass through them, either constantly, or during certain seasons of the year.

In the Grecian Morea, it appears, that such caverns are common, and during the late French expedition to Greece, they were particularly examined and described by M. Boblaye one of the adventurers.

In that country the seasons are divided into the dry and rainy, with nearly the same exactness that they are between the tropics. The rainy season lasts four months, and is succeeded by eight months of drought.

In the elevated districts of the Morea, there are many deep valleys or basins, surrounded on every side by mountains, of cavernous limestone.

During the rainy season, the torrents from the mountains, rushing into these basins, would form lakes in ordinary circumstances; but here the water is received into fissures, or caverns, called by the Greeks "katavothra," and which lead to subterraneous caves, of various dimensions below.

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In some of the basins the apertures not being sufficient to receive all the water, as it descends, lakes are formed, which either gradually run off at these apertures, or find other openings at a higher level.

In some places where the water descends through fissures in the bottom of the basin, which is often in the middle of a plain, nothing can be seen in the summer, when the lake is dry, but a deposite of red mud cracked by the the heat of the sun in all directions; but more commonly the receiving chasm is at the foot of the surrounding escarpment, and is sometimes large enough to allow a person to enter it in the dry season, and to penetrate far into the interior. Within are often found a suite of caverns or chambers, communicating with each other by narrow passages, as is the case with similar caves in this, and other countries. In one of these entrances were observed human bones imbedded in recent red mud, and mingled with the remains of plants and animals now inhabiting the Mo

rea.

In summer these mouths being half closed with alluvial mud, produce a rapid and vigorous vegetation, which is cherished by the moisture of such places. They then become the favorite hiding places of jackals and foxes, so that at one season of the year the same cavity serves for the den of carnivorous beasts, and at another, the chamber of an ingulphed river.

Near the mouth of another of these caverns, M. Boblaye and his companions saw the carcass of a horse partly devoured by jackalls, the size of which, prevented these animals from dragging it in; but it was evident that the ensuing flood would float in whatever remained of the skeleton.

Some of these torrents form subterranean rivers, after running many miles come again to the surface; and although the waters are exceedingly turbid when they are engulphed, the emerging stream is perfectly clear and

limpid, the impurities subsiding during the underground passage. The points of emergence are usually along the sea shore of the Morea, but sometimes they are submarine, and at some distance from the shore. When this is the case, the force with which the fresh water rises under the salt, is sometimes such as in calm weather, to form large convex waves, the sand at the same time boiling up to a considerable distance from the bottom.-Lyell.

During the dry season, the sea, undoubtedly takes the place of the fresh water, carrying in marine shells and sand to mingle with the bones and mud brought down from the land; thus forming a mixture of fresh, and salt water remains.

Should the Morea be elevated by a subterranean force, and these places exposed to the investigations of geologists, there would probably be exhibited the same phenomena that has so puzzled the naturalists of the present day; a congregation of mammiferous bones, clay, sea sand, marine and land shells, and the whole perhaps, interspersed with human bones.

From what we have here stated, it may be seen that in the course of centuries, large quantities of the bones of quadrupeds and of men may be carried into caverns and there mingled promiscuously; and probably also intermixed with marine productions. And as in limestone countries these caverns are constantly filling up with stalactites, and carbonaceous matter brought in with the water, the wonder with respect to the ingress of organic relics into certain caverns would seem thus in a degree to be explained.

Lake Cirknitzersee. The fact stated above, that there is a spot on the Morea, where at one season of the year the same cavity serves for the den of carnivorous beasts, and at another for the channel of an ingulphed river, brought to mind a still more singular natural curiosity, of somewhat the same kind, as stated by the old traveller, Keysler, which we had heretofore believed was rather fabulous, than true. Keysler however, was F. R. S. of London, and one of the most able antiquarians of his time. "The Lake Cirknitzersee," says he, "situated in the south east part of Austria, is one of the greatest of natural curiosities, and has been the subject of many disquisitions of naturalists. It is a common proverb, that one may

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