are certainly and unquestionably antecedent to the existence of man upon the earth. Indeed, they are hot found, in general, imbedded in rocks at all, but usually in caverns, under a deposite of stalagmite earth, that is, calcareous matter formed by droppings from the roof above: such fossiliferous caverns have been met with in Bavaria, France, England, and North America. "In general," says Richardson[1], "they contain the bones and teeth of bears, tigers, hyænas,—also of elephants, mastodons, and various herbivera on which they preyed. The organic remains are usually found imbedded in a deposite of stalagmite earth, which forms the flooring of the cave." Not unfrequently, moreover, human remains have been found mixed with these. "Frequent discoveries," says Dr. Buckland[2], "have been made of human bones and rude works of art, in natural caverns, sometimes enclosed in stalactite, at others in beds of earthy materials, which are interspersed with bones of extinct species of quadrupeds."—"Several accounts have been published, within the last few years, of human remains discovered in the caverns in France and the province of Liege, which are described as being of the same antiquity with the bones of hyænas, and other extinct quadrupeds, that accompany them." This writer, however, it should be added, is disposed to attribute the circumstance of human bones being found in such situations, not to their having been cotemporary with the animals amongst the remains of which they are found commingled, but simply to their having been buried there in an after-time. For such a supposition, however,
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