ole history of Dr. Buckland's investigations of this matter, showing
the patience and sagacity with which he collected and arranged the
evidence, will find a full account of Kirkdale Cave and other caverns
containing fossil bones in his "Reliquiae Diluvianae."]

It was evident that the Hyenas were the lords of this ancient cavern,
and the other animals their unwilling guests; for the remains of the
latter were those which had been most gnawed, broken, and mangled; and
the head of an enormous Hyena, with gigantic fangs found complete, bore
ample evidence to their great size and power. Some of the animals, such
as the Elephants, Rhinoceroses, etc., could not have been brought into
the cave without being first killed and torn to pieces, for it is not
large enough to admit them. But their gnawed and broken bones attest,
nevertheless, that they were devoured like the rest; and probably the
Hyenas then had the same propensity which characterizes those of our own
time, to tear in pieces the body of any dead animal, and carry it to
their den to feed upon it apart.

[Illustration]

While Kirkdale Cave was evidently the haunt of Hyenas chiefly, other
caverns in Germany and France were tenanted in a similar manner by a
gigantic species of Bear. Their remains, mingled with those of the
animals on which they fed, have been found in great numbers in the
Cavern of Gailenreuth, in Franconia. The subjoined wood-cut shows the
head of this formidable beast, which must have exceeded in size any Bear
now living. Indeed, although there were many smaller kinds, and the
other types of the Animal Kingdom in the Tertiaries seem to approach
very nearly both in size and general character their modern
representatives, yet, on the whole, the earlier Mammalia were giants in
comparison with those now living. The Mastodon and Mammoth, as compared
with the modern Elephant, the Megatherium, as compared with the Sloths
of present times, the Hyenas and Bears of the European caverns, and the
fossil Elk of Ireland, by the side of which even the Moose of our
Northern woods is belittled, are remarkable instances in proof of this.
One cannot but be struck with the fact that this first representation of
Mammalia, the very impersonation of brute force in power, size, and
ferocity, immediately preceded the introduction of man, with whose
creation intelligence and moral strength became the dominant influences
on earth.

[Illustration]

Among these huge Tertia