"There are two buffalo paths or trails still extant in the woods, and both lead directly to springs: the one which strikes off in a northerly direction from the Gum Lick, may be traced eastward through the forest for several miles. It is three or four yards wide, and only partially overgrown with grass, and sixty years ago was as bare, hard, and well trodden, as a high road. It is well known that during great droughts in the Pampas of South America, the horses, deer, and cattle, throng to the rivers in such numbers, that the foremost of the crowd are pushed into the stream by the pressure of others behind, and are sometimes carried away by thousands, and drowned. In their eagerness to drink the saline waters and lick the salt, the heavy mastodons and elephants seem in like manner to have pressed upon each other, and sunk in the soft quagmires of Kentucky."[79] [Footnote 79: Extracted from Sir Charles Lyell's "Travels in North America," vol. ii. chap. xvii. 1845.] SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. I. Fossil Bears of the Caverns. (Plate LXXIII.) For many centuries certain caves in Germany have been celebrated for their osseous treasures, particularly those in Franconia. The most remarkable of these caverns is that of Gaylenreuth, which lies to the north-west of the village of that name, on the left bank of the river Wiesent, on the confines of Bayreuth.[80] The entrance to this cave is in the face of a perpendicular rock, and leads to a series of chambers from fifteen to twenty feet high, and several hundred feet in extent, terminating in a deep chasm. The cave is quite dark; and the icicles and pillars of stalactite, reflected by the light of the torches, which it is necessary to use, present a highly picturesque effect. The floor is literally paved with bones and fossil teeth, and the pillars and corbels of stalactite also contain similar remains. The bones are generally scattered and broken, but not rolled; they are lighter and less solid than recent bones, and are often incrusted with stalactites. Three-fourths of the bones belong to two species of bears (_Ursus_), the remainder to hyænas, tigers, wolves, foxes, gluttons, weasels, and other small carnivora. Those belonging to bears are referable to two extinct species: the largest has the skull more prominent on the front than any living species; it is named _Ursus spelæus_, or cavern bear; the other has a flat forehead, and is the _Ursus priscus_ of Cuvier. The Hyena was allied to the spotted hyena of the Cape, but differed in the form of the teeth and skull. Bones of the Elephant and Rhinoceros are said to have been discovered, together with those of existing animals, and fragments of sepulchral urns of high antiquity.[81] [Footnote 80: See Medals of Creation, vol. ii. p. 869, for an interesting account of the present state of these caverns, by my friend. Major Willoughby Montague.]