Essay on the Theory of the EarthCuvier, Georges, baron
Science
Essay on the Theory of the Earth
Cuvier, Georges, baron
Geology; Paleontology
Moreover, may it not have been the case, that, after the caves
had been inhabited by the carnivorous animals, the substances
falling from above, and coming from the surface of the soil, may
have carried along with the clayey mud and the bones of bears, the
spoils of large herbivorous animals, which they may have met with,
and which cannot be supposed to have sought refuge in these caves
during life.
There will, no doubt, be objected to me, that opinion which
maintains, that the bones of herbivora have been dragged into the
caves by the carnivorous animals. This might certainly have been
the case with regard to small species, but it is not probable that
the bones of large species could have been introduced in the same
manner.
Admitting as certain, at least with regard to the Adelsberg cave,
that the limestone blocks and the bear bones which accompany them,
have fallen from the ceiling, the phenomenon of caves containing
bones would connect itself pretty well with that of osseous brecciæ
in a geological point of view. As M. Cuvier observes, “The nature
of the rocks which contains the one and the other is not very
different; and, besides, the fissures of caves being generally
pretty wide, the bones would not have stuck, but would have fallen
to the bottom, while those of the osseous brecciæ being much
narrower, and not so deep, would have retained the bones at no
great distance from the surface of the soil.”
Thus, from the facts observed in the caves of Germany and England,
and from that of the Adelsberg cave, which I have described above,
we may conclude, _1st_, That the presence of bones in caves has
been produced at two different periods, which, without doubt, have
not been very distant from each other; the first, that when the
animals inhabited these caves; the other, that when they had been
transported there by a somewhat general catastrophe; _2dly_, That
the second epoch was contemporaneous with the osseous brecciæ, and
was produced, like them, by a phenomenon or process of filling up.
TABULAR VIEW
OF
The GENERA of FOSSIL MAMMIFERA, CETACEA, AVES, REPTILIA, and INSECTA,
exhibiting their Geognostical Number and Distribution.
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