Eocene {London and Hampshire } 1 or 2 400 Miocene {Red and Coralline } 20 to 30 450 { Crag, Suffolk } Older Pleiocene {Mamaliferous or Norwich } 60 to 70 111 { Crag } Newer Pleiocene {Marine strata near } 85 to 90 160 { Glasgow } Post Pleiocene {Fresh-water of the valley} 99 to 100 40 { of the Thames } It is to this period that are assigned the animals whose bones are found in astonishing numbers in limestone caverns, as, for example, that notable one at Kirkdale, in Yorkshire, which was examined by Professor Buckland. This is a cave in the Oolitic limestone, with a nearly level floor, which was covered with a deposit of mud, on which an irregular layer of sparry stalagmite had formed by the dripping of water from the low roof, carrying lime in solution. Beneath this crust the remains were found. Of the animals to which the bones belonged, six were _Carnivora_, viz. _hyaena_, _felis_, bear, wolf, fox, weasel; four _Pachydermata_, viz. elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, horse; four _Ruminantia_, viz. ox, and three species of deer; four _Rodentia_, viz. hare, rabbit, water-rat, mouse; five Birds, viz. raven, pigeon, lark, duck, snipe. The bones were almost universally broken; the fragments exhibited no marks of rolling in the water, but a few were corroded; some were worn and polished on the convex surface; many indented, as by the canine teeth of carnivorous animals. In the cave the peculiar excrement of hyaenas (_album graecum_) was common; the remains of these predacious beasts were the most abundant of all the bones; their teeth were found in every condition, from the milk-tooth to the old worn stump; and from the whole evidence Dr. Buckland adopted the conclusion, in which almost every subsequent writer has acquiesced, that Kirkdale Cave was a den of hyaenas during the period when elephants and hippopotami (not of existing species) lived in the northern regions of the globe, and that they dragged into it for food the bodies of animals which frequented the vicinity.[36] Thus in these spots we find, observes Professor Ansted, "written in no obscure language, a portion of the early history of our island after it had acquired its present form, while it was clothed with vegetation, and when its plains and forests were peopled by many of the species which still exist there; but when there also dwelt upon it large carnivorous animals, prowling about the forests by night, and retiring by day to these natural dens."