When these animals were living, the climate must have been very much warmer than it is at present in France, for their bones are found associated with palm trees, and other vegetable remains of hot climates, and the bones of crocodiles, tortoises, and other creatures which only live in warm regions. The isle of Sheppey consists chiefly of land which was deposited about the same time, and it contains a great quantity of fossil coffee, and similar plants at present restricted to the East and West Indies, and countries near the equator. [Illustration] CHAPTER IV. OF GREAT CAVERNS IN ENGLAND, AND GERMANY, CONTAINING BONES OF WILD ANIMALS. In several parts of England there are great caverns in limestone and other rocks, which contain an immense quantity of the bones of such animals as are now found only in wild countries with warm climates. One of the most celebrated of these caves, is that of Kirkdale, in Yorkshire. Of the bones which most of them contain, three-fourths and upwards belong to bears, of a sort no longer to be found in the living state. One-half, or perhaps two-thirds, of the remaining fourth, have been traced to a species of hyæna, which is also unknown at the present day. A smaller number may be referred to a sort of tiger or lion, and to some species of the wolf or dog family. The smallest specimens are of various small flesh-eating animals, such as the fox, the polecat, and other kindred species. There are also in some of them bones of the Elephant, Rhinoceros, and Hippopotamus. [Illustration: PLATE III. CAVE OF GAYLENREUTH] But the largest and most remarkable of these caves, is at Gaylenreuth, in Germany, of which the picture represents a section. You will understand this representation, if you read the following account of it by Dr. Buckland, the Professor of Geology, in the University of Oxford.