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]
[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.
[81] Dr. Buckland's "Reliquia Diluviana" contains a full account of the most remarkable ossiferous caverns and their contents.
Similar ossiferous caves occur in England; of these, the most remarkable now accessible are Kent's Hole, near Torquay, and Banwell Cave, in the Mendip Hills, near the village of Banwell. The latter may be easily visited, as the Exeter railway passes within three miles of the village, and there is a station, with vehicles to convey passengers to Banwell.
[II.] The Belemnite. (Plates LIX. and LX.) Among the innumerable relics which abound in the secondary deposits, there are perhaps no fossil bodies that have excited so much curiosity, or given rise to so many fanciful conjectures as to their nature and origin, as the long, cylindrical, fusiform, crystalline stones, called Belemnites by naturalists, and thunderbolts by common observers. Mr. Parkinson gives an amusing account (vol. iii. p. 122) of the discordant opinions entertained at various times respecting the nature of these bodies.
It would be irrelevant to dwell on the history of the successive attempts that have been made to elucidate the origin and structure of the Belemnite. It will suffice to describe concisely the present state of our knowledge as to the organization of the original.
Mr. Miller, in 1823,[82] showed that the Belemnite was the rostrum or osselet of an animal allied to the Sepia, or Cuttle-fish, and gave a restored outline of the supposed form of the original, with the Belemnite in its presumed natural situation. Dr. Buckland and M. Agassiz imagined that they had traced a natural connexion between certain species of Belemnites that abound in the Lias, and the ink bag and other soft parts of the Sepiæ or Calamaries found associated with them; and they suggested the name of Belemno-sepia for the supposed animal of the Belemnite,[83]
[82] Geological Transactions, New Series, vol. ii.; and Dr. Buckland's Bridgewater Essay.
[83] Bridgewater Essay, p. 374.