No doubt, then, can exist as to the important connexion between the geological structure of a country, and its degree of fertility; but the subject has not received the attention which it merits. And in the hope that this note may meet the eye of some zealous geologist, the author suggests the importance of commencing the enquiry in a primitive district; for, as we advance from a primitive to an alluvial district, the relations to which we have alluded become gradually less distinct and apparent, and are ultimately lost in the confused complication of the soil itself, and in that general obscurity which necessarily envelopes every object in a state of decomposition: we can, therefore, only hope to succeed in such an investigation, by a patient and laborious examination of a primitive country, after which we may be enabled to extend our enquiries with advantage through those districts which are more completely covered with soil, and obscured by luxuriant vegetation; as the eye, gazing upon a beautiful statue, traces the outline of the limbs, and the swelling contour of its form, through the flowing draperies which invest it.
Note 19, p. [135].--Buckland’s researches.
The geological researches of Dr. Buckland have been long directed by a desire to accumulate facts to prove that there must have been an universal inundation of the earth; and, in his inaugural lecture, he has presented us with a summary of such facts, which, to use his own expression, whether considered collectively or separately, present such a conformity of proofs, tending to establish the universality of a recent inundation of the earth, as no difficulties or objections that have hitherto arisen are in any way sufficient to overrule.
In the year 1822, Dr. Buckland read a memoir before the Royal Society, announcing the discovery of a singular cave at Kirkdale in Yorkshire, containing an assemblage of fossil teeth and bones of the elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, bear, tiger, and hyæna, and sixteen other animals; with a comparative view of five similar caverns in various parts of England, and others on the continent. For this important paper the society awarded to its author their Copley medal; and it constitutes the basis of a later and much more extended work, entitled “Reliquiæ Diluvianæ; or Observations on the Organic Remains contained in Caves, Fissures, and Diluvial Gravel; and on other Geological Phenomena, attesting the Action of an Universal Deluge. By the Rev. W. Buckland, B.D. F.R.S. &c.”
Let us explore the interior of this cavern. It was not till the summer of 1821, that the existence of any animal remains, or of the cavern containing them, was suspected. At this time, in continuing the operations of a large quarry, the workmen accidentally intersected the mouth of a long hole, closed externally with rubbish, and overgrown with grass and bushes. As this rubbish was removed before any competent person had examined it, it is not certain whether it was composed of diluvial gravel and rolled pebbles, or was simply the debris that had fallen from the softer portions of the strata that lay above it: the workman, however, who removed it, and some gentlemen who saw it, assured Dr. Buckland that it was composed of gravel and sand. In the interior of the cavern, our indefatigable geologist could not find a single rolled pebble, nor has he ever seen one bone, or fragment of bone, that bore the slightest mark of having been rolled by the action of water.
The original entrance is said to have been very small, and, having been filled up as above described, there could not have been any admission of external air through it to the interior of the cavern. Nearly 30 feet of its outer extremity have now been removed, and the present entrance is a hole in the perpendicular face of the quarry, about three feet high and five feet broad, which it is only possible for a man to enter on his hands and knees, and which expands and contracts itself irregularly from two to seven feet in breadth, and two to fourteen feet in height. It is unnecessary to enter into farther details; the reader, if he wishes more minute information, may consult Dr. Buckland’s work.
On entering the cave, the first thing observed was a sediment of soft mud or loam, covering entirely its whole bottom to the average depth of about a foot, and concealing the subjacent rock, or actual floor of the cavern. Not a particle of mud was found attached either to the sides or roof; nor was there a trace of it adhering to the sides or upper portions of the transverse fissures, or any thing to suggest the idea that it had entered through them. The mud was covered by a stalagmitic crust, which had been formed by the dripping of water impregnated with calcareous matter, as is common in all the cavities of limestone; but it is important to remark, that there was not any alternation of mud with any repeated beds of stalagmite, but simply a partial deposit of the latter on the floor beneath; so that the mud was encased, like meat in a pie, with an upper and under crust. It was chiefly in the lower part of the earthy sediment, and in the calcareous matter beneath it, that the animal remains were found.
In the whole extent of the cave, only a very few large bones have been discovered that are tolerably perfect; most of them are broken into small angular fragments and chips, the greater part of which lay separately in the mud, whilst others were wholly or partially invested with stalagmite, and others again mixed with masses of still smaller fragments. In some few places, where the mud was shallow, and the heaps of teeth and bones considerable, parts of the latter were elevated some inches above the surface of the mud and its calcareous crust; and the upper ends of the bones thus projecting, like the legs of pigeons through a pie crust, into the void space above, have become thinly covered with calcareous drippings, whilst their lower extremities have no such incrustation, and have simply adhering to them the mud in which they have been imbedded.
The effect of the loam and stalagmite in preserving the bones from decomposition, by protecting them from all access of atmospheric air, has been very remarkable.
The workmen, in first discovering the bones at Kirkdale, supposed them to have belonged to cattle that died by a murrain in this district a few years ago, and they were for some time neglected, and thrown on the roads with the common limestone; they were, at length, noticed by Mr. Harrison, a medical gentleman in the neighbourhood, and have since been collected and deposited in various private and public museums. The teeth and bones which have been discovered in this cave appear to have belonged to the hyæna, tiger, bear, wolf, fox, weasel, elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, horse, ox, deer, hare, rabbit, water-rat, mouse, raven, pigeon, lark, snipe, and a small species of duck.