Fig. 76.—Section of Gailenreuth Cave. (Buckland.)
The remains of the animals lie scattered in the wildest confusion; sometimes being completely matted together, but more generally each bone is enveloped in earth. They belong to the lion, the cave variety of the spotted hyæna, the cave-bear, grizzly bear, mammoth, Irish elk, and reindeer, as well as to those species which are still to be found in Germany, such as the glutton, brown bear, wolf, fox, and stag.
It is very difficult to account for such an accumulation as this, but it was probably introduced through the present entrance, and thence into the chamber B, passing from the higher to the lower levels. The teeth-marks on the bones show that some of the animals had formed the prey of the hyænas, but had they introduced all the bones there would have been distinct strata marking the floors of occupation, as in Wookey Hole ([Fig. 88]). Moreover, no perfect skulls, such as those of the bears, would have escaped their powerful teeth. The pebbles in the loam bear testimony to the passage of a current of water. And if we suppose that the cave was subject to floods, such as those in the water-caves described in the [second] chapter, the scattering of the bones through the loam may be explained. This, however, could not have happened had the cave then opened on the face of a nearly vertical cliff, and the only condition under which it would have been possible is, that the present entrance should have been directly connected with a stream flowing from the surface, that is to say, over the space now occupied by the gorge of the Weissent. If this view, advanced by Dr. Buckland, be accepted, the remoteness of the date of the filling up of the cave may be measured by the fact, that since that time the gorge has been cut down by the Weissent to a depth of more than 300 feet.
The stream by which the contents of the cave were introduced had a course probably analogous to that of Dalebeck ([Fig. 6]) and the remains of the animals were caught up from the surface, and accumulated in the subterranean chambers which it traversed. Their abundance offers no obstacle to this view, since wild animals frequent their drinking places in vast numbers, and fall a prey to the carnivora which lurk near the streams, and very many tumble into the natural pitfalls, or swallow-holes, so universal in limestone districts.
The Cave of Kühloch.
Very many other caves occur in the neighbourhood, most of them, such as those of Zahnloch, celebrated for the abundance of fossil teeth, Mokas, Rabenstein, and others, of which the cave of Kühloch alone demands notice.
The cave of Kühloch is situated opposite to the castle of Rabenstein, in the gorge of the Esbach, at about thirty feet from the bottom. Its exterior presents a lofty arch in a nearly perpendicular cliff, about thirty feet wide and twenty feet high, and the entrance gradually leads into two large chambers “both of which terminate in a close round end, or cul-de-sac, at the distance of about 100 feet from the entrance. It is intersected by no fissures, and has no lateral communications connecting it with any other caverns, except one small hole close to its mouth, and which opens also to the valley.” The first thirty feet present a steep slope towards the entrance. Dr. Buckland describes the contents of the chambers in the following words:[179]—
“It is literally true that in this single cavern (the size and proportions of which are nearly equal to those of the interior of a large church) there are hundreds of cart-loads of black animal dust entirely covering the whole floor, to a depth which must average at least six feet, and which, if we multiply this depth by the length and breadth of the cavern, will be found to exceed 5,000 cubic feet. The whole of this mass has been again and again dug over in search of teeth and bones, which it still contains abundantly, though in broken fragments. The state of these is very different from that of the bones we find in any of the other caverns, being of a black, or, more properly speaking, dark umber colour throughout, like the bones of mummies, and many of them readily crumbling under the finger into a soft dark powder resembling mummy powder, and being of the same nature with the black earth in which they are embedded. The quantity of animal matter accumulated on this floor is the most surprising, and the only thing of the kind I ever witnessed; and many hundred—I may say thousand—individuals must have contributed their remains to make up this appalling mass of the dust of death. It seems in great part to be derived from comminuted and pulverized bone; for the fleshy parts of animal bodies produce by their decomposition so small a quantity of permanent earthy residuum, that we must seek for the origin of this mass principally in decayed bones. The cave is so dry, that the black earth lies in the state of loose powder, and rises in dust under the feet; it also retains so large a proportion of its original animal matter that it is occasionally used by the peasants as an enriching manure for the adjacent meadows. I have stated that the total quantity of animal matter that lies within this cavern cannot be computed at less than 5,000 cubic feet; now allowing two cubic feet of dust and bones for each individual animal, we shall have in this single vault the remains of at least 2,500 bears, a number which may have been supplied in the space of 1,000 years by a mortality at the rate of two and a half per annum.”
Dr. Buckland’s explanation, that the cave was inhabited by bears for long generations, is probably true. The absence of pebbles and silt show that water had no share in the introduction of the remains; their preservation is due to the dryness of the cave, and to its proximity to the outer atmosphere.
The famous caves of Sundwig, Schartsfeld, and Bauman’s Hole, belong to the same class as Gailenreuth, and offer no differences which need be described.