"concludes, that the vegetation of which bituminous coal," has been formed, consisted of several species of large trees, of which he has in his collection, trunks eighteen inches in diameter. These trees seem all to have belonged to the monocotyledonous or polycotyledonous* families. They were palms, bamboos, &c., plants which at the present day are found only in hot climates.

"If," says Dr. Ure, "we examine the fossilized fruits found in the upper [coal] strata, we shall see that several of them evidently belonged to the same family of palms; but one of the most extraordinary facts, connected with this subject is, that none of these fruits appear to have grown on the palms with fan-shaped leaves; but on the contrary, that all the fruits that have been delineated by authors, seem referable to the genera with pinnate, (feather-formed) leaves."

There is no doubt, however, that palms, with fan-shaped leaves, (fan-palms) once covered Europe with their lofty vegetation, since petrified specimens of these plants exists in great abundance. The opinion formerly entertained, that these trees had been transported to Europe from warmer climates, appears in the present state of knowledge, to be without the least foundation, since not only trees with entire branches have been found, but also roots in the places where they grew. In some coal mines, have been discovered the trunks of large trees standing in their original vertical positions, around which, several strata of rock and coal have been deposited, which fact is clearly incompatible with the hypothesis of transportation.

The existence of the bones of animals of enormous dimensions, though of extinct species, afford by analogy, an indication of the tropical heat of Europe, at some remote period.

The great megalosaurus, (great lizard,) and the still more gigantic iguanadon, (iguana-toothed,) says Mr. Mantell, to which the groves of palms and arborescent ferns, would be mere beds of reeds, must have been of such prodigious magnitude, that the existing animal creation, presents us with no fit objects of comparison.

*Seeds consisting of more than two seed lobes. Very few plants of this character are known at the present day.

Imagine an animal of the lizard tribe, three or four times as large as the largest crocodile, having jaws equal in size to those of the rhinoceros, and a head crested with horns. Such must have been the iguanadon.

This huge animal is supposed, from the dimensions of some of his bones, to have been about seventy feet in length, with a body as thick as that of an elephant. Its skeleton was found in Sussex, England.

The bones of the megalosaurus, also found in England, indicate an animal of the lizard kind, about forty feet long, and when standing, eight feet high.

It is true that these animals no longer exist, and therefore, only indicate a change of climate, by the analogy, that animals of similar tribes, and of great size, are found exclusively in tropical climates at the present day. But there is not wanting other evidence of such a change, and perhaps as direct as the nature of such a case will allow, in the fact clearly proved by Dr. Buckland, that animals once inhabited Europe, the genera of which are known to live only in tropical climates. The following are the cir

cumstances:

A cave was discovered by some workmen at Kirkdale, in Yorkshire, in 1821. Its mouth was at first nearly cov ered by rubbish, but on removing this, and exploring the interior, there was found a cavern 240 feet in length, fourteen feet high, and from three to seven feet wide. The rock being of limestone, its roof was covered with hanging stalactites, and its floor in many places incrusted with stalagmite.t The floor was covered with a coat of soft mud, or loam, about a foot thick, and in this were found the bones of various animals. These were in a high state of preservation, they were broken, but none appeared as though they had been worn by the action of water,

* Stalactites are formed by the percolation of water through limestone rocks, by which calcareous particles are dissolved, and subsequently left by the evaporation of the water, on the roof of the cavern. They hang like icicles, and gradually increase by the deposition of stony particles, in concentric circles.

+ Stalagmite is formed by the water which falls from the stalactites to the floor of the cavern, where by evaporation, it deposites its calcareous matter. Sometimes the stalactite and the stalagmite meet each other, and joining, form pillars, extending from the floor to the roof of the

cavern.

or sand, which most probably would have been the case, had they drifted there in the naked state.

The genera of animals to which the Kirkdale bones belong, amounted to twenty-three in number; viz. Hyena, Tiger, Bear, Wolf, Fox, Weasel, Ox, Elephant, Rhinoceros, Hippopotamus, Horse, Deer three species, Hare, Rabbit, Water-rat, Mouse, Raven, Pigeon, Lark, Duck, and Partridge.

A great proportion of these animals belonged to species now supposed to be extinct, though the genera of them all are still living.

On examination of all the circumstances, Professor Buckland concludes that this cave was the den of hyenas, and that the multitude of bones thus discovered, were carried into this place by these animals, and therefore that the hyena, an animal now inhabiting the hottest climates, once lived in England.

These bones were, without exception, broken or gnawed, so that among the vast numbers the cave contained, there could hardly be found all the pieces for a single limb, much less for an entire skeleton. The great number of hyenas which had died in this cave, or whose skulls had been carried there, was proved by the number of the canine teeth of this animal, which it contained.

Professor Buckland states, that one collector obtained more than 300 of these teeth, and as each individual has only four of this kind, these must have belonged to at least seventy-five of these animals. But from the number of such teeth found, besides the 300, and other circumstances, it was judged that not less than from 200 to 300 hyenas had perished in this cave. Hence it is concluded, that the cave had been for a long series of years a den of hyenas, and that these bones were carried there as their food.

This supposition is supported by the well known habits, and appetites of these animals at the present day; their habitations being the deep recesses of the rocks, and their food the carcasses and bones of animals already dead, and decayed.

The immense power of the jaw, which these animals possess, enables them to break and masticate bones, in a manner which no other animal can do. When they attack a dog, it is said they begin by biting off his leg at a "single snap;" and Prof. Buckland, after a part of his

work was written, had the satisfaction of seeing a Cape Hyena, in confinement, crush the thigh bone of an ox, in a manner which convinced him, that the bones in the cave had undergone a similar operation. The animal bit off all the upper part of the bone, which he swallowed in the shape of fragments, licking out the marrow from the cavity. The lower part, being exceedingly hard, he did not eat; and with this Prof. Buckland compared the fragments of similar bones found in the cave. His words are, "I preserved all the fragments and gnawed parts of this bone, for the sake of comparison, by the side of those I have from the ante-diluvian den in Yorkshire: there is absolutely no difference betweeen them, except in point of age."

This experiment was followed by presenting the ferocious animal with other bones. "I gave him, successively," says he, "three shin bones of a sheep; he snapped them asunder in a moment, dividing each into two parts, all of which he swallowed entire, and without the smallest mastication. On the keeper putting a spar of wood, two inches in diameter, into his den, he crushed it in pieces, as if it had been touch-wood, and in a minute the whole was reduced to a mass of splinters. The power of his jaws far exceeded any animal force of the kind, I ever saw exerted, and reminded me of nothing so much as a miner's crushing mill, or the scissors with which they cut off bars of iron and copper, in the metal foundries."-Reliquia Diluviana, p. 37.

It is not to be supposed that the carcasses of the Elephant, Rhinoceros and Hippopotamus, were carried into this cave in an entire state; for neither the strength of the Hyena, nor the size of the aperture would favor such an opinion. The state of the bones, on the contrary, would seem to indicate that they were dragged in, one at a time, from the carcasses of such animals as were found dead in the neighborhood, as food for these ferocious beasts.

On the hypothesis that these animals had entered the Kirkdale cavern, when living, and of their own accord, it may at once be objected, that unless the size of the aperture was much larger formerly than when discovered, this would have been impossible; besides, the elephant, horse, hippopotamus, and most of the other animals whose bones the cave contained, never voluntarily go into such places.

The idea has also been suggested, that these animals might have taken shelter in this place in order to avoid some catastrophe, perhaps the deluge. But this opinion is fully as improbable as the other; for in addition to the fact, that most of these animals have never been known to enter caves, on any occasion-no circumstances can be imagined, which would have forced the deer and the tiger, the horse and the wolf, the fox and the rabbit, together with the hyena and elephant, to take shelter in the same place, at the same time. But what makes all this improbable, and indeed impossible, is, that not a single entire skeleton was found in the cave; clearly proving that the bones, only, of these animals were carried there.

All these facts and circumstances prove, in as satisfactory a manner as can be desired, that England was once inhabited by elephants, hyenas, tigers, and other animals belonging only to hot climates; for that these bones could have been drifted from a foreign climate into this cave, is more improbable than any hypothesis we have mentioned; for the bones alone would have sunk in the water; and had they been covered with flesh, the larger animals not only could not have entered, but if so, their entire skeletons would have still remained.

It is therefore reasonable to conclude, that these animals lived and died in the country where their bones are found; nor is there any one circumstance which can be employed as an argument against such a belief, except the coldness of the climate at the present day.

The only climates in which the elephant, the rhinoceros, the hippopotamus and hyena are now found, are among the hottest on the earth; and it is said, the only country which all these four animals inhabit together, is Southern Africa. In the neighborhood of the Cape of Good Hope, these four animals live and die together, as they formerly did in England.

"To the question," says Prof. Buckland, "which here so naturally presents itself, as to what might have been the climate of the northern hemisphere when peopled with genera of animals, which are now confined to the warmer regions of the earth, it is not essential to the point before me to find a solution; my object is to establish the fact, that these animals lived and died in the regions where their remains are found, and were not drifted thither by the diluvial waters from other latitudes. The state of the climate