Читать книгу Peter Parley's Wonders of the Earth, Sea, and Sky онлайн

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"A rift in the third grotto, disclosed in 1784, a new grotto, 15 feet long by 4 wide, where the greatest number of hyænas' and lions' bones were found. The opening was much too narrow to have allowed these animals to have entered by it. A peculiar tunnel which terminated in this small grotto, afforded an incredible number of bones, and large skulls quite entire."

It is supposed that these caves were inhabited by the fierce animals whose bones they contain, and that the other more peaceable creatures were dragged in by them for prey, since their bones have evidently been gnawed and crushed as they would be by fierce and powerful carnivorous animals.

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OF OTHER ANIMALS THAT ONCE LIVED IN ENGLAND AND ELSEWHERE.

THE ELEPHANT.

I have before mentioned to you the bones of Elephants, as occurring in the bone caverns; they were, however, not just like the Elephants now living in Africa and Asia. The tusks seem to have been larger, and the head not quite so broad and blunt; the teeth were also different.