Mr. E. W. Bray ley, Jun. on the Odour exhaled from 



high water," where the action of the sea, combined with the 

 alternations of temperature, would tend continually to their 

 decomposition. We are not called upon to suppose that the 

 fossils are undergoing rapid decomposition, nor that their ex- 

 halations are transmitted through dense saturated clay; but 

 that they are, and have been for many ages, undergoing slow 

 periodical decomposition, in mud, a portion of which is always 

 covered by the waves, and another portion covered at high 

 water*, therefore frequently in a semifluid state, and on that 

 account very favourable to the extrication of gaseous matterf. 

 The considerations already urged, to account for the produc- 

 tion of the smell, will equally account for its diffusion along 

 the shore; for it must arise from the fossils in the under-cliff, 

 brought down by the degradation occasioned by the heat of 

 the summer, in the manner explained by Capt. Beechey and 

 Mr. Collie, and acted upon by that heat, in conjunction with 

 the sea. And if the suggestion before made as to the proba- 

 bility of the diffusion of animal matter, by former absorption, 

 among the earthy substances of the diluvium, and the mud 

 resulting from its degradation, be adopted, the great diffusion 

 of the odour will be still better explained, since " gaseous ex- 

 halations from the mud itself" would certainly arise from the 

 decomposition of animal matter so diffused. As already ob- 

 served, rapid decomposition would not be required for this 

 effect; the successive exhalations arising from the slow de- 

 composition proceeding for so many summers, retained near 

 the spot by the stilling powers of the intense winter, and the 

 comparative tranquillity of the atmosphere of the bay, would 

 be amply sufficient for this effect. 



Since, therefore, an adequate cause for this smell appears 

 to exist in several localities, the just rules of induction seem 

 to require, that we should rather regard its presence in other 

 places, as indicating the existence of the same cause (i. e. the 

 presence of fossils) in them, than attribute its production to 

 unknown causes, in those places where the circumstances 

 seem fully adequate to account for it. Although no bones 

 were observed, either at Shallow Inlet, or near the em- 



* In accordance with this, Mr. Collie states that the few specimens 

 taken from the debris on the front of the elif?'" were in a better state of 

 preservation than those which had been alternately covered and left ex- 

 posed by the flux and reflux of the tide, or imbedded in the mud and clay 

 of the shoal." (Beechey's Narrative, Appendix, p. 599.) 



f Capt. Beechey, in relating his examination of the head of Eschscholtz 

 Bay, when describing his approach to the cliff' adjacent to the embouchure 

 of Buckland River, in the earth of which he perceived the smell, (as will 

 be stated in the sequel,) observes, " We landed upon a flat muddy beach, 

 and were obliged to wade a quarter of a mile before we could reach a cliff 

 for the purpose of having a view of the surrounding country." (Narrative. 

 ,,322.) 



bouchure 



