Outlines of Geology. 25 



&c, which were adverted to in the last lecture. If we consider 

 them as having lived and died in the caves, and on the spots 

 where their remains now occur, we must presume, either that 

 their habits and propensities were extremely different from those 

 of the now existent species of the same tribes ; or, what is yet less 

 admissible, that the temperature of the northern regions was 

 formerly correspondent with that of equatorial climates. Again, 

 if we imagine the bones to have been transported thither by 

 water-carriage, at the time of the deluge, how, it will be asked, 

 can they have escaped attrition? — and not this only, for they 

 actually retain in perfection all the tuberosities and processes 

 which enable the anatomist to recognise them. To get over this 

 latter difficulty, it has been conceived that the bones were not 

 transported along with the pebbles and gravel, but that they 

 came safely packed and protected in their including carcasses, 

 floating upon the surface of the waters, and were afterwards 

 deposited safely upon the mud or gravel, where the flesh rotted 

 and decomposed, and the bones remained uninjured. We know 

 how readily this kind of transportation takes place, how rapid 

 the carriage may be, and supposing the temperature not very 

 high, we also know that many weeks might elapse before the 

 carcass would sink. I shall not at present venture to give any 

 opinion upon this question, but shall refer my audience to the 

 works of Professor Buckland, as the advocate of the one hypo- 

 thesis, and to those of Mr. Granville Penn, who has defended 

 the other. 



We may now proceed with our description of the strata, upon 

 which the former materials are deposited : these are the super- 

 medial rocks of Phillips and Conybeare, and include the varieties 

 of chalk, green and ferruginous sands, oolite or freestone, lias, 

 and red marie or new red sandstone. 



Below the varieties of clay, the position and contents of which 

 formed the subject of the last lecture, we find the chalk which has 

 already been stated to constitute the cavities of basins, in which 

 the various alluvial matters are deposited. The ranges of chalk 

 hills in the south of England are very extensive, and the land* 



