Geolo(ji/ of the Shore of the Severn. 73 



when the Romans held possession of Great Britain. The ex- 

 termination of these from the neighbourhood of the locahty of 

 their remains is not to be wondered at, when we consider, among 

 other instances, the total extirpation, by the chase, of the wolf, 

 and the bear, the boar and the beaver, from England — the 

 gradual destruction of the wild turkey in America, as the 

 population advances, and of the kangaroo of New South 

 Wales — an animal which is now rarely to be met with in 

 situations where, twenty years ago, it might be seen in herds. 

 The remains also of the Elephas Cervus — a species resembling 

 the red deer, or stag, which have been found abundantly in 

 peat-bogs and sand-pits in England, France, Germany, and 

 Italy*, were, it appears, discovered on the shore of this 

 parish, in their well-known locality, the diluvial gravel — one 

 of the matrices, containing the fragments of the other species, 

 as before mentioned, collected. It might be a question, per- 

 haps, not altogether irrelevant to the subject of the present 

 memoir, to put to the reader, whether it be more reasonable 

 to suppose, that the animals, whose remains have there been 

 found, and who have existed alive subsequently to the Deluge, 

 were descended from the corresponding antediluvian animals 

 duly preserved in the Ark, from the surrounding ruin, or that 

 they were newly created, together with those of extinct or 

 unknown genera and species, after the Noachic catastrophe |. 



On the Decay of Timber, especially of Oak ; with an Account 

 of some rudimentary Experiments projected as a Test whereby 

 to compute its probable Duration. 



[7b the Editok of the Quarterly Jouhnal of Sciencb.] 



My dear Sir, 



Many experiments have been made by architects, en- 

 gineers, and others, to ascertain the comparative strength of 

 timber used in buildings, machinery, and such like important 

 works of art ; but I know not that any have been devised, by 



* See Professor Jameson's Mineralogical Notes, annexed to Cuvier's " Theory 

 of tlie Earth." 



t See my " Remarks on certain parts of Mr. Granville Penn's Comparative 

 Estimate of the Mineral and Mosaical Geologies,'* on this subject — of a New 

 Creation, p. 38. Rivington, 1826. 



