214 



FOSSILS. 

 Continued from page 183. 



Now I beg to be allowed to offer a few suggestions on 

 the above queries. If the present continents, before 

 the last deluge, formed the bed of the ocean, as Cuvier 

 supposes, we are unable to account for the occur- 

 rence of bones of animals in diluvial soil, caves, &;c., 

 nor is it consistent to imagine that they were con- 

 veyed to their present situations from what is now 

 the bottom of the sea : since the Kirkdale cave, and 

 other circumstances, afford evidence that hyaenas 

 and other rapacious beasts enjoyed dominion m the 

 very country where their remains are now found. 

 We are likewise, I think, equally prohibited from 

 supposing that the races of animals at present inha- 

 biting any given continent or portion of the earth, 

 were derived from some other continent, at the time 

 when it is believed by the abettors of this idea, 

 the flood, after laying waste this certain portion of 

 the earth retired, and left dry the space which inter- 

 vened betwixt it and the other, and so permitted a 

 ready passage for the creatures belonging to the 

 latter country, because, if on this principle Asia 

 contributed her productions to Europe and the most 

 northern parts of America, and if Africa then gave up 

 her animals to Asia, and the New World hers to Af- 

 rica ; the New World is thus left destitute and would 

 be unprovided for, except at the expense of some 

 other region : moreover it is difficult to conceive that 

 these migrations should comprise every individual of 

 every species, and indeed, with regard to the lower 

 animals and plants, migration is impossible. It is 

 contrary to natural laws for animals to adopt a new 

 and permanent residence, at the expense of so trouble- 

 some a journey, and at the risk of meeting with food 

 and climate not adapted to their economies. If the 

 migration were only partial : if some of each species 

 remained, we should then find their remains in the 

 diluvial stratum, a circumstance which has never 

 yet occurred, at least with a few very doubtful ex- 



