216 FOSSILS. 



of fossil human bones, and the assumption, that the 

 land occupied by the antediluvians, now constitutes 

 a part of the bed of the ocean. 



Fleming, an authority of some consequence, and 

 whose opinions are entitled to some consideration, 

 dissents from the usual opinions, and supposes that 

 the ancient inhabitants of this Island (and I suppose 

 of other countries also), were the means of extir- 

 pating by the chase several species of animals, which 

 others had agreed in considering of antediluvian 

 origin. Most unquestionably there were several 

 animals formerly resident here, which have disap- 

 peared from the cause assigned, although the same 

 cause has failed as yet to remove them from other 

 countries, to which their geographical limits extend. 

 The brown bear, wolf, and boar, are examples, but 

 we should by no means class their relics with those 

 of the hysena, rhinoceros, and wolf, of the antedi- 

 luvian age. In regard of the great deluge, fossils 

 are said to be " antediluvial," " diluvial," and " post- 

 diluvial," or "alluvial." Now, speaking in very 

 general terms, for the purpose of offering the means 

 of distinguishing between these ; we might say that 

 the first kind are imbedded in more or less solid 

 strata, and are greatly altered in their properties, so 

 as to be assimilated to the qualities of the containing 

 bed — that the second kind approximate to the forms 

 of existing animals and are loosely contained in 

 "diluvium," a soil which by its containing shells 

 analogous to recent species—pebbles, kc, evidences 

 in itself an origin from a deluge — that the third kind 

 of fossils are the remains of animals of the present 

 day, which have died in the course of nature, or by 

 the persecutions of man ; and are found deposited 

 in superficial formations, under peat, or beneath the 

 washings from oveiflowing rivers. If the distinc- 

 tions here drawn shall be allowed to be true, as 

 general rules, then the impropriety of leferring the 

 inmates of the "diluvium," to two ages — that in 

 which the deluge rendered extinct all existing 



