1825.] Proceedings of Philosophical Societies, 229 



Article X. 



Proceedings of Philosophical Societies* 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



JuneS. — A paper was read, entitled " Remarks on Quadru- 

 peds imbedded in recent Alluvial Strata. By G. Lyell, Sec. GS." 



In a former communication to the Society, the author had 

 stated that he had found it difficult to explain the circumstances 

 under which the remains of quadrupeds were very generally- 

 found imbedded in the shell marie in Scotland, often at consi- 

 derable depths, and far from the borders of those lakes in which 

 the marie is accumulated. 



These animals must have been drowned when the lakes were 

 of a certain depth. Their bones are found in the marie unaccom- 

 panied by sand or gravel, or any proofs of disturbing forces. 

 From the shape of the surrounding land in some instances, it 

 appears that floods could not have swept them in, and from the 

 occasional absence of rivers flowing into others, they could not 

 have been washed in by them. 



The author, therefore, suggests that they were lost in attempt- 

 ing to cross the ice in winter, the water never freezing sufficiently 

 hard above the springs to bear their weight, and springs abound- 

 ing always in those lakes in Forfarshire and Perthshire in which 

 marie is deposited. 



The skeletons of some of the animals found in the shell marie 

 in Forfarshire are in a vertical position, but some are not. The 

 same circumstance has been remarked with regard to the elks 

 occurring in the marie in the Isle of Man. Of these facts Mr. 

 Lyell offers the following explanation. 



Cattle which are lost in bogs and marshes sink in and die in 

 an erect posture, and are often found with their heads only 

 appearing above the surface of the ground. When, therefore, a 

 lake in which marie is deposited is shallow, the quadrupeds 

 which fall through the ice sink into the marie in the same man- 

 ner, and perish in an upright posture, but when the lake is deep, 

 and the animals are dead before they reach the bottom, they 

 become enveloped in the marie in any position rather than the 

 vertical. 



June 17. — An extract of a letter was read from John King- 

 dom, Esq. : communicated by Joseph Townsend, Esq. FGS. 



Mr. Kingdom mentions in this letter the situation in which 

 certain bones of a very large size, appearing to have belonged to 

 a whale and a crocodile, were lately found completely imbedded 

 in the oolite quarries, about a mile from Chipping Norton, near 

 Chapel House, 



