250 Dr Mautell's Illustrations of the Connexion 



regarded as a certain proof that the human bones are of as 

 high antiquity as those of the quadrupeds with which they 

 are associated. 



But another source of fallacy as to the presumed high 

 antiquity of human skeletons found in sedimentary deposits, 

 requires a brief comment. It not unfrequently happens 

 that, from the subsidence of tracts of country, or the un- 

 dermining of cliffs and headlands, or by the falling in of 

 the roofs of caverns, the superficial soil is overwhelmed and 

 buried beneath the strata on which it was originally super- 

 imposed. The contents of sepulchral mounds and the remains 

 of domestic animals may thus be engulfed in very ancient 

 deposits, at considerable depths beneath the present terres- 

 trial surface. Such was the case described by Sir Charles 

 Lyell, of part of a human skeleton found imbedded in a 

 ravine on the banks of the Mississippi, with bones of the 

 Mastodon.* 



The following instance, mentioned by Mr Bakewell, holds 

 out a salutary caution as to the necessity of the most scru- 

 pulous investigation of all the circumstances connected with 

 a discovery of this nature. t " A thick bed of coal on the 

 estate of the Earl of Moira, in Ashby Wolds, which is covered 

 by strata of ironstone, coal, sandstone, &c., is worked at the 

 depth of 225 yards. In an adjoining locality the same bed 

 was reached at the depth of 97'yards ; and in this stratum the 

 skeleton of a man was found imbedded in the solid coal^ which 

 apparently had never been disturbed." No traces could be 

 perceived that the spot had ever been dug into, or that any 

 trials for coal had been made ; but the noble proprietor, at 

 Mr Bakewell' s suggestion, directed passages to be cut in 

 various directions, and at length the indications of a former 

 shaft were discovered, though the coal had not been worked. 

 Into this shaft the man must have fallen, and the body been 

 pressed and imbedded in the loose rubbly coal by a super- 

 incumbent column of water, previously to the falling in of 

 the pit. 



* A Second Visit to the United States, vol. ii., p. 196. 

 t Bakewell's Introduction to Geology, 5th edition, p. 21. 



