BALENIDA. 543 
corded the discovery of the vertebra of a whale in a 
bed of bluish clay near Dingwall: the clay contains many 
sea-shells, and is evidently a marine deposit; but the 
spot where the vertebra was found is three miles distant 
from high-water mark, and twelve feet in height above 
the present level of the sea. The vertebre of a whale, 
discovered by Mr. Richardson in the yellow mar! or brick- 
earth of Herne Bay, in Kent, were situated ten feet above 
the highest occasional reach of the sea on that coast. A 
large vertebra of Balena mysticetus was discovered fifteen 
feet below the surface, in the gravel of the bed of the 
Thames, by the workmen employed in digging the foun- 
dation for the new Temple Church. Dr. Buckland states 
that “the bones of Whales have been found at Pentuan, 
in an estuary that is now filled up, on the coast of Corn- 
wall.” Mr. Baker, of Bridgewater, possesses the tym- 
panic bone of a Balenoptera, which was dug out of a 
sand-bank at Huntshill, near that town. 
I might add several other instances of the discovery of 
cetaceous remains in positions to which, in the present 
condition of the dry land of England, the sea cannot 
reach ; yet the soil in which these remains are embedded 
is alluvial, or amongst the most recent formation. In 
most cases the situation indicates the former existence 
there of an estuary that has been filled up by deposits 
of the present sea, or the bottom of which has been 
upheaved., 
