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from whence fpeedily fubfiding, it caught and enclofed the filli 

 now dead, and probably deriving their death from this very 

 caufe. 



These inferences being admitted to follow, from the prefer- 

 vation of the exad form as we fee it in thefe fi(h, we may 

 advance a ftep farther, and obferve, that as not only the form 

 is preferved, but a remarkable proportion of the very animal 

 fubftance, to account for this effed we fhall find it necefTary 

 to fuppofe, that the enclofmg matter muft have been of fuch 

 a nature, or in fuch a ftate, as to fit it for the fpeedy abforption 

 of the fofter and more pulpy parts of thefe fifh, as faft as they 

 became abforbable. 



To fee the neceflity of this conclufion, let us in the firft 

 place recoiled that the whole operation muft, from the nature 

 of the cafe, be conceived to have taken place in or under water ; 

 either then we muft fuppofe that the dead fifh continued float- 

 ing at large, until the procefs of putrefadion had taken place, in 

 which cafe, indeed, the conveyance of the corrupting animal 

 matter is eafily accounted for ; but, with it, the forms, not to 

 fay thofe parts of their fubftance that arc feen to remain, would 

 be wholly loft ; or elfe we muft imagine them arrefted, before 

 putrefadion, in the depofition of their prefent ftony bed, by 

 which all accefs to the water as the vehicle of the foft putrefying 

 parts is cut off, and we muft look for fome other mode of account- 

 ing for the fpeedy removal of thefe parts ^ but fuch removal, by 

 fome means or other, is abfolutely necefTary to be fuppofed ; 

 for,, fhould this tender animal matter reft any time unremoved, 



it 



