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FOSSIL ANIMAL REMAINS. 43 
Antmau Remarns.—Of the higher orders of animals, the 
more durable portions of the skeleton, as the bones and teeth, 
are almost the only parts that occur in a fossil state ; except 
in some remarkable instances, in which entire carcasses of 
extinct species of Elephant, and of Rhinoceros, have been 
found imbedded in solid ice, and frozen gravel. (Wond. 
p- 152.) The countries of arctic regions are now the only 
localities in which such phenomena are likely to be met 
with ; it appears, however, that in some remote period, the 
bodies of large mammalia were transported by icebergs into 
temperate regions, where the ice melted, and the animals 
either sunk to the bottom of the sea, or were drifted into 
estuaries, or stranded on the shore: the soft parts then 
decomposed, and the skeletons and detached bones were 
left imbedded in the silt, sand, or shingle. 
In this manner alone can be explained the occurrence of 
bones and teeth of the mammoth, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, 
_&¢. so common in the alluvial or drifted deposits of this 
country; for these relics, though extremely friable, and 
buried in shingle, boulders, and other transported materials, 
are not waterworn, but in numerous instances remain as 
sharp and perfect as when recent. In the ancient shingle 
of Brighton cliffs (Wond. p. 114), I have found bones and 
teeth of horse, deer, ox, whale, &c. impacted with quartz 
and granite pebbles and boulders ; the bones, though crum- 
bling to pieces if not very carefully removed, being entire, 
and the whole mass held together by calcareous spar, 
deposited by water that had, during the lapse of ages, per- 
colated through the chalk-rubble above. 
Fossil bones are found in four different states: 1. With 
their animal matter, as in the bones of the Mastodons 
from Big-bone Lick, Kentucky. 2. With the animal matter 
removed. 3. With the earthy matter partly removed. 
4, With the animal matter carbonized, or converted into 
bitumen ; this change is common in the blue Lias clay; 
