1825.] Climate of the Antediluvian World. 513 



and as some live on the borders of the temperate and torrid 

 zones, but not in every part of each, these regions ought to be 

 better described. 



In the present essay, however, all that appears to be neces- 

 sary is to point out the most striking instances of animals of hot 

 climates which have an analogy with the fossil species of the 

 same genera, and by stating the places in which their bones are 

 found, to prove a similarity of temperature. 



Before doing so, however, it may be right to call the attention 

 of some readers to the consideration of an opinion which still 

 prevails, notwithstanding all that has been written on the subject, 

 and notwithstanding the late discoveries of the celebrated Prof. 

 Buckland, which ought to have set the matter quite at rest for 

 ever. The opinion is, that the remains of crocodiles, hippota- 

 moses, opossums, rhinoceroses, hyaenas, and other animals of hot 

 climates, which are found all over Europe, were not the inhabi- 

 tants of the regions in which their skeletons and bones are dis- 

 covered, but that they were scattered over the surface of the 

 earth after their deatli by some great destructive catastrophe 

 resembling the Noachian deluge, of which several are supposed 

 to have occurred. 



Geology does not offer any collection of facts upon which it 

 is possible to build an hypothesis of this kind ; for although we 

 find in the oldest conglomerate and greywacke fragments of pri- 

 mitive rocks (and this is the first or earliest appearance of any 

 thing resembling diluvian detritus), yet the very agitated state 

 of the waters occasioned by the intense heat of the subjacent 

 strata would account for the phenomena. But allowing the 

 argument its full force as to an analogy with a deluge, it is 

 evident that it is not applicable to the question concerning the 

 distribution of fossil remains, inasmuch as the creation of 

 animated l)eings had not then begun. 



The next great series of geological facts which bear tes- 

 timony to the destructive agency of some powerful and gene- 

 ral set of causes, is not met with until after the formation 

 of the transition limestone. Soon after this period, a general 

 convulsion of nature appears to have happened, leaving the 

 most indisputable testimonies of its violence : — I allude to 

 the complete rupture and dislocation of the newly-formed 

 strata. Previously to their consolidation, these do not appear 

 to have suffered any other disturbance during their formation 

 than such as the gentlest motions of the waters would account 

 for. The trilobites, and the few shells which are found iu the 

 transition hmestone, are entire ; and if the stems of encrinites 

 and pentacrinites are broken and dispersed, it is a phenomenon 

 which is capable of easy explanation, inasmuch as the weight 

 and tenacity of the precipitated magma (carbonated oxide of 

 calcium) would be sufficient to crush the slender stems of such 

 zoophites, and carry the fragments along with it to a short 



