$, II. RELICS, into Min. Kingd. 37 



e. 17. The general deluge can only be referred 

 to as the agent of superficial depositions of marine 

 and other remains, mixed promiscuously with each 



which extraneous fossils do not occur as integrant parts, are no 

 certain proof of this event. It is highly probable, that secondary 

 strata have originally covered many elevated tracts, where there 

 is, at present, no appearance of such formation ; and hence, the 

 deposits in question are, perhaps, merely the debris of such strata, 

 long since decomposed. -r-That the disintegration of stratified rocks 

 may have produced materials, with which, in some instances, the 

 cavities, and even veins, in primary mountains have been filled up, 

 is a supposition by no means inconsistent with the general pheno- 

 mena of those tracts; and, that extraneous fossils formerly im- 

 bedded in secondary strata, will remain in a very complete state 

 of preservation, long after their original matrix has been destroyed, 

 is, indeed, a fact sufficiently illustrated by the loose reliquia, 

 so abundant in the common soil of some countries, and which have 

 been liberated, undoubtedly, by the waste and decay of their 

 native rock. When, however, the remains of marine, and of 

 land-animals, occur together in superficial accumulations, they 

 certainly exhibit a less ambiguous evidence of the deluge, than 

 such as we have just been recounting : yet not altogether a de- 

 cisive one, except both kinds of reliquia are found in a similar 

 state of preservation. If, on the contrary, the shells, &c., are 

 petrified and the bones in nearly a recent or unmineralized con- 

 dition, it is obvious they were not originally introduced into the 

 fossil kingdom at the same period, whatever common cause may 

 have brought them together at the present time ; and, hence, the 

 support, which the presence of marine objects gives to the conclu- 

 sion, that such deposits are truly diluvian, is done away with. 

 Were the marine remains, it has been justly observed, in the same 

 state as the bones " then the conclusion that both had been im- 

 ported by the sea would have great probability ; but without that, 



