310 ON THE ELEVATED SUBMARINE ALLUVIA. 



they are of a much more impressive character, from 

 the greater facility with which we connect the causes 

 and the effects. The others we view through the 

 mist of ages so distant, that they excite in us no 

 personal interest, while we often feel inclined to 

 douht conclusions attended by consequences revolting 

 to our narrow experience. It is necessary yet to point 

 out one collateral circumstance, which is not only 

 interesting in itself, but which strongly confirms the 

 views here held out. That is, the suddenness or 

 rapidity of the action which produced these important 

 events. This might be concluded from the undis- 

 turbed state of some of the shells and skeletons al- 

 ready mentioned ; but it is still more strongly proved 

 by the preservation of the animal matter in the liga- 

 ments of the bivalves, and by the condition of the 

 fishes of Monte Bolca, belonging to the lower, or 

 marine alluvium, in which the muscular substance is 

 converted into a kind of glue : a fact observed in no 

 other case. The well-known specimen, in which 

 one fish is thought to have been arrested in the act 

 of swallowing another, proves the same thing. I 

 may here also observe, that the condition of the 

 fossil fishes of Iceland throws light on this remark- 

 able deposit. These are found imbedded in an indu- 

 rated mud or marl, at Patriks Fiord, where it is said 

 they are now in the act of being formed. The fish, 

 in a living state, or perhaps but just dead, seems to 

 have been first entangled in a soft mud, that has 

 afterwards been firmly attached to it by means of the 

 animal matter which has mixed itself with that sub- 

 stance ; while the harder parts, or the bones and the 

 scales, remain unchanged. Thus the nodule which 

 encloses them is first produced, and it remains im- 

 bedded in the surrounding materials. 



