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CHAPTER XVI. 



ANIMAL REMAINS AND ANCIENT DUST-HEAPS. 



Animal remains chiefly Marine Land Animals, how they may be Buried 

 Places to Die in Birds seldom Buried Wingless Birds Guano-beds 

 Immense Supply Coprolites Rock-oil from Animal Remains Shell- 

 sand, Fossils, Casts, and Models The Mammoth, "Giant-rat," 

 "Grip-claws" Bones Preserved in Stalagmite "Kitchen-middens" 

 Cave-dwellers Shell-heaps Lake-dwellers. 



SINCE the rocks forming the earth's crust have been 

 deposited chiefly in salt water, as has been shown, it 

 follows that the remains which they enclose will be mainly 

 those of animals living in or near the sea. Remains of 

 shells, corals, fish-bones, saurians, &c., are naturally abun- 

 dant, and so are fish- scales, a modern deposit of which 

 is to be found on the shore near Dundee, some ten yards 

 long, and two or three feet thick. These are the scales of 

 herrings, which fall off when the fishes are cleaned, and, 

 being very buoyant, and comparatively indestructible, are 

 thrown up by the waves. 



The case of land animals is altogether different; for 

 with the vast army of hungry scavengers always on the 

 watch, no dead body is likely long to escape being de- 

 voured if it remain exposed, and the circumstances under 

 which it is likely to be buried and preserved are ex- 

 ceptional. Old land surfaces have occasionally been 

 buried beneath sediment, and where this has been the 



