THEORY OF THE EARTH. 287 



shores of the Mediterranean, are filled with a red 

 and hard cement, which envelopes fragments of 

 rock and fresh- water shells, and numerous bones 

 of quadrupeds, the greater part fractured. These 

 concretions are termed osseous breccia. The 

 bones which they contain sometimes present cha- 

 racters sufficient to prove that they have belonged 

 to unknown animals, or at least to animals fo- 

 reign to Europe. There are found, for example, 

 four species of deer, three of which have charac- 

 ters in their teeth, which are only observed in 

 the deer of the Indian Archipelago. 



There is a fifth near Verona, the horns of 

 which exceed in magnitude those of the Cana- 

 dian deer *. 



There also occur, in certain places, along with 

 bones of rhinoceroses, and other quadrupeds of 

 this period, those of a deer so much resembling 

 the reindeer, that it would be difficult to assign 

 distinctive characters to it ; a circumstance which 

 is so much the more extraordinary, that the rein- 

 deer is at the present day confined to the coldest 

 regions of the north, while the whole genus of 

 rhinoceroses belongs to the torrid zone, t 



There exist in the strata of which we speak, 



* " Researches," vol. iv. p. 168-225. 

 t Id. p. 89- 



