401 



From these facts he deduces the following inferences. 



" These different bones are buried almost every where, in nearly similar 

 beds : they are often blended with some other animals resembling those 

 of the present day. 



" These beds are generally loose, either sandy or marly ; and always 

 neighbouring, more or less, to the surface. 



" It is then probable, that these bones have been enveloped by the last, 

 or by one of the last catastrophes of this globe. 



" In a great number of places they are accompanied by the accumu- 

 lated remains of marine animals; but in some places, which are less 

 numerous, there are none of these remains : sometimes the sand or marl, 

 which covers them, contains only fresh-water shells. 



" No well authenticated account proves that they have been covered 

 by regular beds of stone, filled with sea shells ; and, consequently, that 

 the sea has remained on them, undisturbed, for a long period. 



" The catastrophe which covered them was, therefore, a great, but 

 transient inundation of the sea. / 



" This inundation did not rise above the high mountains ; for we find no 

 analogous deposits covering the bones, nor are the bones themselves there 

 met with, not even in the high vallies, unless in some in the warmer parts 

 of America. 



" These bones are neither rolled nor joined in a skeleton, but scattered, 

 and in part fractured. They have not then been brought from afar by 

 inundation, but found by it in the places where it has covered them, as 

 might be expected, if the animals to which they belonged had dwelt in 

 these places, and had there successively died. 



" Before this catastrophe, these animals lived, therefore, in the climates 

 in which we now dig up their bones : it was this catastrophe which 

 destroyed them there ; and, as we no longer find them, it is evident that 

 it has annihilated those species. The northern parts of the globe, there- 

 fore, nourished formerly species belonging to the genus elephant, hippo- 



VOL. III. 3f 



