ANIMAL REMAINS. 215 



counted for in this manner : and yet there must have 

 been some general change since they were deposited ; 

 because we believe we may say that, without excep- 

 tion, they have been all found higher than the present 

 level of high water. The skeleton of the whale found 

 in the clay at Airthrey, on the Forth, was twenty feet 

 higher than the highest tide. It was seventy-two feet 

 long ; and it would not be easy to see how, without the 

 agency of water, a fish of such dimensions could have 

 been raised to such a height. That, however, is nothing 

 to the heights at which remains, in all probability, of 

 marine shells have been found in other countries. They 

 have been found on the Alps, at an elevation of more 

 than seven thousand feet ; on the Pyrennees, at more 

 than ten thousand; and on the Andes, in South America, 

 at more than thirteen thousand. Nay, the probability is, 

 that in all the formations of carbonate of lime, from the 

 primitive lime-stone of the mountains to chalk, and 

 those marbles in which shells are distinctly visible, 

 animals have been employed ; as we know of no process 

 in the chemistry of dead matter by which carbonate of 

 lime can be produced. We are therefore at a loss to 

 see how those marbles could have been consolidated 

 and crystallized, without the aid of another power than 

 the water ; but we do know, from direct experiment, 

 that carbonate of lime in the state of shells, or even of 

 powder, can be consolidated and crystallized by heat 

 under pressure. 



Thus, if we attempt to look back at the history of 

 the ocean, we find that it involves also that of the 

 whole surface of the globe, and the subject becomes 

 too mighty for our comprehension, and too obscure 



