38 HisToia OF 



very likely, therefore, that the marine substances found in one 

 of them, had time to be formed into a i)art of the solid stone^ 

 either during the deluge, or immediately after it ; and, conse- 

 quently, their petrifaction must have been before that period. 



the vertebrae of the Mastodon. The Stonesfield slate contains perhaps one of 

 the most remarkable assemblages of organic remains that are known to geo. 

 logists. Here are marfne, amphibious, and terrestrial animals, associated 

 with terrestrial, fluviatile or lacustrine, and marine plants, and with birds 

 and insects; all collected in a bed whose greatest thickness does not exceed 

 f^ ft. Pterodactylus, or winged li/.ard, one of the most extraordinary pro- 

 ductions of the fossil world, is an animal which forms the intermediate link, 

 hitherto deemed to exist only in fable, between birds and reptiles. This 

 ereature, previously known in two formations upon the continent, has been 

 recently recognised in the lias of Dorsetshire. Traces of tortoises (Trionyx) 

 are observed in the bituminous schist of the north of Scotland, the geologi- 

 cal situation of wliich is probably similar to that of the coal-measures of 

 England. Impressions, resembling the footsteps made by tortoises, were 

 not long since noticed on the surface of beds of new red sandstone in Dum. 

 friesshire. Bones of several cetaceous animals occur in marine diluvium, 

 particularly in Norfolk. They have been traced much earlier in the Stones, 

 field slate, in the Tilgate stone, the Kimmeridge clay, and in limestone near 

 Bath. Their occurrence is somewhat rare with us, but less so on some parts 

 of the Continent. In Italy, entire skeletons, at 1200 ft. elevation. Baron 

 Cuvier enumerates 10 fossil species. One is like a species native of the Gan. 

 ges ; a second has no close aifinity with any known species ; while the re- 

 maining eight bear a resemblance to the species at present natives of the 

 British seas. 



With regard to the geological distribution of fossil quadrupeds. Baron 

 ■Cuvier observed that mammiferous sea animals are in more ancient strata than 

 mammiferous land animals ; oviparous quadrupeds than viviparous quadrii- 

 peds. The oviparous quadrupeds apparently began to exist at the same time 

 with the fishes ; the land quadrupeds not until long after, and after the pe- 

 riod when most of the shells were deposited. 



On comparing the antediluvian animals with those existing, it is seen that 

 the principal loss has fallen upon the Carnivora, while the Ruminants are 

 preserved. Another singular fact has been elicited through the labours ol 

 the baron. The fossil ruminants appertain precisely to the genera and sub- 

 genera at present most common in the northern climates : to the aurochs, 

 the musk-ox, the elk, and the rein-deer ; while the fossil Eachydermata, the 

 elephant, the rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, and the tapir, are limited at 

 present to the torrid zone. Remains of carnivorous animals are frequently 

 found in our island. The supposed antediluvian fissures of rocks, chiefly in 

 the mountain limestone, red sandstone, and oolite, are their principal recep. 

 taoles. They arederived from several extinct species of hyaenas, wolf, tiger, 

 hoiir, and weasel. Plate II. Jif?. 3 represents molar tooth of wolf; fig. 4 

 molar tooth of tiger ; fig. .5 molar tooth of hyiena, found in Kirkdale cave. 

 In Yorkshire, an interesting disc^overy has recently been communicated 

 hy Mr Vernon, of the bones of the.lion and wolf mixed with those of lar}.;e 

 berbiyorous animals, in lacustrine marl, beneath diluvial gravel. Earou 





