VOL. LXXXIV.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 443 



Bones of animals under circumstances so similar, though in different parts of 

 the globe, one would have naturally supposed to consist chiefly of those of one 

 class or order in every place, one principle acting in all places. In Gibraltar 

 they are mostly of the ruminating tribe, of the hare kind, and the bones of 

 birds; yet there are some of a small dog or fox, and also shells. Those in Dal- 

 matia appear to be mostly of the ruminating tribe, yet I saw a part of the os 

 hyoides of a horse; but those from Germany are mostly carnivorous. From 

 these facts we should be inclined to suppose, that their accumulation did not arise 

 from any instinctive mode of living, as the same mode could not suit both car- 

 nivorous and herbivorous animals. 



In considering animals respecting their situation on the globe, there are many 

 which are peculiar to particular climates, and others that are less confined, as 

 herrings, mackerel, and salmon; others again, which probably move over the 

 whole extent of the sea, as the shark, porpus, and whale tribe; while many 

 shell-fish must be confined to one spot. If the sea had not shifted its situation 

 more than once, and was to leave the land in a very short time, then we could 

 determine what the climate had formerly been by the extraneous fossils of the 

 stationary animals, for those only would be found mixed with those of passage; 

 but if the sea moves from one place to another slowly, then the remains of ani- 

 mals of different climates may be mixed, by those of one climate moving over 

 those of another, dying, and being fossilized; but this I am afraid cannot be 

 made out. By the fossils, we may however have some idea how the bones of the 

 land animals fossilized may be disposed with respect to those of the sea. 



If the sea should have occupied any space that never had been dry land prior 

 to the sea's being there, the extraneous fossils can only be those of sea animals ; 

 but each part will have its particular kind of those that are stationary mixed with 

 a few of the amphibia, and of sea birds, in those parts that were the skirts of 

 the sea. I shall suppose that when the sea left this place it moved over land 

 where both vegetables and land animals had existed, the bones of which will be 

 fossilized, as also those of the sea animals; and if the sea continued long here, 

 which there is reason to believe, then those mixed extraneous fossils will be co- 

 vered with those of sea animals. Now if the sea should again move and abandon 

 this situation, then we should find the land and sea fossils above-mentioned dis- 

 posed in this order; and as we begin to discover extraneous fossils in a contrary 

 direction to their formation, we shall first find a stratum of those of animals pe- 

 culiar to the sea, which were the last formed, and under it one of vegetables 

 and land animals, which were there before they were covered by the sea, and 

 among them those of the sea, and under this the common earth. Those pecu- 

 liar to the sea will be in depth in proportion to the time of the sea's residence, 

 and other circumstances, as currents, tides, &c. 



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