with (he carcase of a whale, in digging in the marie 

 or shell pits on the eastern shore of Maryland. 



In the marie pits, near Easton (Maryland) fossil 

 vertebral bones, apparently of quadrupeds, have been 

 dug up, some of which are more than six inches 

 in length, by about five in diameter : in others, of 

 which I have specimens, the diameter is greater than 

 the length. 



In the summ?r, I believe, of 1811, the bones of a 

 mammoth were dug up on the banks of York river, 

 (in Virginia.) from below low water mark, in the 

 mud.* 



In digging the Santee canal in South Carolina, the 

 bones of a mammoth were dug up, and are at 

 present, it is believed, in the library at Charleston, 

 together with other bones and teeth, which it is said 

 resemble those of the horse ; but which more proba- 

 bly belonged to a species of deer or buffaloe, dug out 

 of the same canal. 



Now the circumstance of the fossil bones of quad- 

 rupeds being found in an alluvial formation, below, at, 

 and a little above, low water mark, in a district that 

 has, beyond all possible doubt, been once occupied by 

 the ocean, goes far to establish three very important 

 facts. 



The first is, these animals, not having be^n inha- 

 bitants of the sea, could not have been washed up by 

 the ocean and deposited where they are. 



* For a knowledge of this fact 1 am indebted to Dr. S. L. 

 Mitchell, who, while in Congress, communicated it to me by letter. 



