BALJENID^E. 543 



corded the discovery of the vertebra of a whale in a 

 bed of bluish clay near Dingwall ; the clay contains many 

 sea-shells, and is evidently a marine deposit ; but the 

 spot where the vertebra was found is three miles distant 

 from high-water mark, and twelve feet in height above 

 the present level of the sea. The vertebrae of a whale, 

 discovered by Mr. Richardson in the yellow marl or brick- 

 earth of Herne Bay, in Kent, were situated ten feet above 

 the highest occasional reach of the sea on that coast. A 

 large vertebra of Baleena mysticetus was discovered fifteen 

 feet below the surface, in the gravel of the bed of the 

 Thames, by the workmen employed in digging the foun- 

 dation for the new Temple Church. Dr. Buckland states 

 that " the bones of Whales have been found at Pentuan, 

 in an estuary that is now filled up, on the coast of Corn- 

 wall." Mr. Baker, of Bridgewater, possesses the tym- 

 panic bone of a Balsenoptera, which was dug out of a 

 sand-bank at Huntshill, near that town. 



I might add several other instances of the discovery of 

 cetaceous remains in positions to which, in the present 

 condition of the dry land of England, the sea cannot 

 reach ; yet the soil in which these remains are embedded 

 is alluvial, or amongst the most recent formation. In 

 most cases the situation indicates the former existence 

 there of an estuary that has been filled up by deposits 

 of the present sea, or the bottom of which has been 

 upheaved. 



