POTOMAC AND JAMES S RIVERS. 397 



This will show that there is a marine alluvion ; and 

 that a fresh-water or inland alluvion has been super- 

 induced. 



The AUuvion brought down by James's River. 



In the neighbourhood of this stream there is an abun- 

 dance of organic remains. They are partly derelictions 

 of the ocean, and partly accretions by the floods. 



On the authority of William Wirt, Esq. it is stated, that 

 as far west as the Blue Ridge, marine shells and other 

 exuviae of the ocean have been found, showing that the 

 region was once emerged in the deep. 



Mr. Chevallie brought me, from Richmond, entire tri- 

 angular teeth, apparently of sharks, and pieces of bones, 

 probably of whales, dug from the depth of between sixty 

 and one hundred feet, in the city of Richmond. Above 

 these, in penetrating the earth, were found bark and 

 wood, and the thigh bone of a small quadruped, probably 

 a squirrel. All these are now in my cellection, at the 

 College. 



It has been repeatedly affirmed, and on the examina- 

 tion of the distinguished gentleman quoted in the para- 

 graph before the last, that' in the neighbourhood of Wil- 

 liamsburgb, in 1802, a considerable portion of a whale's 

 skeleton was discovered. It was about four or five feet 

 under ground ; two miles distant from the shore of James's 

 river, and fifty from the Atlantic ocean. Among other 

 parts were fragments of the ribs, and all the vertebrae 

 regularly arranged, and very little impaired as to its 

 figure. 



