39 



remained undecided. The pride of man would 

 not allow a single bone, one small bone, to beat 

 down the edifice his errors had been so long 

 erecting I The advocates of the hippopota- 

 mus ; of the elephant ; of the extraneous fos- 

 sils ; of any herbivorous animal, or of any 

 aquatic one, became confounded, but not con- 

 vinced. A species of commutation followed, 

 and teeth, tusks, hoofs, and clavv s, were pitched 

 together, to compose one animal. Not content 

 with this arrangement, I abandoned the scene, 

 and visited the regions where the object of dis- 

 pute was said to abound ; those plains he had 

 once devastated ; those lakes in which he had 

 once slacked his thirst. — I soon discovered that 

 I had chosen the proper theatre for the decision 

 of the question. 



Nature having blessed these transmontanc 

 regions with a bountiful supply of salines^ or 

 springs of salt water ; the earth there being soft 

 or spongy, and impregnated with mineral salts 

 is rendered peculiarly fit for the reception and 

 preservation of certain bodies, which, in other 

 places, would undergo a speedy decay. Hence 

 the profusion of large bones beyond the moun- 

 tains, while on the Atlantic side of them, where 



