86 Deposit of Bones of the liaiile Snake. 



mountains, which are vast cemeteries of bones ol' iygers, 

 hyenas and bears, as large as our horses." Bakevvell, in 

 his Geology, has an account of the entire skeleton of an ele- 

 phant of immense size, discovered in Derbyshire, in a cav- 

 ernous rock composed of marine animals. He supposes 

 the cavern to have been open, and afterwards closed by the 

 deposition of calcareous earth, forming stalactites ; instances 

 of which are common in Derbyshire. " Into this cavern 1 

 conceive, (says he) the animal had retired to die, at a peri- 

 od long after the existence of the marine animals which are 

 imbedded in the surrounding rock." 



The discovery of the organic remains of the rattle snake 

 in our neighbourhood, may serve as an additional caution 

 to geologists, not to form theories from isolated facts ; and 

 that if the bones of animals similar to those which now in- 

 habit our earth are discovered, with rehques peculiar to 

 what we now suppose to be ancient strata, a careful exam- 

 ination of all the circumstances will sometimes illustrate the 

 anomaly. 



The stones of which our College is built are argillite and 

 hornblende, taken from various quarries in the neighbour- 

 hood. In which of these the above remains were discover- 

 ed I am unable to state, but most probably they were in the 

 argillite. 



Within the memory of some of the old inhabitants of our 

 town, rattle snakes were common in this vicinity ; but as 

 in other places, they have retired as the population has in- 

 creased to more uncultivated regions. There is a popular 

 story among them, that this reptile always retired to his 

 winter quarters before the leaves of the white ash {Fraxinus 

 discolor) began to fall — the leaf of this tree being peculiarly 

 obnoxious to him. I am aware that stories of this kind are 

 not entitled to much credit, and therefore do not intend to 

 add the leaves of the white ash to the list of antidotes to the 

 bite of the rattle snake, but merely state the circumstance 

 to excite further observation. 



