322 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 



and vice versa, this is a good reason why the organic remains of ourpre^ 

 sent strata should consist chiefly of marine productions; the remains of 

 land animals being found sparingly, as they would be chiefly imbedded 

 in the strata which now compose the bottom of the ocean. Besides, 

 during the gradual rise of the waters, both men and beasts, especially 

 the former, would betake themselves for refuge to the hills and higher 

 grounds; where they might survive the first catastrophes of the earth's 

 crust, and consequently escape being imbedded in the lower strata. 

 Being afterwards swept away in vast crowds, when the waters reached 

 the highest eminences, they would form floating masses of animal 

 matter, in which the most fat and bulky animals, as the elephant, 

 rhinoceros, &c., would hold an important place. It is a common, and 

 very probable opinion, that the raven which Noah sent out, found 

 sustenance by feeding on the floating carrion. Some portions of this 

 animal matter, especially M'hen loaded with mud, might be expected 

 to sink, and be imbedded in the newest strata ; in which situation 

 animal remains have been discovered, in one of the supposed fresh- 

 water formations of the Paris basin. If Mr. Whitby's account of the 

 discovery of some remains of the rhinoceros, found in 1816, imbedded 

 in a mass of clay in the solid limestone near Plymouth, be correct, a 

 mass of such animal matter, loaded with mud, must have been in- 

 closed in that rock whilst it was forming. We have in our possession, 

 a tooth resembling one of the grinders of a horse, but smaller, which 

 was found in the summer of 1821, with some ribs and other bones, 

 imbedded in a seam of marl in the magnesian limestone, at Pallion 

 quarry, near Sunderland. The seam containing the bones was twenty 

 feet below the surface of the solid rock, and sixty-five feet below the 

 surface of the ground, and the spot was at a great distance from the 

 original front of the quarry ; nor was there a vestige of any cave or 

 vertical fissure, by which the bones could be introduced. These 

 particulars we learned from Mr. Baker of Wearmouth, an intelligent 

 gentleman, who examined the rock when the bones were taken out. 



