536 



IMBEDDING OF ORGANIC EEMAINS 



[Ch. XLYI. 



instantly devoured bj sharks, alligators, and otlier carnivo- 

 rous beasts, wliich may liave power to digest even tlie bones ; 

 but during extraordinary floods, when the greatest number 

 of land animals are destroyed, tlie waters are commonly so 



turbid, especially at tlie bottom 



channel, that even 



aquatic species are compelled to escape into some retreat 

 where there is clearer water lest they should be stifled. For 

 this reason, as well as the rapidity of sedimentary deposition 

 at such seasons, the probability of carcasses becoming per- 



manently imbedded is considerable. 

 In recent shell-marl, Scotland. 



skeletons of quadrupeds are met 



In some instances, the 



shell-marls in Scotland, where we cannot suppose them to 

 have been imbedded by the action of rivers or floods. They 

 all belong to species w^hich now inhabit, or are known to 



have been indigenous in Scotland. 



The remains of several 



hundred skeletons have been procured within the last century 

 from five or six small lakes in Forfarshire, where shell-marl 

 has been worked. Those of the stag {Cervus Elaphus) are 

 most numerous ; and if the others be arranged in the order 

 of their relative abundance, they will follow nearly thus 

 the ox, the boar, the horse, the sheep, the dog, the hare, the 

 fox, the wolf,^ and the cat. The beaver seems extremely rare ; 



Marlie 



om 



In the greater part of these lake-deposits there are no 

 signs of floods ; and the expanse of water was originally so 

 confined, that the smallest of the above-mentioned quadrupeds 

 could have crossed, by swimming from one shore to the 

 otlier. Deer, and such species as take readily to the water. 



may 



th 



e 



bottom w^as soft and quaggy, and in their efforts to escape 

 may have plunged deeper into the marly bottom. But many 

 individaals, I suspect, of different species, have fallen in 

 when crossing the frozen surface in wdnter ; for nothing can 

 be more treacherous than the ice w^hen covered with snow, 

 in consequence of the springs, which are numerous, and 

 which, retaining always an equal temperature, cause the ice, 

 in certain spots, to be extremely thin, wdiile in every other 



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