(c. 



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< 



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'H. 



b-. 



: thea 



(V> 



% 



'^ depth 



-l» tides 



of 

 into 



oe 



retiring df 



■■ in Lincoln- 

 ' buried in the 

 th* horn, ancl 



m 



to stir itselif 



j*T^Pftl 



? * -rhead, ii 



;^ .Ti kie met 



■ U; il =' fast 



-bnd, and at 

 indiridoal 



i^pi" 



ID 



e at Bope, 



a on tbe ^^■;I 



"Tit. ^: 



of I'-l' 

 1 • ■• :S^) 



rds 



lU 



1' 



** ' 



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» 



tfi 



f 



1 1 



I 



I- 



Ch. XLVIII.] 



IN SUBAQUEOUS STKATxi. 



573 



some 



of the skeleton of a whale^ 73 feet long, which was found 

 at Airthie, on the Forth, near Stirling, imbedded in clay 20 

 feet higher than the surface of the highest tide of the river 

 Forth at the present day. From the situation of the Eoman 

 station and causeways at a small distance from the spot, it 

 is concluded that the whale must have been stranded there 

 at a period prior to the Christian era. 



■x- 



Marine 



Some singular fossils have been dis- 



covered in the Island of Ascension in a 

 stone said to be continually forming on 

 the beach, where the waves throw up 

 small rounded fragments of shells and 

 corals, which, in the course of 



Fig. 144. 



time 



become firmly agglutinated together, 

 and constitute a stone used largely for 

 building and making lime. In a quarry 



NW 



about 



from 



Island of Ascension. t 



of turtles have been discovered in the 

 hard rock thus formed. The eggs must have been nearly 

 hatched at the time when they perished ; for the bones of the 

 young turtle are seen in the interior, with their shape fully 

 developed, the interstices between the bones being entirely 

 filled with grains of sand, which are cemented together, so 

 that when the egg-shells are removed perfect casts of their 

 form remain in stone. In the single specimen here figured 

 (fig. 144), which is only five inches in its longest diameter, 



no less than seven eggs are preserved.^ 



To explain the state in which they occur fossil, it seems 

 necessary to suppose that after the eggs were almost hatched 

 in the warm sand, a great wave threw upon them so much 



*• Quart. Journ. of Lit. Scl., &c., No. 

 172. Oct. 1819. 



XV. p 



reason resemble, at first sight, the 



bones of birds rather than of reptiles ; 



t This specimen has been presented for the latter have no medullary cavity. 



by Mr. Lonsdale to the Geographical 

 Society of London. 



j The most conspicuous of the bones 

 represented within the shell in fig. 145, 

 appear to be the clavicle and coracoid 

 bone. They are hollow ; and for this 



Prof. Owen, in order to elucidate this 

 point, dissected for me a very young 

 turtle, and found that the exterior por- 

 tion only of the bones was ossified, the 

 interior being still filled with cartilage. 



