CHAP. XXVI.] MIRING OF CATTLE. 105 



I was much interested by observing the manner in 

 which these shells were living in the mud of the 

 delta of the Alabama river. The deposits formed 

 by the advance of this and other deltas along the 

 northern shores of the Gulf of Mexico, will be here 

 after characterised by such shells in a fossil state, just 

 as, in the Pampas, Mr. Darwin and M. A. D Orbigny 

 found the brackish-water shell, called Azara labiata, 

 marking far inland the position of ancient estuaries. 

 And as, in South America, &quot; the Pampean mud,&quot; de 

 scribed by Mr. Darwin *, is filled with the skeletons 

 of the extinct Megatherium, Toxodon, and other 

 strange mammalia, so in the modern delta of the 

 Alabama, the quadrupeds now inhabiting the south 

 ern shores of the United States will hereafter be 

 met with buried in the same assemblage of deposits 

 of mud and sand as the Gnathodon. I was told that 

 in a great morass which we saw near the lighthouse 

 some cattle had lately perished, and for many days 

 the turkey buzzards have been snatching parts of 

 the dead carcases out of the mud, watching their 

 opportunity the moment the dogs, which are also 

 preying on them, retire. Formerly the wolves used 

 to prowl about these swamps in search of similar 

 booty, tearing up portions of the mired cattle, and 

 in this manner we may expect that, while some 

 skeletons, which have sunk deep into the softer mud, 

 may be preserved entire, the bones of others will be 

 scattered about where the wolves have gnawed them, 

 or birds of prey have picked off the flesh. 



* Geolog. Obs. on S. America (1846), p. 99. 



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