54 FOSSIL REMAINS. [CHAP. XXIII. 



we know that many of that class inhabited Europe at this period. 

 That some of these may be discovered in America, I can hardly 

 doubt ; but the fact is worthy of remark, as connected with the 

 weight due to negative evidence. When strata have been form 

 ed far from land, so as to afford few, if any, indications of land 

 plants, we must not look for indications of air-breathing quadru 

 peds, nor infer their non-existence, if it be so difficult to discover 

 them even at Claibome, where the land at the period of the de 

 position of the marine strata, can not have been far distant.* 



* Since writing the above, I hear that Mr. Hale, of Mobile, has met with 

 some bones of land quadrupeds in these strata. For remarks on the strata 

 at Claiborne, see a paper by the author, &quot; Quart. Journ. of Geol. Society of 

 London,&quot; vol. iv. p. 10, June, 1848. 



