480 Mr. Horner on the Geology of the Environs of Bonn. 



mode of arrangement, in place of being scattered, as they generally are, 

 without order through the mass ; and vegetable remains would not have 

 been entirely wanting ; or so rare, if they do exist. Then there must have 

 been a barrier to contain the waters of the lake, at the head of the delta of 

 the Rhine near Bonn, and that barrier must have been wholly swept away ; 

 but a country with forms more unlike those which we might expect, had 

 such a barrier ever existed, can hardly be imagined. 



All the appearances of the Rhine valley favour the supposition that, at the 

 time of the deposit of the loess, there was a free river communication be- 

 tween Basle and the sea, and the vertebrge of the Lamna certainly render that 

 supposition more probable. '' It may seem very extraordinary that the first 

 remains of fossil fish obtained from this freshwater silt should belong to a 

 marine genus, but M. Agassiz has informed Mr. Lyell that both in the Se- 

 negal and the Amazon certain species of the Shark and Skate families (Squa- 

 lus and Raia, Linn.) have been known to ascend to the distance of several 

 hundred miles from the ocean, and analogous facts are referred to in Mar- 

 grave and Pisa's Natural History of India*." 



In a work descriptive of Bonn and its neighbourhood f, there is the fol- 

 lowing statement. " The chronicle of Bonn further informs us of a visit to 

 " our river from an animal of the remote north ; a sea monster, whose appear- 

 " ance may be brought forcibly before our imagination by the steam-boat of 

 " modern days, as it works its way through the waters of the Rhine. In the be- 

 " ginning of the year 1680, a Sea Cow, or Walrus, more than fourteen feet in 

 " length, was seen swimming up the Rhine past Bonn. A violent and unheard- 

 '" of agitation of the water was observed, accompanied by a loud noise, and by 

 " two lofty jets of water spouting from the forehead of the monster. The whole 

 " town rushed to the river to see the great beast, the very name of which was 

 "then unheard of by them. The centinel on the Alten ZoU fired at it several 

 " times but missed it, and the animal proceeded on its way upwards undis- 

 " turbed, and is said to have got above Strasburg. Two months afterwards, it 

 "was cast ashore dead, near the village of Niel, about three miles below Co- 

 llogue, with four wounds from bullets below the head ; but it was not known 

 " by whom or where it had been killed." 



In the present imperfect state of our knowledge, there seems to be no 

 explanation, upon the whole, so rational as that suggested by Mr. Lyell in 

 the Address above alluded to, who says, " Instead of supposing one continuous 



* Geological Society's " Proceedings, " vol. ii. p. 222. 



t Hundeshagen, Die Stadt und Universitat Bonn am Rhein, mit ihren Umgehungen. Habicht, 

 Bonn, 18S2, p. 15. 



