60 FOSSIL MAMMALIA. 



Their remains are generally found in the loose and super- 

 ficial strata of the earth, and most frequently in the alluvion 

 which fills the bottom of vallies, or borders the beds of rivers. 

 They are never found alone, but intermixed with the bones 

 of other quadrupeds of known genera, as the rhinoceros, ox, 

 antelope, horse, and often with the debris of marine animals, 

 a portion of which is frequently attached upon them. For 

 this fact, so important, we have the positive testimony of Pal- 

 las, Fortis, and many other writers, and the Baron himself has 

 had fragments in his possession, filled with millepores and 

 small oysters. The strata which cover the elephantine remains 

 are of no great thickness, and scarcely ever of a stony nature. 

 These remains are rarely petrified, and but few examples can 

 be quoted of any incrusted in stone, whether coquillaceous or 

 otherwise. They are often found accompanied with our com- 

 mon fresh-water shells. 



Every thing, in short, appears to announce that the catas- 

 trophe which overwhelmed them was one of the most recent 

 which has contributed to change the surface of our globe. This 

 catastrophe was physical and general. It was also aqueous, as 

 is clearly proved, both by the strata in which they are im- 

 bedded, and those which are above them. They have been 

 covered by the waters, and in very many places by waters 

 of the same quality as those of our present sea, as is proved by 

 similarity of marine productions. But it is not by these waters 

 that they were transported to their present situations. They 

 have been found in every country examined by naturahsts. 

 An irruption of the sea, therefore, which should have carried 

 them from the habitat of the Indian elephant only, could not 

 have spread them so far, nor dispersed them so equally. 



Let us also observe, that the inundation which overwhelmed 

 them was not elevated above the grand mountainous chains of 

 the earth. The strata deposited by it, and which cover these 

 remains, are found only in plains of moderate elevation. It 

 is impossible, then, that the bodies of elephants could have 



