Prof. BucKLAND on Coprolites. 235 



VIII. Coprolites in Fresh-ioalcr Formations. 

 In a valuable series of specimens recently imported by Mr. Lyell and Mr. 

 Murchison from the fresh-water deposits near Aix in Provence^ Mr. Mur- 

 chison has recognised two distinct species of Coprolite ; the one had been 

 collected as a curious concretion from the shale of the fresh-water coal forma- 

 tion at Fuveau* ; the other in size and shape resembles a caterpillar, and had 

 been brought home as a fossil insect, being in the laminated fresh-water 

 marl that contains the remarkable deposit of fossil insects above the gypsum 

 formation close to Aixf- — Both these specimens have been examined by 

 Dr. Prout. 



IX. Coprolites in Diluvium. 



I need only refer to the account given in my Reliqiiia Diluviance , of the 

 fffices of hyasnas in the Cave of Kirkdale, and to the large quantities of (he 

 same substance that have subsequently been discovered at Torquay and Maid- 

 stone, and in the Cave of Lunel, to show how frequent is the occurrence of 

 Hyaeno-coprus in diluvial mud and g-ravel. 



Tims, in formations of all ages]};, from the first creation of vertebral animals 

 to the comparatively recent period in which hyaenas accumulated album grag- 

 cum in their antediluvian dens, we find that the fteces of aquatic or terrestrial 

 carnivorous animals have been preserved. We have them in the lowest region 

 of the carboniferous limestone, the lias, the oolite, the Hastings sandstone, 

 the Wiltshire green-sand, the chalk-marl and chalk of Sussex, at Maestricht, 

 at Brussels, in the London clay at Sheppy, in the fresh-water formation at 

 Aix, and in diluvium. In all these various formations our Coprolites form 

 records of warfare, waged by successive generations of inhabitants of our 

 planet on one another: the imperishable phosphate of lime, derived from 

 their digested skeletons, has become embalmed in the substance and foun- 

 dations of the everlasting hills; and the general law of Nature which bids 

 all to eat and be eaten in their turn, is shown to have been co-extensive with 

 animal existence upon our globe ; the Carnivora in each period of the world's 

 history fulfilling their destined office, — to check excess in the progress of life, 

 and maintain the balance of creation. 



* Plate XXXI. fig. 13. f Plate XXXI. fig. 16. 



+ It has been stated in a note at p. 229, that Coprolites, wherever they occur, abundantly 

 afford a chronometer which marks affirmatively the lapse of a period of time sufficient for their 

 accumulation ; it should be observed on the other hand that their absence, like the absence of 

 organic remains, is a negative fact, from which nothing can be inferred either as to the rapidity 

 or slowness of any formation whatsoever, 



2h2 



