13 



have known to be diluvial. A single example is given of the 

 bones of the hippopotamus found under a peat-bog". But the 

 fact is given without details, and without the shadow of a proof 

 that the bones were buried in alluvium. The case of the great 

 fossil, elk may perhaps be ambiguous. A gigantic animal of 

 that family would soon be marked out for destruction; or it 

 may perhaps have been exterminated by beasts of prey before 

 the peopling of Western Europe. All the spoils of this creature 

 which 1 have myself seen in situ do, however, belong to diluvial 

 deposits. The three examples of horns of the rhinoceros found 

 in alluvial marl-pits and turf-bogs, and preserved in the museum 

 of Edinburgh, seem at first sight to throw most formidable diffi- 

 culties in the way of the received classification. Through the 

 kindness of Prof. Jameson, I have lately seen the specimens in 

 question, and I know from the Professor himself that there is 

 no adequate evidence to prove them genuine fossils. Without 

 this information, from their look and their condition, I should 

 not have hesitated a moment in rejecting them as spurious. It 

 is contrary to my present object to enter into any details con- 

 nected with the examples to which I have referred. I do, how- 

 ever, unhesitatingly assert, that as far as regards the purpose 

 for which they were adduced, they are altogether without weight, 

 and without importance. 



Sect. 4. — Organic Remains in Diluvial Detritus. 



The diluvium in the central parts of the fens of Cambridge- 

 shire, or on the sides of the low hills by which the region is 

 skirted, is found to possess a great uniformity of character. It 

 contains innumerable fragments of gryphites, echinites, shells, 

 corals, lizards' bones, and other fossils, all more or less perfectly 

 mineralized, and all obviously torn up from the regular strata of 

 the country by the same disturbing forces which formed the 

 ancient gravel. Among these fragments, and among rounded 

 blocks of stone chiefly derived from the same strata, are many 

 minute fragments of bones, and sometimes entire teeth of various 

 animals, more especially of the horse, the ox, the deer, and 

 various graminivora. Among these, the remains of animals 

 (such as the mammoth and the rhinoceros) now unknown as the 

 inhabitants of any part of Europe are by no means uncommon. 

 To describe, or even to enumerate, such specimens in detail 

 would be foreign to my present purpose. I shall onlv refer, by 

 way of example, to some of the organic spoils derived from the 

 undisturbed diluvium in the neighbourhood of Cambridge. 

 1 . Fragments of the pelvis of a mammoth, from the gravel south of 

 St. Ives, Huntingdonshire. 2. Grinder of the mammoth, from the 

 diluvium which stretches from St. Ives towards the centre of 

 the fens. 3. Fragments of a large mammoth's tusk, from Foul- 

 mire. 4. A very large grinder of the mammoth, from the gravel 



