11 



dinary inundations; 0. That the disturbing forces which pro- 

 duced these inundations acted on the earth's surface after the 

 deposition of all the regular strata with which we are ac- 

 quainted. 



The separation of the incoherent materials, which are heaped 

 on the regular strata of the earth, into diluvial and post-diluvial 

 detritus, is, therefore, a natural separation, which is at once 

 descriptive of the things designated, and founded on the con- 

 stant relations which they bear to each other. Moreover it is 

 unconnected with any hypothesis whatsoever, and is indepen- 

 dent of any argument drawn from the nature of the organic 

 remains contained in different parts of the several deposits. 



Sect. 3. — Organic Remains in Alluvial Formations. 



I should not have dwelt so long in illustrating the preceding 

 conclusions, had I not known that the nature of the evidence on 

 which they are founded has often been entirely overlooked or 

 misunderstood. In the next place, I shall briefly consider the 

 organic remains contained in the two classes of deposits, espe- 

 cially in those localities which have been already described. 

 The following specimens were derived from the alluvial debris 

 which rests on the diluvial tin ground in various parts of Corn- 

 wall. 



1. A human skull buried 36 feet in alluvium, from the Carnon 

 stream-work. 2. Horn of an ox 40 feet deep in alluvium, from 

 the same place. 3. Fragments of a human skeleton, from the 

 Pentowan stream-work. 4. An ancient earthen vessel, formed 

 without the potter's wheel, more than 40 feet deep in alluvium, 

 and about 10 or 12 feet above the diluvial tin ground, from the 

 same place. 5. Part of a culinary vessel buried 24 feet in 

 alluvium, from the Levrean stream-work. A celt and some 

 other rude works of art were found near the same place. To 

 the preceding might be added a long list of spoils derived from 

 the alluvial region which stretches out from the neighbourhood 

 of Cambridge to the wokls of Lincolnshire, such as various 

 specimens of trunks and branches of trees ; of freshwater and 

 land shells ; of implements of human workmanship; of horns, 

 teeth, and sometimes skeletons of animals which have been 

 either drifted into the marshes, or have perished there by acci- 

 dent or violence, &c. &c. To which catalogue might be added, 

 the skeletons of four beavers found near Chatteris in the alluvial 

 bed of the Old West-water, a river which in former times per- 

 formed an important part in the drainage of the country, but 

 which has been choked up for 200 or 300 years.* We Took in 

 vain into these lists for the bones of the cavern-bear, the mam- 



• Sec a paper by John Okcs, Esq. in the Transactions of the Cambridge Philoso- 

 phical Society, vol. i. p. 176. 



