292 PALAEONTOLOGY. 



but from the sea carrying its inhabitants along with it, wherever there 

 are those of land animals there will also be a mixture of marine ones ; 

 and from the sea commonly remaining thousands of years in nearly the 

 same situation, we have marine fossils unmixed with any others 1 ." 



The importance of the study of fossil remains in the elucidation of 

 the nature of the changes to which the earth's surface has been subject, 

 above dwelt on by Hunter, has subsequently been abundantly confirmed, 

 and placed in very strong light by the researches more particularly of 

 Cuvier and Brongniart on the structure of the tertiary deposits occupying 

 what is called the ' Paris Basin,' and on the fossils, and more especially 

 those of the Montmartre quarries, which have rendered that locality so 

 famous. By the light of these fossils Cuvier was enabled to refer the 

 succession of the eocene strata near Paris to several alternations of 

 marine and freshwater deposits. 



One other characteristic of the paper in the 'Philosophical Trans- 

 actions,' and I have done with that published evidence of Hunter as a 

 Palaeontologist, — the frequent, and for that date, bold allusions therein 

 made to the ' thousands of years' required for particular operations, or 

 the lapse of time appreciated both as regards geological phenomena and 

 the fossilization of animal remains. 



" Although," writes Hunter, " a piece of wood or bone is dead when so 

 situated as to be fossilized, yet they are sound and free from decom- 

 position." How true that remark is, the microscope has since abun- 

 dantly demonstrated. The spiral vessels of plants, the tubular struc- 

 ture of teeth, are as characteristic in the completely silicified as in the 

 recent specimens. "The depth," Hunter proceeds, "joined with the 

 matter in which they are often found, as stone, clay, <fec, preserves 

 them from putrefaction, and their dissolution requires thousands of 

 years to complete it." It is plain, from these allusions, that Hunter 

 appreciated the necessity for an ample allowance of past time, in order 

 to account philosophically for the geological and palaeontological opera- 

 tions which the subject of this paper for the Royal Society led him to 

 investigate and reflect upon. 



Before entering upon the next and more important evidence of the 

 extent and spirit of Hunter's researches into the zoology and anatomy 

 of extinct animals, and the associated phenomena elucidating the past 

 history of our globe, I must premise the traditional history of that evi- 

 dence, as I received it from my predecessor Mr. Gift. 



Hunter, with his usual indefatigability, followed up his first memoir, 

 on the fossil bones submitted to him by the Marcgrave of Anspach, by 



1 [Phil. Ti-ans. to,,,. cif\ 



