74 



earth, whence the name of the salt licking 

 place. Yet in the state of New-York, where 

 these skeletons were discovered, only the re- 

 mains, or part of the remains, of one animal 

 have been found in one place, and those so 

 much together as sufficiently to prove that the 

 whole carcase has been there, whether left by 

 death or a deluge. 



Still I think that a deluge has devastated 

 the whole of that part of America, because 

 the country abounds with petrifactions of 

 marine productions, and such as we know 

 now are to be found only in the tropical seas : 

 but these proofs are found every where, and 

 may be antecedent to the existence or destruc- 

 tion of these animals in that part ; and their 

 total extinction may have been occasioned by 

 some other extraordinary revolution, for ex- 

 traordinary it must have been to have produced 

 an effect, the tendency of v/hich the human 

 mind is unable to comprehend : but these 

 great facts speak an universal language, and 

 compel us to believe that a time has been 

 when numbers of animals, and what is more 

 extraordinary, larger animals than now re- 



