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covered with the feed, and the box both flowers and feeds, yet I 

 have never happened to fee any of thefe foffil plants with 

 either the one or the other. Many fuch fpecimens alfo have 

 no {talk or root. They are more commonly feen in coal-flates 

 (or the Stratum above the coal), than perhaps in any other foil. 

 Whence can it arife likewife that the leaves or branches of other 

 plants and trees are not found as frequently ? I have alfo feen 

 foflils which have borne fome refemblance to the barks of trees, 

 and chiefly fir ; but they were flat, and not convex, as muSt 

 happen when they vegetate. 



Petrified and fofiil bones of animals, quadrupeds, and fifh, are 

 likewife fuppofed to be frequently difcovered ; but I never heard 

 of more than fragments being thus found ; when, if thefe were 

 really the bones of animals, the perfect Skeleton muft often be met 

 with in a foflil State. 



Strata of thefe, and of a considerable length, are met with, 

 both in Dalmatia and the rock of Gibraltar, which feem to be 

 compofed of human bones ; but thefe are chiefly thofe of the leg; 

 nor is it Scarcely poffible that they mould have been any part of 

 a human creature, notwithstanding the very Strong refemblance. 



We will fuppofe thefe however to have been thus depofited, 

 after a great Slaughter in battle, or the fudden ravage of a pefti- 

 lential diforder. 



Upon thefe occafions the numerous corpfes muSt neceflarily be 

 buried in one general pit, and confequently the Skulls and other 

 bones would be at the fame time dug up, and within a very fmall 

 compafs ; whereas thofe in Dalmatia lie for furlongs in narrow 

 Strata along the fea-coaft, and the fame is believed with regard to 

 the fpecimens from Gibraltar. At all events, in fuch only poffible 

 cafes, the complete human Skeleton would be difcovered. 



Uu 



But 



