439 



" Thus we have in many parts of this island the l)ones of unknown 

 animals, such as a large species of deer \ Mecjaceros'], as also tlie core of the 

 horns, and bones of some very large animals of the bull kind " \_Bison joris- 

 cics, Bos primicjenm.s']. 



With respect to the nature of the animals imbedded in various strata, — 



" We may observe that the amphibia, and such as inhabit both the sea 

 and land, as all of the Plioca-tribe, white bear, ctc.f likewise sea-fowl, par- 

 take of the before-mentioned mode of fossilization, by dying in the sea; 

 for wherever there has been a shore, there we shall find the amphibia ; as 

 also many of the fowl-tribe, called sea-fowl, which feed in the water, which 

 may die in the sea near the shore, or be brought down in the rivers, will be 

 carried into the sea, and be fossilizedaccording to the fore-mentioned method, 

 and will be found along with the sea productions. But they will also par- 

 take of the second situation, as in large valleys leading to the sea, which 

 M'ere formerly arms of the sea or inlets, which are to be considered as 

 having been moving shores, as the sea gradually leaves the land, leaving 

 materials it had robbed higher land of, raising the bottom, or forming 

 a new surface, lessening the depth of water at these places, Mhich 

 renders it slower and slower in its motion, as before described, at last 

 becoming a river. Such new land will bury in it such productions, 

 whether of sea or land, but most of those common to both, as shall either 

 die in it, or being brought into it, constituting chiefly such animals that 

 inhabit both land and ^Aater, as also amphibia, with land animals that 

 came there, or vegetables that were brought there, making a heteroge- 

 neous mixture. And I believe it may be observed in general, that the 

 fossil bones of land-animals or birds are commonly found in such de- 

 posited materials, as gravel, sand, clay," etc. — P. xxxvii. 



" But the preservation of vegetables and land-animals is most probably 

 not confined to such situations alone. A change in the situation of the sea 

 most probably has been a cause in the production of such fossils, m hich 

 constitutes a third situation of the production of fossils. Therefore, to 

 preserve vegetables, bones of land-animals, and many birds, one of two 

 circumstances must have taken place : first, a change of the situation of the 

 sea upon the land where such productions are. But in [regard to] what 

 may be called 'land-birds,' there will be a few of them [found fossil]; 

 for hardly any change in the land or sea can take place but what they 

 can follow, — the new rising land, as it were, growing out of the m aters, 

 and abandoning the old, which now becomes covered with the waters." — 

 P. xxxviii. 



The tenor of the above observations may be contrasted with those made 

 in Lyell's ' Principles of Geology,' on which the conclusions of modern geo- 

 logists have been founded. Hunter, after hypothetically suggesting that 

 some fossil species may be now extinct, says, — 



"How they became extinct is not easily accounted for; for although we 

 must suppose that the species of deer '^Megaceros'] to which belonged the 

 bones and horns now found in the island of Great Britain, more particu- 

 larly in Scotland, and still more in Ireland, is lost, yet we have reason to 

 believe they were coeval with the ele])hant ; for I have the lower jaAv and 

 tooth of an elephant that were dug up at Ougle [Oundle], in Northamp- 

 tonshire, twelve feet below the surface, in a strong blue clay ; and with it, 

 one of the horns of the large deer. " — P. viii. 



This opinion of the antiquity of the Mcgaceros has been confirmed hy 

 later observations : in Ireland its remains occur in the shell-marl under- 

 lying the turbary. 



Hunter proceeds to express his thoughts on the nature of fossil organic 



