( 377 ) 
being as firm and folid Bones as thofe that are here prefer • 
ved, might for :he fame reafon have ftill remained intire. 
But fmce we find it otherwife, ’tis obvious to imagine 
a probable Conje&ure how this might come about. From 
what r ,N mentions in bis Letter, ’tis plain that the 
Bed whereaii thefe Bones were found, muft once have 
been the outward $ urface of the Earth, the Green-Sod y 
producing 'Rufhes, Fern 2nd Nutts : and when the heavy 
Beaft firft feli dead upon this Spor, the Scull, with all the 
Bones and Teeth of the upper Jaw, being the highefl 
Parts of the Animal , might likely fall in fuch a Pofture, 
as to be expofed fome while above the Earth ; tho’ thofe 
of the under Jaw firft coming to the Ground, might make 
themfelves a Bed, and being covered with the Mould 
remain preferv’d, whilft the upper Teeth, and moft of 
the other Bones, lying expofed to the Injuries of the Air 
and Weather, before they got a Covering, might rot and 
quickly moulder all away. 
But tho’ this be allowed, yet (till a greater Difficulty 
remains unfolv’d ; how this large Body’d Animal , a Na- 
tive of the remote warm Climates of the World, fhould be 
depofited in this wild Northern /Jland, (where Greeks or 
Romans never had a footing,) fo many Miles from Sea, and 
diftant from thofe Places of the Ifle where People might 
moft probably refort. 
And ftill to make the Difficulty yet greater, we muft 
confider, not -only from the dark black Colour of the 
Teeth, contracted by their lying long under Ground, 
and the remarkable Alteration wrought on their bony 
Subftance, which (by the mineral Streams and Exhalati- 
ons it has imbib’d whilft it was in the Earth) is now be- 
come more folid, hard, and ponderous, than it was na- 
turally at firft, (nay in fome s arts we find it plainly petri- 
fied ) but alfofrom the per idling of all the other Bones of 
the Animal’s Body, and from the confiderable Depth of 
N n n Earth 
