Distr ibution of British Annuals, 303 
marl, in which the relics of existing animals may not be placed, 
and have not been found. 
3. The remains of extinct animals occur in situations, indi- 
cating the action of causes at the period of their burial, not now 
frequently in operation, as in thick beds of clay or gravel ; and 
they likewise are found under circumstances, which prove, that 
no remarkable physical change was taking place at the time, 
nor has taken place at any subsequent period— as in beds of 
peat and marl. The same remark is equally applicable to the 
remains of recent and extirpated animals. 
4. The extinct species have had a geographical distribution 
in Europe, similar to the recent and extirpated kinds with which 
their remains are intermingled. In considering the geographi- 
cal distribution of animals preparatory to the investigation of 
their physical distribution, we should ever bear in mind the 
great changes man may have occasioned in the former. This 
will induce us to attach suitable importance to their fossil relics, 
as the indication of the extent of their former dispersion. But, 
when we find a great difference prevailing in physical distribu- 
tion, between two animals referred to the same species, as the 
Siberian rhinoceros, and the recent African one, the skull of 
which was brought home by Mr Campbell, we should not infer 
identity but from close and extensive resemblances of structure. 
5. The remains of these extinct animals occur only in the su- 
perficial strata, and in fresh-water gravel or clay, and may be 
viewed as connected with the last or modern epoch of the 
earth’s history. 
6. Man was an inhabitant of this country at the time these 
animals, now extinct, flourished, his bones and his instruments 
having been found in similar situations with their remains. 
The natural history of these remains of extinct animals, de- 
monstrate that opinion to be erroneous, which considers the de- 
luge as having drowned these animals, while it formed the beds 
of gravel, clay and loam, in which they are now imbedded. If 
it drowned the hippopotamus, how did the ox and the horse 
escape ? Why this partial selection of its victims among the 
ancient inhabitants of the country ? Professor Buckland, who 
has defended the opinion which ascribes the extinction of these 
