6 
LOCAL OCCURRENCES IN NATURAL HISTORY, 
tale; while of course whatever the bed of the Atlantic unfolded to view in the 
strata formed while it was shrouded in the sea, could have nothing to do with 
the perished cities and multitudes ingulfed within the late advancing waters. 
Now it has never been pretended that any positive remains of the antediluvian 
tribes have ever been found ; and if they perished by any change occurring in 
the ancient bed of any portion of the sea, it must be extremely uncertain, if not 
altogether improbable, that at the present day any mementos, other than historical 
or traditional, should exist before us of that event/' 
But to return to the gravel-beds that have furnished the text of this digressive 
discussion. Their contents seem to indicate the existence of both igneous and 
sedimentary rocks, from which these fragments have fallen, and from longer or 
shorter distances been transported, to be finally ground into smoothness and 
rotundity by the incessant action of dashing water, referable only in fact to the 
furious surges of the ocean. That the sea has been here, the shells found by Mr. 
Allies on the Marl below the gravel, and determined to belong to existing 
species , prove beyond a doubt; nor can the transport of the graved itself, and 
its trituration, be owing to any cause less powerful than the force of marine 
currents. Neither can it be allowed that the transient passage of the ocean over 
the country would be sufficient to account for the formation of these masses of 
concrete, which have every aspect of the slow, quiet, but constant accumulation 
of many years. 
If, however, we contemplate here an ancient but deserted oceanic territory, it 
may admit of question how near land existed, in what quantity, and under what 
condition and circumstances. Pa# of it in the form of isolated rocks was 
probably at hand; for, as before noticed, fragments of Graywacke or Trasition 
fossils occur, as well as Syenite, apparently of the same kind as that at Malvern ; 
but it is very dubious whether any Continent or land inhabited by animals lay 
very near. If not, from whence are derived the fossil bones before referred to ? 
It is not easy to answer this question satisfactorily. But surely, if the gravel was 
transported along the bed of the ocean, and deposited there in shoals, the teeth 
and bones now found amongst it must likewise have been carried there by water, 
and cannot reasonably be supposed to be the remains of animals which have died 
on the spot. I exclude the bones found in Limestone caverns from this con¬ 
clusion. As even in the present day it has been noticed, that fruits from the 
West-Indies have been thrown upon the coasts of Ireland, Scotland, and Norway,* 
it is easy to perceive that the carcases of dead animals may in former times 
have been wafted very considerable distances from the localities they occupied 
when living. It is indeed impossible to say how far North the range of the 
Lyell’s Geology , Yol. II., pp. 416—17. 
