76 
DILUVIAL OCCURRENCES. 
It carried bones of animals, with clay, stones, &c. 
into caves, or conducted those already there, deeper 
into their recesses. It conveyed quantities of sand 
towards the mouths of caves, and there left it to 
close up their apertures as now seen. Finally, 
though it did not disintegrate and excavate rocks 
into the form of vallies, it unquestionably sw*ept 
before it the substances already spoken of, and 
therewith would generally round off and smoothen 
the inequalities presented by the rocks by choking 
up the hollows of a smaller kind, and depositing 
debris as a covering to projecting asperities ; w T hile 
in its retreat it w'ould by its tide-like undulations 
effectually heighten the circularity of the sides of 
the hills, by depositing matter in all the slight pits 
and excavations; and, evacuating these abodes for 
the last time, w'ould draw within its power the va¬ 
rious loose bodies deforming the evenness of the 
sweeps, and fix them in more requiring situations. 
A great deal also would no doubt be carried onward 
to the subsequent marine beds; and the vallies just 
left by this devastating though in one respect 
ameliorating flood constitute a kind of vallies of 
denudation , a term, which though it chiefly expresses 
the act of carrying away the looser fragments of the 
rocks constituting their sides and bottoms, must 
be understood to imply also, the act of depositing 
in lieu a covering of diluvium, by which the surfa¬ 
ces w r ere rendered smooth and fruitful. 
It is a very common circumstance to find in the 
neighbourhood of our sea, and estuaries, large depo¬ 
sits of diluvium accumulated in the small natural 
hollows and depressions of the rocks, where, secure 
from demolition by the elements, or by agricultural 
proceedings it has lain as originally deposited 
through the long series of post-diluvial years. These 
accumulations consist most generally of clay, with 
impacted pebbles of sandstone, quartz, granite, 
