Page:Geology and Mineralogy considered with reference to Natural Theology, 1837, volume 1.djvu/108

 104 except the few bones that may have been collected in caves, or buried under land slips, or the products of volcanic eruptions, or in sand drifted by the winds, it is only in strata formed by water that any remains of land animals can ave been preserved.

We continually see the carcasses of such animals drifted by rivers in their seasons of flood, into lakes, estuaries, and seas; and although it may at first seem strange to find terrestrial remains, imbedded in strata formed at the bottom of the water, the difficulty vanishes on recollection that the materials of stratified rocks are derived in great part from the Detritus of more ancient lands. As the forces of rains, torrents, and inundation shave conveyed this detritus into lakes, estuaries, and seas, it is probable that many carcasses of terrestrial and amphibious animals, should also have been drifted to great distances by currents which swept such