ly follow thus--the ox, the boar, the horse, the sheep,
the dog, the hare, the fox, the wolf, and the cat. The beaver seems
extremely rare; but it has been found in the shell-marl of Loch Marlie,
in Perthshire, and in the parish of Edrom, in Berwickshire.

In the greater part of these lake-deposits there are no signs of floods;
and the expanse of water was originally so confined, that the smallest
of the above-mentioned quadrupeds could have crossed, by swimming from
one shore to the other. Deer, and such species as take readily to the
water, may often have been mired in trying to land, where the bottom was
soft and quaggy, and in their efforts to escape may have plunged deeper
into the marly bottom. Some individuals, I suspect, of different
species, have fallen in when crossing the frozen surface in winter; for
nothing can be more treacherous than the ice when covered with snow, in
consequence of the springs, which are numerous, and which, retaining
always an equal temperature, cause the ice, in certain spots, to be
extremely thin, while in every other part of the lake it is strong
enough to bear the heaviest weights.

_Mammiferous remains in marine strata._--As the bones of mammalia are
often so abundantly preserved in peat, and such lakes as have just been
described, the encroachments of a sea upon a coast may sometimes throw
down the imbedded skeletons, so that they may be carried away by tides
and currents, and entombed in submarine formations. Some of the smaller
quadrupeds, also, which burrow in the ground, as well as reptiles and
every species of plant, are liable to be cast down into the waves by
this cause, which must not be overlooked, although probably of
comparatively small importance amongst the numerous agents whereby
terrestrial organic remains are included in submarine strata.

During the great earthquake of Conception in 1835, some cattle, which
were standing on the steep sides of the island of Quiriquina, were
rolled by the shock into the sea, while on a low island at the head of
the Bay of Conception seventy animals were washed off by a great wave
and drowned.[1078]

CHAPTER XLVIII.

IMBEDDING OF THE REMAINS OF MAN AND HIS WORKS IN SUBAQUEOUS STRATA.

Drifting of human bodies to the sea by river
inundations--Destruction of bridges and houses--Loss of lives by
shipwreck--How human corpses may be preserved in recent
deposits--Number of wrecked vessels--Fossil skeletons of