refuge, as the waters rose, and that, as they subsided, they were drawn from thence into the valley in which they were found; that the agitation of the waters had occasioned such a dispersion of the bones, when the ligaments dissolved, as would account for their having been scattered in the way in which they were found, and that the deposite of shell marl, with which I supposed the water to have been turbid, had so completely protected them from atmospheric influence as to prevent their subsequent decomposition. To enable you to form some estimate of the reasonableness of this supposition, it is necessary that I should endeavour to explain the situation, &c. of the valley and the adjoining hills. The valley in which the remains were found contains about twenty plantation acres, and the soil consists of a stratum of peat about a foot thick, immediately under this a stratum of shell-marl, varying from 1½ to 2½ feet in thickness; in this many of the shells retain their original colour and figure, and are not marine; under the marl there is a bed of light blue clay; through this one of my workmen drove an iron rod, in several places, twelve feet deep, without meeting opposition. Most of the bones and heads, eight in number, were found in the marl; many of them, however, appeared to rest on the clay, and to be merely covered by the marl. The remains were disposed in such a manner as to prevent the possibility of ascertaining the exact component parts of each skeleton; in some places portions were found removed many yards from others, and in no instance were two bones found lying close to each other. Their position also was singular; in one place two heads were found, with the antlers entwined in each other, and immediately under them a large blade-bone; in another, a very large head was discovered, and although a most diligent search was made, no part of the skeleton found; within some hundred yards, in another, the jaw-bones were found, and not the head. The conclusion which, I conceive, may fairly be deduced from such a position of the various parts of the animals is, that there must have been some powerful agent employed in dispersing them after their death; and as I consider it impossible that their own gravity could have been sufficient to sink them through the various strata, I conceive these must have originated subsequently to the dispersion of the bones. I also think, that, if they had been exposed for any time to atmospheric influence, they never could have been preserved in their present extraordinary perfection.