GEOLOGY. 297 



the great pachyderms, it is principally composed of carnivorous ani- 

 mals which man is interested to destroy, and of herbivora which 

 should serve for his nourishment. 



Mr. Lartet, in a memoir recently presented to the London Geo- 

 logical Society, has furnished a new argument in favor of this hy- 

 pothesis. He has found marks of the instruments of man upon the 

 bones of many species of this epoch, and in particular upon those of 

 the ox and the goat; these marks being generally deep cuts de- 

 signed to cause the rupture of the bone, sometimes mere superficial 

 wounds, as if the object had been to elevate the skin about the base 

 of the horns. This destruction of species is merely like that which 

 daily transpires before our eyes. If new circumstances should cause 

 the laws in regard to the chase to be abolished, and if the great land- 

 owners cf Europe did not protect some species, it would not be long 

 before all the deer of Europe would be classed among extinct species. 

 They have already disappeared from many countries, and among others 

 from the valley of the Rhone, where the stag and the roe-buck were 

 abundant at the end of the last century. 



A curious fact has been cited which seems to confirm what I have 

 said ; it is, the very limited number of species of small size, or little 

 connected with the wants of man, among those which have disap- 

 peared. 



Such is the opinion which has been formed in regard to the causes 

 of this extinction. I repeat, therefore, that these causes can have no 

 relation to those which acted during the previous periods, for in the 

 renovation of the fauna there has always been a replacing of some 

 species by others. 



Here, on the contrary, we merely find extinctions, which can no 

 more furnish a basis for distinguishing two periods than could the de- 

 struction of the Bos primigeni us or that of the Dodo. 



To complete our knowledge of the history of the Diluvio-modern 

 period, it would be very interesting to ascertain the date of the ex- 

 tinction of each species. Some investigations of this kind have been 

 recently undertaken, principally in England; but observers gene- 

 rally content themselves with stating the relation of bones to the 

 Quaternary epoch without other details. It is important always, 

 where it is possible, to determine accurately the position and the 

 geological relations of the stratum which encloses them, and some- 

 times even to indicate whether they are found in the upper or the 

 losver part of the stratum. It is important to examine with great 

 care the bones in the deposits of the glacial epoch, for it is very 

 probable that many species have extended even to that period. By 

 such studies, well directed, we may obtain more accurate knowledge 

 of this series of extinctions, and I doubt not we shall be more and 

 more convinced that they have been gradual and successive. 



ANTIQUITY OF MAN FROM THE EVIDENCE OF LANGUAGE. 



The following paper on the above subject was read to the British 

 Association, 18G1, by Mr. Crawfurd: 



The periods usually assigned for man's first appearance on earth 

 dated only from the time when he had already attained such an 



