GEOLOGY. 239 



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tion for discussion, it might be suggested whether the disappearance 

 of the aboriginal tribes might be tahen as a type of what might happen 

 at a future period of the world's kistory, when the present population 

 shall have given place to an order of beings superior to the now domi- 

 nant race of mankind. Europe was now the centre from which this 

 flood of civilized life was overspreading the globe, and our own Anglo- 

 Saxon race contributed one of the chief elements of that civilization. 

 It might be the lot of nations now springing into existence at the anti- 

 podes to outstrip her in the pursuit of knowledge, and, when ages shall 

 have passed away, to supply a nobler race and a more perfect human- 

 ity to the lands which noAv rank foremost in civilization. To specu- 

 late upon this, however, was of little value. Viewed as a bare fact, 

 and taking it in connection with what we knew of the previous history 

 of man, there was nothing in the extinction of races to justify us in 

 regarding it as a type of anything to follow at some future period. 

 The man who now wanders free through the unknown wilds of Aus- 

 tralia had not only not advanced in moral development since the for- 

 mation of his species, but he had actually retrograded. We must, 

 therefore, regard this extinction of races rather as an illustration of 

 humanity in its crudest form shrinking and passing away before a race 

 endowed with superior intelligence. 







FOSSIL EAR-BONES OF FISHES. 



The fossil ear-bones, or as they are technically termed otolitlis, of 

 fishes, have generally escaped the notice of fossil collectors ; but atten- 

 tion has been recently called to them by Mr. W. W. Stoddard in a 

 communication to the Intellectual Observer, (England.) He states 

 that although these remarkable little fossils are not described in any 

 work on geology hitherto published, they are to be obtained in great 

 numbers from some strata. Since 1859, when Mr. Stodclard's notice 

 was first drawn to the subject, he has successfully determined the fos- 

 sil otoliths of the cod, whiting, whiting-pout, power-cod, pollack, flying 

 fish, and also of many of the Pleuronectidse. They have been princi- 

 pally found in the Crag of Suffolk, the Eocene beds of Sussex, Hamp- 

 shire, and Isle of Wight. 



In order to ascertain the species of fish to which the several ear- 

 bones belong, it is necessary to dissect an immense number of heads ; 

 for a most striking fact has been deinorfstrated, and one without anal- 

 ogy in natural history, namely, tJ/at a characteristic form is more pecul- 

 iar to the species than the rjcnus or family. That is to say, the ear- 

 bones of a species have invariably a configuration peculiar to itself. 

 But no form has yet been observed that will point out a genus, family, 

 or tribe ; for example, the same general form is equally found in the 

 ear-bones of the Clupeidas and Scrombidae, but still there is no diffi- 

 cult}' in determining, with the greatest confidence, the specific name 

 of a mackerel or a herring by the markings on their ear-bones, because 

 they are always constant, and never the same in two species. 



With all these interesting relations, and the frequency of their occur- 

 rence, it is very remarkable that the fossil otoliths have not been no- 

 ticed before. Mr. Stoddard states, however, his collection even now 

 contains more than forty species of fossil otoliths, all distinct, and 

 many of fish hitherto unknown in the fossil state. 



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