PREVIOUS TO THE LAST GEOLOGICAL REVOLUTION. 385 



to throw light on a geological phaenomenon in the Old World, 

 that has hitherto been veiled in some obscurity : and I trust 

 that the contemporaneousness of the boulder formation of 

 Europe, and of the osseous breccia of the northern coast of 

 the Mediterranean, may from this time be considered an in- 

 contestable fact in science. This correspondence in respect 

 to the youngest geological formations at two points of our 

 planet so far removed from each other, leaves scarcely any 

 doubt as to the very general operation of the mighty cata- 

 strophe that effected these formations. If any one wish for 

 yet another link to this chain of geological coincidences, I 

 would refer him to the latest researches in New Holland. 

 I have carefully compared Mr. Henderson's description of 

 the soil that fills the caves in Wellington Valley, as also 

 of the conditions under which the bones are there found, and 

 I recognize the most striking conformity to the circumstances 

 I have observed in this country. I here close this trea- 

 tise, which was only intended to give a short view of the ex- 

 tinct fauna of this district. I have commenced with the 

 class of mammals, as being the most perfect to be met with 

 on the theatre of that creation, inasmuch as Man, that 

 creation's lord, had not yet entered on the scene. I am 

 well aware how careful we should be in founding a con- 

 clusion on a negative fact ; but when this negative fact holds 

 good so constantly as is here the case, in the midst of so 

 many positive facts that rise around it, and serve each to 

 confirm it, I think we cannot refuse to it an equal weight 

 with any of them. And how, I may ask, was it possible 

 for man to exist in a country so full of fearful beasts of 

 prey, as was Brazil in those ages ? How especially was it 

 possible, that amid the vast mass of victims, which the 

 first glance behind the scenes of that ancient world has shown 

 us, so weak a creature as man should alone have escaped the 

 necessity of yielding to physical superiority the sacrifice 

 that so many more powerful animals were compelled to 

 offer ? I think we may conclude with certainty, that where 

 the haunts of the Tiger and Hyaena betray no trace of human 

 bones, our race had not appeared as an element in the com- 

 position of the organic world. 



This paper having swelled to a much greater compass than 

 I originally contemplated, I think it will be convenient if I 

 subjoin a brief survey of the main results of my labours, so 

 far as they are new to science. 



In the period that immediately preceded the last geolo- 

 gical revolution on the surface of this earth, the tropical 

 zone was by no means uninhabited, or even scantily provided 



Vol. IV— No. 44. n. s. 3 b 



