Professor Pictet on Fossil Bones. 24 1 



wise the case with the caves, in which occur bears and large 

 feline animals belonging to lost species. From this, it ap- 

 pears to me probable, that the gravels of the greater part of 

 Europe have been deposited, and the caverns been filled with 

 the remarkable bones which characterise them, at a period 

 anterior to that when our later arenaceous deposits were 

 formed ; and that, consequently, the soil of our valley is the 

 produce of a geological event of a comparatively recent date. 



I finally draw, from the study of these bones, a third conclu- 

 sion, which is the confirmation of an opinion I have stated 

 elsewhere (Traite elementaire de Paleontologie.) I am of opin- 

 ion, that the era designated by geologists the diluvian epoch, 

 ought not to be distinguished from the modern epoch, for I 

 think it can be demonstrated that there are no changes of 

 fauna between them, which changes are so remarkable in re- 

 gard to the anterior epochs. It appears to me that the gi'eater 

 part of the species of the diluvian epoch still live in our own 

 day. I do not admit that any have been created at the com- 

 mencement only of the modern epoch. I think that the di- 

 luvian deposits of Europe have been formed by a series of 

 partial occurrences, which have not interrupted, in a general 

 way, the life and organization on the surface of the earth, 

 but which have been limited to the destruction of a few spe- 

 cies. 



The corroboration of this manner of viewing the case, de- 

 pends on a lengthened chain of facts, of which those I men- 

 tion here form only a link, and for which I refer to geologi- 

 cal treatises. My principal arguments are, in fact, drawn 

 from the study of the fossil animals of the epoch named dilu- 

 vian. The caves and gravel deposits of Europe, contain 

 many skeletons of mammifera which cannot be distinguished 

 from the actual species, and a very small number of lost spe- 

 cies. Almost all the animals now inhabiting our countries 

 liave already existed at this epoch. The wolf, the fox, the 

 mole, badger, &c., &c., of caverns, are identical with those 

 now alive. The fossils of the Genevese gravels appear to me 

 to furnish a new proof of this, for the identity of the species 

 is, in this case, still more marked, and shews a period of 

 transition between the age of the animals of caverns and 



