28 Geological Age of Man, 



to have been in the same state or condition as those of the 

 extinct quadrupeds, the human skull being referable to the 

 same type as that of the American Indian of Brazil. But 

 although such fossils may have been very ancient, histori- 

 cally speaking, we must wait for additional testimony before 

 we allow this single instance to convince us that the human 

 race co-existed with the extinct Brazilian and Pampean fauna, 

 in which case it must have outlived one assemblage of mam- 

 malia and witnessed the coming in of another, perfectly 

 distinct.* Nor can we reconcile the facts of the case with 

 the hypothesis that man was the exterminating agent of the 

 quadrupeds which have disappeared. Not only have the 

 Megatherium, Auchenia, Mastodon, and other huge quad- 

 rupeds died out since these caves were filled with fossil 

 bones, but several also of the contemporary minute crea- 

 tures, such as seven species of bats and thirty-two of Glires, 

 and many small opossums. The five extinct apes, moreover, 

 described by Lund, were not associated with fossil bones of 

 the living species of apes which now abound in Brazil, and 

 in the extirpation of which man has made but little progress. 

 As all the vertebrate, and nearly all the invertebrate 

 eocene fossils belong to species now no more, we could 

 never reasonably expect the remains of man to form part of 

 an eocene fauna. Previously to experience, the utmost that 

 analogy entitled us to look for in rocks of such high anti- 

 quity was the occurrence of some dominant species, different 

 from the human, yet holding a corresponding position in the 

 then living creation. Neither the osseous remains nor the 

 handiwork of such a being have ever been detected ; and as 

 I before stated, although there have been, since the lower 

 eocene epoch, so many complete changes in the species of 

 warm-blooded quadrupeds inhabiting the land, no progress 

 whatever has been made in filling up the chasm which now 

 separates man from the inferior animals. In that rich 

 fauna, probably of miocene date, brought to light by the 

 exertions of Dr Falconer and Major Cautley, in the Sub- 

 Himalayan or Sewalik Hills, there are many extinct species 



* For an abstract of Lund's discoveries, see Archiac, Hist, des Progres de la 

 G60I., torn, ii., p. 385. 



