between Archczology and Geology. 253 



will be found in the far more ancient tertiary formations. 

 And here it may be necessary to explain, that the geological 

 term Tertiary comprises all the strata that have been depo- 

 sited subsequently to the last secondary formation, the Chalk. 

 The Tertiary systems, therefore, unite the present organic 

 kingdoms of nature with the past ; for while the most ancient, 

 the Eocene deposits, contain the remains of a few secondary 

 species, they have likewise many of genera now existing, 

 associated with peculiar types. 



But notwithstanding the occurrence of bones of living 

 genera of animals — as the dog, fox, pig, sheep, ox, horse, 

 <fec.,* in tertiary strata, incomparably more ancient than the 

 deposits containing the Irish Elk, yet no vestiges of man or 

 of his works have been detected. 



The proofs adduced of the remarkable characters impressed 

 on the deposits that have been formed since the various races 

 of mankind were distributed over the earth's surface, forbid 

 the supposition that the absence of such vestiges can be 

 attributable to their subsequent obliteration. While, there- 

 fore, we may reasonably expect to find fossil human remains 

 in strata of much higher antiquity than those in which they 

 have hitherto been observed, it does not seem probable that 

 traces of man's existence will be met with in the most ancient 

 tertiary formations. 



It was for the express purpose of placing this fact in the 

 most striking point of view, that, in a previous part of this 

 discourse, I dwelt somewhat at length on the nature and 

 organic remains of the deposits that have been accumulated 

 during the human epoch. Notwithstanding, therefore, the 

 occurrence in the Eocene system of existing genera and 

 species of mammalia — even of that race which approaches 

 nearest to man in its physical organization, the Quadrumana, 

 or monkey tribes — I conceive we have no just grounds for 

 assuming that physical evidence will be obtained, by which 

 the existence of the human race, and consequently of the 

 present order of things, may be traced back to that remote 

 era ; for I entirely concur in the opinion expressed by Pro- 



* See Wonders of Geology, vol. i., p. 215. 



