of the prcBhistorical World in South America. 39 



The information it contains is, indeed, nothing decisive as 

 to the existence of the human species, contemporaneously with 

 those great extinct animals whose remains are found fossilized 

 in the earth's strata. But, as relating to the first instance of 

 the discovery of human bones in a fossil state, it is of some in- 

 terest. After mentioning that, up to the date of his letter, he 

 had discovered in 200 chalk caves of Brazil, 115 species of 

 mammalia, of which not more than 88 are now known to exist 

 there, the writer proceeds : — 



" In the midst of these numerous proofs of an order of 

 things quite difi^erent from the present, I yet have never found 

 the slightest trace of the existence of man. I supposed, there- 

 fore, that this question was decided, that human bones no- 

 where occur, when unexpectedly, after six years toil, I had the 

 good fortune to find these bones ; and, indeed, under circum- 

 stances which admit of speaking with some certainty in favour 

 o£ their occurring again. These bones I fell upon in a cave, 

 mingled with the bones of decidedly extinct animals, as, for 

 example, of the Platyonyx Bucklandii^ Ghlamydotherium Hum- 

 holdtiiy C. Majus, Dasypus sulcatus^ Hydrochcarus sulcidens^ 

 <5"c., which directed my whole attention to these reiiiarkable 

 remains. Besides, they all bore the stamp of genuine fossil 

 bones, inasmuch as they were partly converted to stone, and 

 partly impregnated with small particles of the oxide of iron, 

 which not only gave them an extraordinary weight, but even 

 to some of them a metallic glistening. As to the great age of 

 these bones no doubt can exist ; but whether they date from 

 the times of those animals, with the bones of which they were 

 found lying together, in company, is a question which does not 

 admit of being determined with equal certainty, since the cave 

 is on the edge of a lake, by which the waters are yearly driven 

 into it in the rainy season. Not only, therefore, might animal 

 remains by degrees come there, but those brought there by the 

 flowing of the water at later periods might also mingle with 

 the earlier. This supposition has, in fact, received confirma- 

 tion, in that, among the bones of extinct animals, there are 

 also those of races still living. The condition of the latter, 

 too, of which some appear to differ little from fresh bones, 

 leads to this view, while others have reached the half metallic 



