Royal Institution. 199 



strata resulted, before this country was again in a condition to sus- 

 tain other mammalian races. Of these intermediate operations, and 

 of the contemporary mammals, we have only the evidence of conti- 

 nental geology. We have in this country traces of one species of 

 mastodon, found in the miocene crag-deposits of Norfolk. In pro- 

 cess of time, when this island had become the seat of freshwater 

 lakes, in which molluscous shells were deposited, and during the 

 changes which converted lakes into river- courses, there were in these 

 deposits and in contemporaneous local drifts, remains of mammalian 

 fauna: the mastodon had disappeared; but, of the Ungulata were 

 traces of mammoth, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, urus, bison, bos, Me- 

 gaceros, Strongyloceros, Hippelephas, reindeer, roe, horse, ass, wild 

 boar ; — of the Carnivora : lion or tiger, Machairodus, leopard and 

 cat — hysena, bears, wolves and foxes, badger, otter, polecat, weasel ; 

 — of the Insectivora : bats, moles and shrews, Palceospalax (large 

 shrew mole, now extinct) ; — of Rodentia : beavers, hares, rats and 

 mice, lagomys {Trogontherium, extinct) ; — of Cetacea : cachelot, nar- 

 whal, grampus, whales. 



The Professor then demonstrated, by the following proofs, that 

 these remains had not been brought hither by any sudden and trans- 

 ient convulsion, but were relics of animals which had lived and died 

 in this island in successive generations. 1 . Vast numbers are found 

 in tranquil freshwater strata. 2. The condition of the bones is not 

 as if they had been triturated by the violence of waves, but their pro- 

 cesses are perfect, and their outlines sharp and well-defined. 3. The 

 great proportion of antlers proved to have been naturally shed, and 

 these of different stages of growth, to the fossil bones of the deer, 

 proves, beyond question, that generations of this animal must have 

 passed their existence here. 4. The CoproUtes, and other phseno- 

 mena of Kirkdale Cavern, described by Dr. Buckland. Anticipating 

 the question — how so many races of quadrupeds, now extinct, could 

 have found their way hither — Prof. Owen gave a brief outline of the 

 geological and zoological evidence, that England once formed a part 

 of the continent from whence they came. The British Channel is, 

 geologically speaking, of recent formation. At the time when En- 

 gland became an island, it is probable that the mammoth, rhinoceros, 

 hippopotamus, &c. became extinct. This, though at a geologically 

 recent period, was long before any historical records existed. 



Prof. Owen adverted then to Dumarest's arguments in confirma- 

 tion of this opinion, derived from the specific identity of the wolf and 

 the bear of France, with the same animals historically known to have 

 once infested our island ; and he maintained that the races of some 

 of our most familiar animals were coeval with the mammoth : two 

 species of bats, mole, badger, otter, fox, wild cat, mouse, hare, horse, 

 red deer, roe ; and, on the continent, the reindeer, beaver, wolf. La- 

 gomys ; the aurochs of Russia, identical with an animal of the same 

 kind in England. In the New World the same correspondence is 

 singularly illustrated by the coincidence of the peculiarly zygomatic 

 process and the dentition of the megatherium with that of the still 

 living sloth. The Armadillo of South America is also similar to the 

 high fossil Glyptodon. North America had its peculiar species of 



