232 THE BOUNDARY-LINE BETWEEN GEOLOGY AND HISTORY. 



Gradually, in the course of thousands of years, tbe land sank, the sea 

 separated parts from it, and a milder temperature prevailed. Then a 

 portion of the flora and fauna slowly migrated, partly to the mount- 

 ains, partly to the north, and partly to both. Many large animals like 

 the mammoth, incapable of living in the mountains, remained behind; 

 the lowlands at the lower part of the Ehine's course, which were prob- 

 ably the principal abodes of these large herbivorous animals, gradu- 

 ally sank below the present I^orth Sea, so that they, exposed to an un- 

 congenial climate, surrounded by a new immigrated flora not their orig- 

 inal food, and subjected to the attacks of man, gradually died out. In 

 the lowlands new species continually appeared, many after Ireland and 

 some few after England had already become separated from the conti- 

 nent. Finally came new tribes of men with new arts, and we find the 

 first traces of agriculture. Here the historian takes up the account 

 from the geologist and palaeontologist. 



This sketch necessarily remained imperfect, because it was not possi- 

 ble to make it include all the further proofs furnished by the study of 

 the present distribution of plants, of lower animals, (laud snails,) and 

 especially of marine animals. It was also necessary to pass over all 

 those phenomena which relate to the existence of a separate population 

 in Western Europe. But jjerhaps what has been said will be sufficient 

 to give a general idea. 



Defenseless, like no other animal of the same size, man is born with- 

 out sharp teeth, without claws, without any external means of defense, 

 such as the fur of many beasts. The child is dependent a longer time 

 on its mother than the young of any other animal, and no being is as 

 helpless. And yet man has made himself the master of all. He has 

 made a thousand instruments, fire, and the modulations of speech his 

 own. The space of time, which now follows and which is called the Age 

 ©f Man, exhibits one great, enduring, eminent characteristic — the pro- 

 gressive, irresistible triumph of the intellect. 



