HUMAN REMAINS 401 



quest and persecution by man. We may discern in this fact 

 the operation of changes in physical geography, which have at 

 length so affected the conditions of existence of the Siberian 

 manatee as to have caused its extinction. Such changes had 

 operated, at an earlier period, to the extinction of the elephant 

 and rhinoceros of the same region and latitudes : a future 

 generation of zoologists may have to record the final disappear- 

 ance of the Arctic buffalo (Ovibos moschatus). Eemains of 

 Ovibos and Rytina show that they were contemporaries of 

 Elephas primigenius and Rhinoceros tichorrhinus. 



But recent discoveries indicate that, in the case of the 

 last two extinct quadrupeds, a rude primitive human race 

 may have finished the work of extermination, begun by ante- 

 cedent and more general causes. 



Flint weapons called " celts," unquestionably fashioned 

 by human hands, have been discovered in stratified gravel, 

 containing remains of the mammoth, in the valley of the 

 Somme near Abbeville and Amiens, at different periods, 

 from the year 1847 (Boucher de Perthes, "Antiquites cel- 

 tiques et antediluviennes," Paris, 1847) to the present time. 



These evidences of the human species have been extracted 

 from the deposit in question, by Mr. Prestwich (" ] 7 feet from 

 the surface in undisturbed ground," " Proceedings of the Eoyal 

 Society," May 26, 1859) ; by Mr. Flower, (" 20 feet from the 

 surface, in a compact mass of gravel," " Times," November 

 18, 1859) ; by M. Gaudry (" LTnstitut," October 5, 1 859) ; and 

 by M. Geo. Pouchet, — all with their own hands in the course 

 of the year 1859. Besides the Elephas primigenius, remains 

 of Rhinoceros tichorhinus, Cervus somonensis, Ursus spelosus, and 

 of a large extinct Bovine animal, have been found in the 

 same bed of gravel. 



Mr. Prestwich, F.G.S., -after a careful study of the geolo- 

 logicaJ relations of this bed, refeTS it to the post-pliocene 



2 D 



