370 Prof. Pictet on the Diluvial Epoch. 



size or of form which can authorize the establishment of any 

 new species. On the other hand, in the bed of the Allondon, 

 that is to say, probably in a formation of the same epoch, a 

 tusk of an elephant has been found. 



These ancient alluvial deposits are probably contemporaneous 

 (or nearly so) with those which exist in various other parts of 

 the Swiss plain, and in which there have been found species 

 now living, as well as remains of elephants. 



These facts seem to me to shew that the mammoth lived 

 along with species identical with those of the present day, and 

 to prove that there was no new creation between the deposits 

 of which I have been speaking and those of our own period. 



I find a second proof in the caverns and breccias themselves. 

 Some species are there met with which I believe to be extinct, 

 siich as the bears of the caverns, the hyaenas, and some others ; 

 but there are also found bones of a larger number of species, 

 which cannot be distinguished from those now living in Europe. 

 The bats, the shrews, the moles, the badgers, the hares, &c., 

 of the caverns, appear to be identical with our own. Is it 

 probable that they should all have differed from the species 

 now living in their external characters, and that, having been 

 destroyed en masse by diluvial inundations, they should have 

 been replaced, by means of an entirely new creation, by species 

 which we are not able to distinguish from them ? 



I am of opinion that the following is the order of events as 

 they occurred in Europe : — 'The species now li^'ing, and some 

 others, were created at the commencement of the diluvial 

 epoch. Partial inundations and changes of temperature caused 

 some of them to perish, such as the mammoth, the species of 

 bear having an arched forehead, the hyaenas, the stag with 

 gigantic horns, the rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, &c. ; but the 

 greater number of the species escaped these causes of destruc- 

 tion, and still live. Besides those which I have mentioned, 

 and others which T have noticed in the body of my work, it is 

 possible, for example, that the Ursits priscus may be the original 

 of recent bears, &c. 



It may be objected, perhaps, that there is nothing, in this 

 manner of viewing the subject, to account for the late appear- 

 ance of man. It must be remarked, however, that it is necea- 



