8 Rev. W.V. Vernon on the Fossil Bones of North Cliff. 



should accurate and multiplied observations be extensively 

 made upon the depth of sediment which rivers have deposited 

 above the diluvium, and upon the depth of sediment which the 

 same rivers are still accumulating, — some approximation at 

 least may be arrived at towards the solution of this question ; 

 and it is even possible that similar observations on antedilu- 

 vian alluvia may be attended with interesting results in confirm- 

 ing the testimony of history as to the sera of creation itself. 



In the mean time it is already become one of the best esta- 

 blished inferences in geology, that since the formation of the 

 animals which now subsist upon the earth a general and over- 

 whelming inundation has occurred. In the wreck of that great 

 catastrophe no new genus has been discovered. The fossil 

 species which it has entombed do not differ more from the ex- 

 isting species than the existing species from one another. The 

 antediluvian Bison, Reindeer, Glutton, Wolf, and Fox cannot 

 be distinguished by any specific difference from the recent 

 animals, nor, as far as yet appears, can the Horse or Stag; and 

 the distinction of one species of Bear is allowed to be doubt- 

 ful. 



The indigenous European quadrupeds wanting to this list 

 are not ver}' numerous ; and of these it is liighly probable that 

 more will be found when the repositories of antediluvian bones 

 shall have been fully searched. Fifteen species of molluscous 

 animals have now been compared with their recent analogues, 

 and, as might be expected of more stationary animals, the spe- 

 cific identity has been found to be still more absolute. Against 

 this positive evidence that the whole belong to one epoch, in- 

 terrupted only by a transient convulsion, there is nothing to set 

 but the disappearanceof some of the antediluvian species; and 

 this is surely no imnatural consequence of the catastrophe 

 which is admitted to have occurred. 



I am, therefore, very far from agreeing in the oj)inion that 

 " the body of evidence seems to render a new creation pre- 

 sumable*," subsequent to the diluvian epoch ; and I am equally 

 far from thinking that there is any evidence at all against the 

 creation of "Man and the Monkeys" having preceded the ^^- 

 ological deluge. The only inference which can be drawn from 

 the absence of the bones of monkeys is that which has been 

 long since indicated by Cuvier, that the antediluvian animals 

 of Europe were not the same as the animal population of the 

 torrid zone; and with respect to human bones, it must be re- 

 membered that it is only lately, by the industry of living natura- 

 lists, that these deposits have been examined with any attention 



• Sketch of .1 Classification of European Rocks. — Phil. Mag. Dec. 1829. 



even 



