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preventing the inundation of low countries, turning torrents, and di- 

 recting the surface-wiiter through innumerable channels to satisfy his 

 own wants and conveniences ; but he also drives all animals before 

 him which do not suit his purposes, thus circumscribing the domain 

 of those which are not useful to him, while he covers the country with 

 those that are, and which never could exist in such numbers but for 

 his care and protection. Consequently all terrestrial remains would 

 correspond with the increasing power of man, and tlierefore a very 

 different suite of such remains would be now entombed than when 

 his power was more limited. Over the inhabitants of the waters he 

 would exercise little controul, excepting in rivers, small lakes, and 

 around some coasts. 



" One very material difference would be effected in the quantity of 

 trees and shrubs transported to the sea, more particularly in the tem- 

 perate and colder regions, where man requires wood, not only for the 

 purposes of various constructions, but also for fuel. We see in the 

 delta of the Mississippi what an abundance of wood is now transported 

 there by the river, but which will daily diminish as man converts the 

 forests whence it is derived into pastures and corn-fields. 



"The gigantic animal Cervus giganteus, commonly known as the 

 Irish Elk, was once imagined to have existed only at an epoch anterior 

 to man, but it is now considered that he was coexistent with him ; 

 although this by no means proves that he did not live upon the earth 

 previous also to him, as seems to have been the case. We have no 

 great certainty when the Mastodons of North America ceased to 

 exist ; it is commonly supposed that they became extinct previous to 

 the commencement of the modern group, but of this we have no good 

 proof. The same may be said of some other animals. 



"The Dodo seems to afford us an example of the extinction of an 

 animal in comparatively recent times ; for it is now almost certain 

 that this curious bird existed on the Isle of Mauritius during the 

 voyages of the early navigators to the East Indies. The relative an- 

 tiquity, therefore, of animals whose remains are only now found en- 

 tombed, must not be too hastily inferred. The bone of the wolf is 

 that of an extinct animal, as far as the British Islands are concerned." 



Our limits prevent us from noticing the various remarks on the 

 organic character of each group of rocks, further than by extracting 

 the author's observations on the oolitic series, and on what he terms 

 the lowest fossiliferous group. 



" It has been above remarked that the surface on which the oolitic 

 group was deposited, was probably at very various depths beneath that 

 of the sea, and that even during the deposit itself, the sea varied in depth 

 over the same point, in consequence of movements in the land. The 

 nature of the organic remains also apparently points to the proximity 

 of dry land in some places, while it may have been comparatively remote 

 in others. It does not seem unphiiosophical to infer that the bays, 

 creeks, estuaries, rivers, and dry land were tenanted by animals, each 

 fitted to the situations where it could feed, breed, and defend itself 

 from the attacks of its enemies. That strange reptile the Ichthyo- 

 saurus (one species of which, /. plafyodon, was of a large size, the 



jaws 



