FOSSIL RELICS OF EXTINCT GENERA. 121 



such is readily explained by the absence of native species 

 of large herbivorous mammals ; but the dung of the 

 mastodontoid quadrupeds which formerly existed in 

 Australia must then have afforded the requisite condi- 

 tions for a greater abundance of such coleoptera. These 

 and other speculations are naturally suggested by the 

 highly interesting fossils here described. The great 

 importance of such organic remains will be obvious from 

 the few^ inferences which have been briefly noted ; our 

 obligations to the enlightened collector and transmitter 

 of the mastodontoid fossils are great, and the arrival of 

 additional facts and specimens will be most earnestly 

 welcomed." 



A consideration of the fossil relics of extinct animals 

 throws the mind back upon remote periods before the 

 surface of our globe had acquired its present aspect, its 

 present arrangement of land and water, of mountains 

 and plains, islands and continents ; and when we begin 

 to review the history of its phases, we find ourselves 

 carried back into the obscure of time, till — in comparison 

 with the ages which have passed since the commence- 

 ment of the Primary period, wherein those oldest rocks 

 were formed in which there are no traces of animal or 

 vegetable life, to the conclusion of the Secondary geo- 

 logical period — the date of man's existence on the globe 

 seems but of yesterday, and the ^ew thousand years 

 through which he has played his part sink into a span. 



But though the vast antiquity of the globe is clearly 

 demonstrated, still the length of time which has elapsed 

 during the formation of the whole or of any definite 

 portion of the crust of the earth is a problem yet to be 

 solved. We know that at one period life had no place 

 on our planet. The gneiss and mica-schist systems of 

 strata of the Primary period are destitute of all trace of 

 organic remains. In these, the most ancient of rocks, 

 which exhibit to us the combined effects of igneous and 

 aqueous agency, no fossil relics speak of a Fauna or 

 Flora during their formation, and we may believe that* 

 few or none of the organised wonders of nature were 

 then in existence, because the physical conditions of the 



