THE HUMAN SPECIES. 101 



came to conclusions, which did not invalidate Mr. Bel- 

 lamy's investigation, though they presented a smaller 

 quantity of gelatine or animal matter than was obtain- 

 ed from the bones above mentioned. Human bones, 

 from the Brixham Cavern, were said to be recent, 

 though they appeared to us as if the extremities had 

 been gnawed, and marks of teeth were traceable at the 

 Bides. Not far from the cave where these remains 

 were found, there was dug out of the sand, a thoroughly 

 fossilized head of a deer (Rangifer ?), within a few 

 feet of a humerus of some great feline, not less than 

 a Panther, but having all the appearance and colour of 

 a recent bone. Great dissimilarity exists in the condi- 

 tions of the bones of extinct mammals, undoubtedly 

 arising in part from their relative ages, but still more 

 from the localities where they are found deposited. 

 Those of Megatherium, often discovered on the surface 

 of the Pampas of Brazil, necessarily differ from bones 

 located in clefts of limestone rocks in the same country ; 

 again, there is a change between these and the Masto- 

 dons of the clayey bone licks of North America and 

 gravels of England ; and, still more, between those of 

 the Asiatic Mammoths, which are so perfectly fresh, 

 that bears have devoured the flesh after many ages of 

 preservation in ice or frozen earth. The bones found 

 in Gibraltar breccia, are not in the same condition as 

 those dug out of the red loam or clay beneath stalag- 

 mites. They are dissimilar even in the same caves, 

 and therefore we may infer, that the criterion whereby 

 their age is to be determined is exceedingly question- 



