94 Feather stonhaugtfs Geological Report. 



we know nothing of the causes which could have produced 

 its universal extinction, if they were not of the diluvial charac- 

 ter. Its bones have been found here mixed up with those of 

 the elephant, and the megalonyx, in deposites brought toge- 

 ther no doubt by local floods. In other instances skeletons 

 have been found nearly entire, buried in lacustrine marls of a 

 late period, and in one instance a skeleton was found not quite 

 covered up on the surface. They appear to have existed 

 during the present order of nature, but in no instance have 

 we any evidence of their being contemporaneous with what 

 may strictly be called the historic period, no vestige of any 

 thing which has any relation to the human race ever having 

 been found mixed up with their remains. 



One of the circumstances which makes this science so 

 interesting to all reflecting beings, is, that in no deposite, 

 whether of gravel, of sand, or of clay, whether in caves or in 

 streams, have any human remains ever been found, that were 

 apparently connected, in the most remote manner, with any 

 of the geological periods which have been reviewed. These 

 have disclosed to us surprising instances of progressive ad- 

 vance in organic structure, adjusted to the gradual changes 

 produced in the level of the ocean and the consequent in- 

 crease of dry land. But what crowns the consideration of 

 this lofty and attractive subject is, that, reverting from these 

 imbedded records of creative power to ourselves, the full evi- 

 dence seems to be before us and around us, of a providential 

 preparation for the reception of our own race, and of our 

 being placed here at an appointed time ; not like the animals, 

 with a capacity for self-preservation only, but of rising to that 

 sense of the responsibility we exist under to the universal 

 Creator, which may guide us to another existence when our 

 bodies are consigned to the common receptacle of organic 

 nature. 



