760 GEOLOGY. 



duct of the Noachian deluge, and hence received the name of diluvium, the absence of 

 human bones in connection with the abundant remains of the animal races was viewed with 

 surprise ; and, eager to detect the presence of the antediluvian man in accumulations 

 which were believed to be the work of the Noachian flood, several inquirers fell into 

 gross mistakes in interpreting some fossil relics. Thus Scheuchzer, a physician in the 

 year 1726, described a schistus rock from CEningen on the Rhine as containing the 

 impression of a man, and wrote a dissertation upon the object, entitled Homo Diluvii 

 testis, remarking in another of his works, " that it is indubitable, and that it contains a 

 moiety, or nearly so, of the skeleton of a man ; that the substance even of the bones, 

 nay more, of the flesh, and of parts still softer than the flesh, are there incorporated in 

 the stone ; in a word, that it is one of the rarest relics which we possess of that cursed 

 race which was overwhelmed by the waters." This rare object was ultimately dis 

 possessed of its interest by being shown to be the remains of a salamander. Some 

 human skeletons, along with articles of human fabrication, have indeed been found 

 imbedded in a rock in the island of Guadaloupe ; but the rock is comparatively of very 

 recent date one of those coralline formations common in that archipelago, now in 

 process of construction and augmentation from the fragments of corals detached by the 

 waves. The skeletons were first discovered in 1805 by an officer of the colony, in 

 which year the governor caused one to be extracted, in order to be transmitted to Parie, 

 when the island surrendered to the English arms. Admiral Cochrane therefore for- 

 wai-ded it to England, where it is now deposited in the British Museum, conceived to be 

 the skeleton of a Carib, its native bed being unquestionably of very modern date, com 

 posed of coralline debris. The remains of man have also been found in several ossiferous 

 caverns, but under circumstances which show their recent accumulation. His bones are 

 met with in turf-bogs and alluvial beds, in burying grounds and battle fields ; but no 

 well-authenticated case exists to establish a conviction that he had come into existence 

 when the extinct species of elephants and rhinoceroses, of mastodons and megatheridaa, in 

 vast herds occupied the earth, roamed the jungles, and browsed the herbs; or when those 

 great catastrophes took place which annihilated these tribes, aggregated the drift, the 

 osseous breccias, and the ossiferous deposits of the caves. Cuvier remarks, that human 

 bones preserve equally well with those of animals, when placed in the same circum 

 stances ; that there is no observable difference in this respect in Egypt between the 

 mummies of men and those of quadrupeds ; that we do not find, in ancient fields of battle, 

 that the skeletons of men are more wasted than those of horses, except in so far as they 

 may be influenced by size ; and that the bones of animals as small as rats have been per 

 fectly well preserved as long as those of the gigantic mammoth. We may infer, there 

 fore, from the absence of human remains in the drift, and from the presence there of 

 animals of extinct species, and, in several instances, of extinct genera, that its aggregation 

 belongs to an epoch anterior to the appearance of man ; and various circumstances con 

 spire to prove, that it is not only more ancient than the era of the Noachian flood, but 

 that it has been accumulated at distinct periods, and by the action of different causes. 



Scattered through the gravel, clay, and sand of the drift, and frequently occurring in 

 an independent manner, there are masses of rock denominated erratic, from being found 

 at a distance from the place of their origin. Owing to alluvial agency having removed 

 the light accompanying debris from these blocks, they appear insulated upon the surface, 

 sometimes forming rocking-stones, being so poised that a small force will make them 

 oscillate. The size of some of these erratic blocks is enormous. That out of which the 

 pedestal of the statue of Peter the Great at Petersburg was hewn, weighed fifteen hundred 

 tons, and was an insulated drifted mass of granite, that lay on a marshy plain near the 

 city, from whence it was removed on rollers and cannon-balls, while the ground of the 



