GEOLOGY. 319 



Comparative Antiquity of Fossils. 



All geologists now agree in thinking, that the ge- 

 nerations of organized bodies, which have succes- 

 sively inhabited the surface of the earth, differ from 

 the present generation in proportion as their debris 

 are further removed from the surface of the earth, or, 

 which comes to the same thing; in proportion as the 

 periods at which they have lived are more remote 

 from the present time. 



It has been ascertained by Cuvier, that the bones 

 of the species similar to those which still exist alive, 

 are never found in a fossil state, except in the latest 

 alluvial depositions, and from their superficial posi- 

 tion they are always in a worse state of preservation 

 than those of an earlier date. 



For a long period the organic productions of the 

 globe appear to have been principally marine. 



Human Fossils. 



Among so many organized remains of a former 

 world, not any traces of human remains were ever 

 known to be found, a fact the more remarkable, as, 

 were the present world destroyed, the quantity of 

 human remains would much exceed any others, 

 which circumstance tends singularly to reconcile the 

 Mosaic with the scientific geology, the revealed with 

 the natural account of time.* 



Human bones have lately been discovered in loam, 

 in gypsum caves, associated with the remains of the 

 rhinocerus, fossil horse, &c., a fact which goes to 

 prove that the human species was in existence, when 

 these animals inhabited Europe, and the temperate 

 regions. 



* The human petrifaction found at Guadeloupe, and now at the 

 Museum, is not an exception, it having been discovered near the 

 surface, not in any of the old formations. 



