ROOM VI. FOSSIL HUMAN SKELETONS. 485 



of human skeletons and works of art, was immediately after the great 

 inundation which spread the rolled boulders and detritus of the Drift 

 or Diluvium over the valleys and plains, and into the caverns and 

 fissures, in which the bones of the mammalia that inhabited the land are 

 found entombed. What species, now extinct, were existing at the 

 period of the first advent of the human race into Europe, it is scarcely 

 possible to determine. The Irish Elk, two or three species of Bos, and 

 probably a species of Horse, Beaver, and Bear, are apparently the only 

 lost forms which the facts at present known point out as contemporaries 

 of the aboriginal tribes of the British Islands and the neighbouring 

 Continent. In the ancient tertiary strata, though the bones of many 

 species of quadrupeds of existing genera, and even some species believed 

 to be identical, abound, yet no vestiges of Man or of his works have 

 been detected. While, therefore, we may reasonably expect to find fossil 

 human remains in strata of higher antiquity than any in which they 



LIGH. 115. PLAN OF THJB CLIFF AT GUADA LOUPE. 



a. Ancient rocks. 



b. Modem limestone, in which the human skeleton was imbedded. 



have hitherto been observed, it does not seem probable that traces of 

 Man's existence will be met with in the Eocene, or ancient tertiary 

 formations ; for, notwithstanding the occurrence of existing genera and 

 species of mammalia, even of that race which approaches nearest to Man 

 in its physical organisation, the quadrumana or Monkey- tribes, there 

 are no just grounds for assuming that physical evidence will be obtained 

 by which the existence of Man, and, consequently, of the present order 

 of things, may be traced back to that remote era. 



In reference to this problem, I entirely concur in the opinion ex- 

 pressed by Professor Whewell, 1 " that the gradation in form between man 

 and other animals is but a slight and unimportant feature in con- 

 templating the great subject of the origin of the human race. Even if 

 we had not Revelation to guide us, it would be most unphilosophical to 

 attempt to trace back the history of man, without taking into account the 



1 Anniversary Address of the Geological Society of London. 



