86 GEOLOGY AND HISTORY 



type. These are good evidences of the unity of man 

 through all the ages, but no race exists having all 

 the peculiarities of these ancient peoples, which thus 

 belong not to a distinct species but to a distinct racial 

 variety of man. 



Secondly, at the close of the palanthropic age we 

 find a great change in land animals a number of 

 important species hunted by early man having dis- 

 appeared, <an<i -the more meagre modern fauna having 

 come in at once. Thus it may be affirmed that the 

 land fauna of this primitive time was distinct from 

 that now living. This implies either long time or a 

 great physical break. 



Thirdly, this change of fauna consists not so much 

 in the introduction of new species as in the extinction of 

 old forms, either absolutely or locally ; and this agrees 

 with the fact of diminution of land area, since it seems 

 to be a law of the geological succession that increas- 

 ing land brings in new land animals ; diminishing 

 land area leads to extinction, and not to introduction. 



Fourthly, in accordance with this we find that, at 

 the close of the palanthropic age, the continents of the 

 northern hemisphere experienced a subsidence from 

 which they have only partially recovered up to the 

 present time, and which introduced the modern 

 geographical and climatal features. This appears 

 from raised beaches and beds of rubble, loam and 

 loess of modern date overlying the dtbris of the 

 glacial period and holding the remains of post-glacial 

 animals. These are widely spread over the whole 



