THE DELUGE OF NOAH 129 



them here. A few leading points may, however, be 

 noted. One of these is the small amount of physical 

 or organic change which has occurred since the close 

 of the palanthropic period. Another is the more 

 rapid rate of erosion and deposition by rivers in 

 the modern period than had previously been sup- 

 posed. Another is the striking fact that a large 

 number of mammals, like the mammoth and woolly 

 rhinoceros, seem to have perished simultaneously 

 with the paLneocosmic men, and this by some sudden 

 catastrophe. 1 It has also been shown by Pictet and 

 Dawkins that all the extant mammals of Europe 

 already existed in the post-glacial age, but along 

 with many others now altogether or locally extinct 

 Thus there seems to have been the removal over the 

 whole northern hemisphere of a number of the 

 largest mammals, while a selected number survived 

 and no additions were made. Again, while at one 

 time it was supposed that the remains of palaeocosmic 

 man and his contemporaries were confined to caverns 

 and river alluvia, it is now known that they occur 

 also on high plateaus and water-sheds, in beds of 

 gravel and silt which must have been deposited there 

 under conditions of submergence and somewhat 

 active current drift, perhaps in some cases aided by 

 floating ice. 2 Lastly, while, as must naturally be the 

 case, in some places the remains of ancient and more 



1 Howorth, The Mammoth and the Flood. 



2 Prestwich on deposits at Ightham, Kent, Journal Geological 

 Society, May 1889. 



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