452 LOUIS AGASSIZ. 



dustry might be found in the cut of their 

 surfaces ? It certainly seems hardly credible, 

 and yet so striking is the evidence before me 

 that I hesitate to reject it. Or do the facts 

 noticed by Lund, those of which Nilsson gives 

 an account, and those which have been ob- 

 served by Mr. Dickinson on the banks of the 

 Mississippi, really indicate the existence of 

 fossil men of different races from those now 

 peopling the surface of the globe? And 

 does the human genus reproduce, in the suc- 

 cession of its races, phenomena analogous to 

 those of the succession of creations which 

 have peopled the earth at different geological 

 epochs? These are questions, the solution 

 of which must be referred to the study of the 

 most recent deposits, — a study we are only 

 just now beginning, and the importance of 

 which we can no longer disregard. But, 

 however you may look upon these questions, 

 you will surely agree with me that in the facts 

 here stated, we have incontestable evidence of 

 repeated upheavals of the coast of Massachu- 

 setts at a recent epoch, that is to say, posterior 

 to the creation of animals and plants now in- 

 habiting Boston Bay. The clear demarcation 

 of the bed of zostera and of the bank of 

 mya, and the absence of the latter anywhere 



