MKMOIR. IX' 



powers of observation and reflection, and by an unequalled ingenuity, con- 

 verted comparative anatomy into a sort of talisman for unfolding the won- 

 ders of the osseous contents which lay for ages in the caverns of the 

 earth. His researches on the fossil bones, as they now appear in the 

 work to which we have just alluded, form an epoch in the annals of 

 geology, that yields to no part of its history in deep and durable interest; 

 nor has even the great author himself of this important discovery which he 

 has made in his beautiful scheme of exposition, failed to consider it to be a 

 source of wonder, as it was of pride, to his own heart. " When," said he, 

 " the sight of some bones of the bear and the elephant, twelve years ago, in- 

 spired me with the idea of applying the general laws of comparative ana- 

 tomy to the reconstruction and the discovery of fossil species; when I 

 began to perceive that these species were not perfectly represented by 

 those of our day, which resembled them the most, I did not suspect that 

 I was every day treading upon a soil, filled with remains more extraordi- 

 nary than any that I had yet seen ; nor that I was destined to bring to 

 light whole genera of animals unknown to the present world, and buried 

 for incalculable ages at vast depths under the earth. It was to M. Veurin 

 that I owe the first indications of these bones furnished by our quarries : 

 some fragments which he brought me one day having struck me with as- 

 tonishment, I made inquiries respecting the persons to whom this indus- 

 trious collector had sent any formerly: what I saw in these collections 

 served to excite my hopes and increase my curiosity. Causing search to 

 be made at that time for such bones in all the quarries, and offering re- 

 wards to arouse the attention of the workmen, I collected a greater num- 

 ber than any person who had preceded me. After some years I was suf- 

 ficiently rich in materials to have nothing further to desire; but it was 

 otherwise with respect to their arrangement and the construction of the 

 skeletons, which alone could conduct me to a just knowledge of the spe- 

 cies. From the first moment, I perceived that there were many diff'erent 

 species in our quarries ; and soon afterwards, that they belonged to various 

 genera, and that the species of the diff'erent genera were often of the same 

 size; so that the size alone rather confused than assisted my arrange- 

 ment. I was in the situation of a man who had given to him, pele mele, 

 the mutilated and incomplete fragments of a hundred skeletons belonging 

 to twenty sorts of animals, and it was required that each bone should be 

 joined to that which it belonged to. It was a resurrection in miniature; 

 but the immutable laws prescribed to living beings were my directors. 

 At the voice of comparative anatomy, each bone, each fragment, regained 

 its place. I have no expressions to describe the pleasure experienced, in 

 perceiving that, as I discovered one character, all the consequences, more 

 or less foreseen, of this character, were successively developed. The feet 



