THE LOST RACES. 199 



THE LOST RACES. 



It will not be denied, we presume, that the extinction of entire 

 races of animals is a subject of great interest to man ; that it is a 

 phenomenon well calculated to excite inquiry. It is a circumstance, 

 too, which seems to be of some consequence to us personally : not 

 that any immediate danger, on this score, need be apprehended for 

 our own personal safety and well-being ; but it is of such a nature 

 as to lead us to reflection and inquiry in regard to the mode of 

 operation of those influences which liave resulted in such extinction. 

 We do not here refer to the extinction of the lower orders of beings, 

 ilie mollusca and Crustacea ; but to that of the higher orders, those 

 warm-blooded terrestrial animals which rank in the animal scale 

 next to man. Shall we not inquire, then, since the higher animals 

 have perished by families, and entire races have become extinct at 

 a very recent period. May not the same influences which operated 

 in the case of the warm-blooded terrestrial animals, operate also on 

 man as a race, in such a degree as to terminate his career upon the 

 earth ? These lost races, whose remains lie buried in the most recent 

 beds, at the very surface of the ground which is ploughed and sowed 

 by the hand of man, breathed the same atmosphere that we do, 

 basked in the same sunlight, drank of the rains of heaven, and 

 partook like ourselves in many of the commoner pleasures of life ; 

 yet, through the influence of physical agents, entire species have 

 passed away ; and had not their bones been durable, their former 

 existence would never have been suspected. 



Can we assign a cause for this catastrophe ? Was it a sudden 

 tempest that swept over the ancient hills, and laid in one common 

 ruin all that then had existence ? Was it an overwhelming flood that 

 poured forth the fury of its waters, and drowned the animals quietly 

 grazing on the plains and hillsides ? Or did an earthquake rock the 

 earth and tear up its foundations ; swallowing a part of the living 

 races, and destroying others by noxious vapors emitted from the 

 suddenly opened caverns ? Or did some slow and subtle poison 

 diffuse itself through the living frame, begetting a sluggish motion 

 of the blood, destroying the elasticity of the muscles, and gradually 

 enfeebling the external senses, till finally the body became an easy 

 prey to the elements, and the last individual of the race sank down 

 I and perished ? Towards the solution of these inquiries, we have no 



