156 RELIQUIAE AQUITANIC^E. 



evacuated, the herds probably lingered for a while in some of the northern districts 

 perhaps latest of all in the wooded tracts of Bretagne. This may be inferred 

 from the fact that when Csesar wrote, though the Reindeer had apparently then 

 disappeared from all parts of Gaul, the inhabitants of Brittany were still distin- 

 guished by their neighbours as the " Rhedones," or Rhenones a name perpe- 

 tuated in that of the modern town and district of Rennes*. 



Collocation of Various Remains. The argument derived from the juxtaposition 

 of the remains of divers animals in diluvial deposits, as indicating synchronism of 

 existence, however specious, is, I must again urge, to be received with very great 

 caution. Applied to the earlier geological strata, where perfect correlation in the 

 nature of the fossils is discernible, it must of course be admitted in all its cogency ; 

 but in the more recent formations, where great superficial agencies of disturbance 

 have obviously been in operation, a prudent discrimination must be exercised to 

 avoid conclusions which cannot be consistently reconciled with other considera- 

 tions. Of such discrepancy the instance cited presents, I opine, a conspicuous 

 example. It may, however, be regarded as an extreme case, and as nowise mili- 

 tating against the coexistence with the Reindeer of other animals less diverse in 

 constitution, but of which the species may, like the Reindeer, have disappeared 

 from certain localities, or become, as in other instances, extinct before human 

 influences in comparatively modern ages. Of such extinctions the Dinornis of 

 New Zealand affords, among Birds, a familiar example ; and but for the positive 

 evidence of its recent existence the Dodo of the Mauritius, judged from fossil 

 vestiges only, might have been referred to a date long anterior to that of which 

 we have proof. In like manner the Great Bustard has disappeared from England, 

 its habitat even within the memory of Man. 



During the diluvial epochs, of which the unmistakable evidences appear, it is 

 obvious that many fragmentary remains, and even perfect skeletons, must have 

 been transported to distances varying with circumstances. A great commingling 



* The substitution of the d for the n in the original word has crept, through misprint or oversight, into 

 some editions of Csesar. Misled by this, Ainsworth, our standard English authority, notices only the former ; 

 but this reading is ignored by the best commentators. In two editions which I possess, while the n is pre- 

 served in the word applied to the animal, the d is employed in that assigned to the tribe, but, I believe, 

 erroneously an assumption supported by the form of its modern derivative, noted above. In perfect 

 analogy with the name given to the ancient inhabitants of Brittany, under the interpretation I have given 

 to it, is the term by which the natives of the " Barren Lands " of Mackenzie's River, who subsist chiefly by 

 the Reindeer-chase, are distinguished by the other branches of the Chipewyan tribe to which they belong. 

 It is paraphrased by the voyageurs, who call them Gens de Caribou ; quasi Rhenones = Gens de Renne. 



