Royal Institution. 199 
strata resulted, before this country was again in a condition to sus- 
tain other mammalian races. Of these intermediate operations, and 
of the contemporary mammals, we have only the evidence of conti- 
nental geology. We have in this country traces of one species of 
mastodon, found in the miocene crag-deposits of Norfolk. In pro- 
cess of time, when this island had become the seat of freshwater 
lakes, in which molluscous shells were deposited, and during the 
changes which converted lakes into river-courses, there were in these 
deposits and in contemporaneous local drifts, remains of mammalian 
fauna: the mastodon had disappeared; but, of the Ungulata were 
traces of mammoth, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, urus, bison, bos, Me- 
gaceros, Strongyloceros, Hippelephas, reindeer, roe, horse, ass, wild 
boar ;—of the Carnivora: lion or tiger, Machairodus, leopard and 
cat—hyzena, bears, wolves and foxes, badger, otter, polecat, weasel ; 
—of the Insectivora: bats, moles and shrews, Paleospalax (large 
shrew mole, now extinct) ;—of Rodentia: beavers, hares, rats and 
mice, lagomys (Trogontherium, extinct) ;—of Cetacea : cachelot, nar- 
whal, grampus, whales. 
The Professor then demonstrated, by the following proofs, that 
these remains had not been brought hither by any sudden and trans- 
ient convulsion, but were relics of animals which had lived and died 
in this island in successive generations. 1. Vast numbers are found 
in tranquil freshwater strata. 2. The condition of the bones is not 
as if they had been triturated by the violence of waves, but their pro- 
cesses are perfect, and their outlines sharp and well-defined. 3. The 
great proportion of antlers proved to have been naturally shed, and 
these of different stages of growth, to the fossil bones of the deer, 
proves, beyond question, that generations of this animal must have 
passed their existence here. 4. The Coprolites, and other phzno- 
mena of Kirkdale Cavern, described by Dr. Buckland. Anticipating 
the question—how so many races of quadrupeds, now extinct, could 
have found their way hither—Prof. Owen gave a brief outline of the 
geological and zoological evidence, that England once formed a part 
of the continent from whence they came. ‘The British Channel is, 
geologically speaking, of recent formation. At the time when En- 
gland became an island, it is probable that the mammoth, rhinoceros, 
hippopotamus, &c. became extinct. This, though at a geologically 
recent period, was long before any historical records existed. 
Prof. Owen adverted then to Dumarest’s arguments in confirma- 
tion of this opinion, derived from the specific identity of the wolf and 
the bear of France, with the same animals historically known to have 
once infested our island; and he maintained that the races of some 
of our most familiar animals were coeval with the mammoth: two 
species of bats, mole, badger, otter, fox, wild cat, mouse, hare, horse, 
red deer, roe; and, on the continent, the reindeer, beaver, wolf, La- 
gomys; the aurochs of Russia, identical with an animal of the same 
kind in England. In the New World the same correspondence is 
singularly illustrated by the coincidence of the peculiarly zygomatic 
process and the dentition of the megatherium with that of the still 
living sloth. The Armadillo of South America is also similar to the 
high fossil Glyptodon. North America had its peculiar species of 
