THEORY OF THE EARTH. 81 



How should it be thought, after this, that the 

 huge mastodons and gigantic mcgatheria, whose 

 bones have been discovered under ground in North 

 and South America, still exist alive on that con- 

 tinent ? How should they have escaped those 

 wandering tribes which continually traverse the 

 country in all directions, and which are themselves 

 aware that these animals no longer exist, since they 

 have invented a fabulous account of their destruc- 

 tion, alleging that they were killed by the Great 

 Spirit, to prevent them from extirpating the hu- 

 man race. But it is evident that this fable has been 

 occasioned by the discovery of the bones, like that 

 of the inhabitants of Siberia with respect to their 

 mammoth, which they pretend to live under 

 ground like the mole, and, like all those of the 

 ancients, about the graves of giants, who were 

 thought by them to have been buried wherever 

 the bones of elephants were discovered. 



Thus it may safely be concluded, that if, as we 

 have just said, none of the large species of qua- 

 drupeds whose remains are at the present day 

 found in regular mineral strata, bear resemblance 

 to any of the known living species, this is not 

 the effect of mere chance, nor because those spe- 

 cies of which we possess nothing but the bones, 

 are still concealed in the deserts, and have hi- 

 therto eluded the observation of travellers. On 

 the contrary, this phenomenon must be regarded 



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