THEORY OF THE EARTH. 115 



be understood to speak of fossils or petrifactions, 

 properly so called), or, in other words, in the regu- 

 lar strata of the surface of the glohe ; for in peat- 

 bogs (tourbieres), and alluvial deposits, as in 

 burying-grounds, human bones might as well be 

 found as bones of horses, or other common species. 

 They might equally be found in fissures of rocks, 

 and in caverns, where they may have been covered 

 over by stalactite ; but in the beds which contain 

 the ancient races, among the palceotheria, and 

 even among the elephants and rhinoceroses, the 

 smallest portion of a human bone has never been 

 discovered. Many of the labourers in the gypsum 

 quarries about Paris, believe that the bones which 

 occur so abundantly in them, are in a great part 

 human ; but I have seen several thousands of 

 these bones, and I may safely affirm that not 

 one of them has ever belonged to our species. I 

 have examined at Pavia the groups of bones 

 brought by Spallanzani from the Island of Ce- 

 rigo ; and, notwithstanding the assertion of that 

 celebrated observer, I equally affirm, that there is 

 not one among them that could be shewn to be 

 human. The homo diluvii testis of Scheuchzer 

 has been restored, in my first edition, to its true 

 genus, which is that of the salamanders ; and, in 

 a more recent examination of it at Haarlem, al- 

 lowed me by the politeness of Mr Van Maruin, 

 who permitted me to uncover the parts enveloped 



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