THEORY OF THE EARTH. 



However this may be, the establishment of man 

 in those countries in which we have said that the 

 fossil remains of land animals are found, that is 

 to say, in the greatest part of Europe, Asia, and 

 America, has necessarily been posterior, not only 

 to the revolutions which have covered up these 

 bones, but also to those which have laid bare the 

 strata containing them, and which are the last 

 that the globe has undergone. Hence it clearly 

 appears, that no argument in favour of the anti- 

 quity of the human species in these different 

 countries can be derived either from those bones 

 themselves, or from the more or less considerable 

 masses of rocks or of earthy materials by which 

 they are covered. 



Physical Proofs of the Newness of the Present 

 Continents. 



On the contrary, by a careful examination of 

 what has taken place on the surface of the globe, 

 since it has been laid dry for the last time, and 

 its continents have assumed their present form, 

 at least in the parts that are somewhat elevated, 

 it may be clearly seen that this last revolution, 

 and consequently the establishment of our exist- 

 ing societies, could not have been very ancient. 

 This result is one of the best established, and, at 

 the same time, one of the least attended to in ra- 

 tional geology ; and it is so much the more valu- 



