574 THE UNIVERSE. 



Italy, and of which their soil displays such numerous ves- 

 tiges on every side. 



The cause was clearly sudden, for if all these animals had 

 not been frozen as soon as they were killed, different agents 

 would have dispersed their remains, whilst, on the contrary, 

 we often find entire skeletons on the spot where they had 

 expired. As we have just said, elephants have even been 

 discovered contained in the ice, and still covered with skin 

 and the long and extraordinary hair of which they possessed 

 a thick covering ! 



In the post- tertiary epoch other events again greatly dis- 

 turbed the globe : these were the mighty deluges, which 

 poured in tumultous torrents over its surface, and deposited 

 abundance of de'bris on it. Hence these strata are known 

 by the name of diluvium. 



But although an attentive study of the earth points out 

 to us with great accuracy the succession of its epochs, all 

 the power of modern science is inadequate to say what 

 space of time these great phases endured, and how many 

 years back we must place all these deluges, these cataclysms, 

 and lastly the creation of man. 



Notwithstanding the apparent youth of the new continent, 

 some geologists assign a very remote period to the great 

 shock which gave it birth by rending the globe almost from 

 pole to pole. One of the most learned men whom England 

 loves to honor, Sir Charles Lyell, resting his arguments 

 upon authorities of great weight, maintains that the Missis- 

 sippi has run in its present bed more than 100,000 years ; 

 and Dr. B. Dowler, who shares this view, asserts, from ob- 

 servations on vegetable physiology and the examination of 



