40 HISTORY OF 



sman, at the time when the whole earth, as he supposes, was 

 buried beneath a covering of waters. 



J3ut wliile there are many reasons to persuade us that theue 

 extraneous fossils have been deposited by the sea, there is one 

 fact that will abundantly serve to convince us, that the earth was 

 habitable, if not inhabited, before these marine substances came 

 to be thus deposited. For we find fossil-trees, which no doubt 

 once grew upon the earth, as deep, and as much in the body oi 

 solid rocks, as these shells are found to be. Some of tliese 

 fallen trees also have lain at least as long, if not longer, in the 

 earth, than the shells, as they have been found sunk deep in a 

 marly substance, composed of decayed shells and other marine 

 productions. Mr Buffon has proved, that fossil-shells could 

 not have been deposited in such quantities all at once by the 

 flood ; and I think, from the above instance, it is pretty plain, 

 that, howsoever they were deposited, the earth was covered with 

 trees before the deposition ; and, consequently, that the sea could 

 not have made a very permanent stay. How then shall we ac- 

 count for these extraordinary appearances in nature ? A suspen- 

 sion of all assent is certainly the first, although the most morti- 

 fying conduct. For my own part, were I to offer a conjecture, 

 and all that has been said upon this subject is but conjecture, 

 instead of supposing them to be the remains of animals belong- 

 ing to the sea, I would consider them rather as bred in the 

 numerous fresh-water lakes, that in primeval times covered the 

 face of uncultivated nature. Some of these shells we know to 

 belong to fresh waters ; some can be assimilated to none of the 

 marine shells now known ;> why, therefore, may we not as well 

 ascribe the production of all to fresh waters, where we do not 

 find them as we do that of the latter to the sea only, where we 



in diluvial or tertiary beds. We are therefore led to unite in the opinion 

 that he is among "the most recent tenants of the globe," coincident witii the 

 oldest records and traditions of liis race ; and that the time in which he lias 

 inhabited the earth forms but a trifling portion of its absolute duration. 

 Whether man was coeval with the mastodons, the mammoths, and othev 

 mighty animals that once ranged the earth, and left their traces on so large 

 a part of its surface, is an inquiry which there seems little probability will 

 ever be solved. At present we have only the negative fact, that no human 

 remains have been discovered of equal antiquity with those extinct race* 

 of aniinals of which we have made brief mention in this imperfect sketch. 



1 Hill's Fossils, p. 41, 



