OF CREATION. 281 



from the circumstances of deposition, since the same 

 or nearly the same groups are indicated throughout 

 the whole district. The Paris fossils were described 

 by Cuvier, and their description formed the first of 

 his long and important series of contributions to the 

 accurate knowledge of extinct animals, which has 

 given such steadiness and certainty to the science of 

 palaeontology. The tertiary remains thus serving as 

 the groundwork of the "Ossemens Fossiles" included a 

 considerable number of species, chiefly belonging to the 

 group of Pachydermata or thick-skinned animals, now 

 represented by the elephant, Sec. ; they also include a 

 number of carnivorous animals (quadrupeds), such as 

 a wolf, a fox, a racoon, &c., and an opossum. 



Besides these animals, several of which are repeated 

 among the comparatively rare mammalian remains 

 of our own island, there have been found also in 

 England a few fragments of teeth indicating the 

 existence of a monkey and a bat. These occur in 

 sands of the age of the London clay, and they tend 

 to complete the chain of evidence already alluded 

 to, and render it highly probable that a warmer 

 temperature obtained in these parts of the world 

 during the early tertiary period than at present. 



I have already alluded to the apparent predomi- 

 nance of the pachydermatous tribe of animals among 

 the quadrupeds of the Paris Basin, and it is interest- 

 ing to find that the various genera of this group seem 

 to have represented those of the great tribe of rumi- 

 nants afterwards predominant. This would seem to 

 show that the state of the land was then less favour- 

 able for such animals as are now common in Europe, 

 and renders it probable that a different and more 



