126 THEORY OP THE EARTH. 



In such matters, however, our only way of judging 

 as to the effects which may be produced by a long 

 period of time, is by multiplying, as it were, such 

 as are produced by a shorter known time. With 

 this view I have endeavoured to collect all the an- 

 cient documents respecting the forms of animals ; 

 and there are none equal to those furnished by the 

 Egyptians, both in regard to their antiquity and 

 abundance. They have not only left us represen- 

 tations of animals, but even their identical bodies 

 embalmed and preserved in the catacombs. 



I have examined with the greatest attention the 

 engraved figures of quadrupeds and birds upon 

 the numerous obelisks brought from Egypt to an- 

 cient Rome; and all these figures, one with 

 another, have a perfect resemblance to their in- 

 tended objects, such as they still are in our days. 



My learned colleague, M. Geoffroy Saint Hi- 

 laire, convinced of the importance of this research, 

 carefully collected in the tombs and temples of 

 Upper and Lower Egypt as many mummies of ani- 

 mals as he could procure. He has brought home 

 the mummies of cats, ibises, birds of prey, dogs, 

 monkies, crocodiles, and the head of a bull ; and 

 after the most attentive and detailed examination, 

 not the smallest difference is to be perceived be- 

 tween these animals and those of the same species 

 which we now see, any more than between the hu- 

 man mummies and the skeletons of men of the pre- 



