THEORY OP THE EARTH. 133 



epochs. He may have then inhabited some nar- 

 row regions, whence he went forth to repeople 

 the earth after the cessation of these terrible re- 

 volutions and overwhelmings. Perhaps even the 

 places which he then inhabited may have been 

 sunk into the abyss, and the bones of that destroy- 

 ed human race may yet remain buried under the 

 bottom of some actual seas ; all except a small 

 number of individuals who were destined to con- 

 tinue the species. 



However this may have been, the establish- 

 ment of mankind in those countries in which the 

 fossil bones of land-animals have been found, that 

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

 America, must necessarily have been posterior not 

 only to the revolutions which covered up these 

 bones, but also to those other revolutions, by which 

 the strata containing the bones have been laid 

 bare. Hence it clearly appears, that no argument 

 for the antiquity of the human race in those coun- 

 tries can be founded either upon these fossil bones 

 or upon the more or less considerable collections 

 of rocks or earthy materials by which they are 

 covered. 



31. Proofs of the recent Population of the World, and 

 that its present Surface is not of very ancient Forma- 

 tion. 



On the contrary, by a careful investigation of 

 what has taken place on the surface of the globe 





