GEOLOGICAL SPECULATIONS. 249 



common stag, the common roe-buck, the aurochs, the ox 

 which seems to have been the original of the domestic ox, 

 the buffalo with approximated horns, which appears to be 

 analogous to the musk ox of Canada ; and there remains 

 a dubious species, the great deer ofSomme, which much 

 resembles the common fallow-deer. 



From what has been ascertained in regard to the strata 

 in which these remains have been found, it would appear 

 that the known species are contained in newer beds than 

 the unknown. Further, that the fossil remains of the 

 known species are those of animals of the climate where 

 they are now found : thus the stag, ox, aurochs, roe-deer, 

 musk ox of Canada, now dwell, and have always dwelt, 

 in cold countries ; whereas the species which are regard- 

 ed as unknown, appear to be analogous to those of warm 

 countries : thus the great buffalo of Siberia can only be 

 compared with the buffalo of India, the arnee. M. Cuvier 

 concludes, that the facts hitherto collected seem to an- 

 nounce, at least as plainly as two imperfect documents 

 can, that the two sorts of fossil ruminants belong to two 

 orders of alluvial deposites and consequently to two dif- 

 ferent geological epochas ; that the one have been, and 

 are now, daily becoming enveloped in alluvial matter; 

 whereas the others have been the victims of the same re- 

 volution which destroyed the other species of the alluvial 

 strata ; such as mammoths, mastodons, and all the mult- 

 ungula, the genera of which now exist onl^^n the torrid 

 zone. 



32 



