THE NEANDERTHAL SKULL. 23 



tradition current amongst the Irish at that 

 time, that "the souls of them that were 

 drowned at the Flood were supposed to be 

 enchanted in the bodies of the seals, which 

 once swarmed upon the Western Coast 

 of Ireland, undergoing water purgatory" ! 

 HUMBOLT mentions a somewhat similar tra- 

 dition once current amongst, the Aztecs 

 of Mexico. "Before the great Flood, the 

 country of Anahuac was inhabited by 

 giants. All those who did not perish were 

 transformed into fishes, except seven, who 

 fled into a cavern. 7 '* 



Should you wish to have the opinion of 

 a modern authority of the very highest 

 class on the doctrine of Transmutation, I 

 would quote that of the celebrated AGASSIZ 

 in proof of what I must frankly confess is 

 the case, that the weight of all rational 

 argument is quite fatal to it as he says, 

 " The conviction which draws me irresis- 

 tibly is, that the combination of animals 

 on this continent where the faunae are so 

 characteristic and so distinct from all 



* Humbolt's Researches. &c., vol. i., p. 96. 



