NATURAL HISTORY OF CREATION. 113 



a lacustrine deposit at Market-Weigliton, in tlie Vale of 

 York, there have been found bones of the elephant, 

 rhinoceros, bison, wolf, horse, felis, deer, birds, all or 

 nearly all belonging to extinct species ; associated with 

 thirteen species of land and fresh- water shells, '' exactly 

 identical with types now living in the vicinity." In 

 similar deposits in North America, are remains of tlie 

 mammoth, mastodon, buffalo, and other a.nimals of 

 extinct and living types. In short, these superficial 

 deposits show precisely such remains as might be ex- 

 pected from a time at which the present system of 

 things (to use a vague but not unexpressive phra'^e) 

 obtained, but yet so far remote in chronology as to allow 

 of the dropping of many species, through familiar 

 causes, in the interval. Still, however, there is no 

 authentic or satisfactory instance of human remains 

 being found, except in deposits obviously of very modern 

 date ; a tolerably strong proof that the creation of our 

 own species is a comparatively recent event, and one 

 posterior (generally speaking) to all the great natural 

 transactions chronicled by geology. 



