86 HUMAN BONES. 



by mankind, are for the most part abundantly stocked with 

 animated beings, that exult in the pleasure of existence, in- 

 dependent of human control, and no way subservient to the 

 necessities or caprices of man. Such is, and has been for 

 several thousand years, the actual condition of our planet ; 

 nor is the consideration foreign to our subject, for hence we 

 may feel less reluctance in admitting the prolonged ages 

 or days of creation, when numerous tribes of the lower or- 

 ders of aquatic animals lived and flourished, and left their 

 remains imbedded in the strata that compose the outer crust 

 of our planet." Bakewell's Introduction to Geology, 4th 

 edit. p. 6. 



CHAPTER XI. 

 Supposed Cases of Fossil Human Bones. 



Before Tve enter on the consideration of the fossil remains 

 of other animals, it may be right to inquire whether any 

 traces of the human species have yet been found in the strata 

 of the earth. 



The only evidence that has yet been collected upon this 

 subject is negative ; but as far as this extends, no conclusion 

 is more fully established, than the important fact of the 

 total absence of any vestiges of the human species through- 

 out the entire series of geological formations.* Had the 

 case been otherwise, there would indeed have been great 

 difficulty in reconciling the early and extended periods 

 which have been assigned to the extinct races of animals 

 with our received chronology. On the other hand, the fact of 



♦ See Ly ell's Principles of Geology, vol. i. pp. 153 and 159, first edit. 

 1830. 



