248 



THE CHAIN OF LIFE. 



.state of knowledge to settle these disputes ; but it may be 

 useful to refer shortly to some of the evidences which have 

 been adduced in favour of great antiquity. 



We may, I think, at once take it for granted, that none of 

 the Neocosrnic races date farther back than the origin of the 

 great eastern nations. There are certainly no geological evi- 

 dences requiring a greater antiquity, for in their time the land 

 had attained to its present configuration, and the changes which 

 have occurred in the succession of forests and tlie growth of 

 peat are such as our experience in America shows to be 

 possibly quite modern. There is besides no doubt that these 

 people, from the Reindeer men of France and Belgium to the 

 people of the Swiss lakes, are modern races, whosj descendants 

 still live in Europe. We can thus limit our inquiry to the 

 Paiaeocosmic men ; and with respect to them we know only 

 what may be gathered from a consideration of the physical 

 changes which have occurred since they lived. 



Tn Europe a great number of considerations have been 

 adduced as evidence of their high antiquity ; and these deserve 

 careful attention, though I think it will be found that they are 

 all liable to serious objections or great abatements on geological 

 grounds. 



(i) The occurrence of human remains with those of animals 

 now extinct affords no certain evidence of antiquity. Ad- 

 mitting that human remains are found along with those of the 

 mammoth in Europe, and with those of the mastodon in 

 America, the question remains, How late did these cpecies 

 survive ? In Europe we know that several large animals now 

 extinct existed up to comparatively modern times. This is the 

 case with the Irish deer {Megaccros), the urus, the aurochs, 

 and the reindeer, in temperate Europe. How long previously 

 the mammoth or the hairy rhinoceros disappeared we do not 

 know, but need not suppose the time very long. 



(2) The accumulation of sediment or of stalagmite over 

 human remains in caverns is not necessarily indicative of very 



