BARON CUVIER. 89 



heavy gale of wind. The Council of Lucerne 

 sent them to Fehx Plater, a physician at Bale, 

 who had a drawing made of a human skeleton, 

 the size which he thought these bones indicated. 

 It measured nineteen feet, and was sent, with 

 the bones, back to Lucerne, where the drawing 

 is still preserved. It, and the bones still in ex- 

 istence, were recently inspected by M. Blumen- 

 bach, who recognised the latter as belonging to 

 an elephant. 



But the champions of human fossils were not 

 contented with making them out of the bones 

 of elephants ; and having found some animal 

 remains imbedded in slate, a few leagues from 

 the Lake of Constance, a learned physician 

 wrote a particular dissertation on them, entitled 

 *' L'Homme Temoin du Deluge." — " It is not 

 to be refuted,*' said he, *' here is the half, or 

 nearly the whole of the skeleton of a man, even 

 the substance of the bones, and, what is more, 

 the flesh, and parts still softer than the flesh, 

 are incorporated with the stone. In short, it is 

 one of the rarest relics we possess of that cursed 

 race which was buried under the waters." The 

 assertions of the learned Doctor, however, va- 

 nished before the penetrating eye of M. Cuvier, 

 who, judging from the relative form and propor- 



