LECTURE IX. 261 



voyage to another world, as is the custom with many primitive 

 peoples. In any case, this grotto furnishes another proof that 

 man was the contemporary of extinct animals, upon which he 

 fed, and that consequently the age of mankind reaches back 

 to a very remote period. 



In the ossiferous caves of Brazil, explored by Lund with so 

 much perseverance, there were also found amongst the remains 

 of extinct animals human skulls with receding foreheads. 

 These skulls, as far as I know, have not been closely examined 

 nor compared with the races now inhabiting South America, 



Is it necessary for me to enumerate all those caves, in which, 

 it is true, no human bones were found, but the products of man's 

 industry, flint and horn implements and hatchets, &c., among 

 the teeth and bones of extinct animals in the same condition 

 deep in the ossiferous loam, deep under the stalagmite ? The 

 conditions, with slight differences, are everywhere the same, 

 so that the proofs would be mere repetitions. If the evidences 

 could be refuted as regards one cave, it would affect them all. 

 As such, however, is not the case ; as the evidence is irrefra- 

 gable not merely with respect to the explored caves of Italy, 

 France, Germany, and England, but also as regards the caves 

 in North and South America, we may confidently assert that 

 the facts obtained from the exploration of caves and grottoes 

 are sufficient to prove that man existed at the beginning of the 

 diluvial period, and was the contemporary of the extinct 

 animals. 



