LECTURE X. 291 



America. There are prognathous and orthognathous crania, 

 dolichocephalic and brachycephalic skulls even amongst the 

 existing Indians. 



In Australia, where cave deposits of extinct marsupials are 

 found; in New Zealand, where the bones of those extinct 

 gigantic birds, the moas, are found in large quantities, exist 

 as well the most convincing proofs of the co-existence of man 

 with extinct species of animals. We do not attach much 

 weight to the moa, as there are traditions among the Indians 

 of their having fought them, so that the species appears to 

 have been but recently exterminated. 



The alluvial formations of North America also show that man 

 was the contemporary of extinct animals, Lyell reports nearly 

 as follows : " At Natchez there is a fine range of bluffs, several 

 miles long and more than two hundred feet in perpendicular 

 height, the base of which is washed by the river. The lower 

 strata, laid open to view, consist of gravel and sand, destitute 

 of organic remains, except some wood, silicified corals, and 

 other fossils, which have been derived from older rocks, whilst 

 the upper sixty feet are composed of yellow loam, presenting, 

 as it wastes away, a vertical face towards the river. From 

 the surface of this clayey precipice project in relief the perfect 

 shells of land snails, of the genera Helix, HeUcina, Pupa, 

 Gyclostoma, Achatina, and Succinea. These shells, of which 

 we collected twenty species, are all specifically identical with 

 those now inhabiting the valley of the Mississippi. 



" The resemblance of this loam to the fluviatile silt of the 

 valley of the Rhine, between Cologne and Basle, which is 

 generally called ' Loess,' and Lehm is most perfect. 



" In both countries the genera are the same, and as, in the 

 ancient alluvium of the Rhine, the loam sometimes passes into 

 a lacustrine deposit, containing shells of the genera Limneus, 

 Planorhis, and Cyclas, so I found, at Washington, about seven 

 miles inland or eastward from Natchez, a similar passage of 

 the American loam into a deposit evidently formed in a pond 

 or lake. It consisted of marl, containing the shells of Limneus, 

 Planorhis, Palndina, Physa, and Cyclas, specifically agreeing 

 with the testacea now inhabiting the United States. With the 



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