LECTURE XI. 311 



extinct animals j among others a species of elephant, rhinoceros, 

 hippopotamus, large stag, horse, ox, three species of deer, and 

 a large rodent, which seems to have held an intermediate posi- 

 tion between the beaver and the paca ; the remains of species 

 of pachydermata : Eleplias meridionalis, Rhinoceros leptorhinits 

 and Hippopotamus major, agree perfectly with the species 

 found in the vicini'ty of Asti, in the Arno valley, and in the so- 

 caUed Norwich-crag ; strata which undoubtedly Ue beneath 

 the diluvial beds proper, and have hitherto been considered as 

 belonging to the most recent tertiary formations. 



These three species differ entirely from the mammoth 

 (Meplias primigeniusj ; the rhinoceros (Rhinoceros tichorhinus) ; 

 and the diluvial hippopotamus ; just as the Megaceros Carnu- 

 torum differs from the Megaceros Hihernicus, and the horse 

 from the diluvial horse, belonging probably to that species 

 from the Arno valley,* which is known by the name of Eqivus 

 flicidens. Lyell, in his work which appeared in 1863, still 

 asserts that the Elephas meridionalis had not yet been found 

 associated with man. 



Now if it could be proved that the bones in the deposits of 

 Saint-Prest bear indeed the traces of the human hand, which 

 markings must have been made before the deposition of these 

 bones in these old sand-beds, then the age of mankind is necessa- 

 rily removed beyond the diluvial epoch, and further back into the 

 tertiary period. An unprejudiced person will not feel surprised 

 at this ; there are no sufficient reasons against the assumption 

 that man may have lived in the tertiary period in countries 

 inhabited by elephants, rhinoceros, oxen, horses, and apes. 



Desnoyers found, on some bones which he extracted from 

 the sand-pit, and subsequently upon all the bones preserved in 

 collections, traces of incisions, consisting mostly of transverse, 

 straight, curved, or elhptical striae. Upon the cranium of an 

 elephant he found a triangular cavity, apparently produced by 

 the point and barb of a flint arrow. The skulls of the large 

 deer seem all to have been broken by a blow upon the frontal 

 bone at the root of the horns. The antlers are broken in pieces 



* And common in English deposits. — Editob. 



