84 GOSSIP ON ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 



associated with such fabricated objects, must belong, not to ante- 

 diluvian periods, but to a people in the same stage of civilization 

 as those Avho constructed the tumuli and altars." " In the Gaulish 

 monuments," he added, " we find, together with the objects of 

 industry above mentioned, the bones of wild and domestic animals, 

 of species now inhabiting Europe, particularly of deer, sheep, wild 

 boars, dogs, horses and oxen. ITiis fact has been ascertained in 

 Quercy and other provinces, and it is supposed by antiquarians that 

 the animals in question were placed beneath the Celtic altars in 

 memory of the sacrifices offered to the Gaulish divinity Hsesus, and 

 in the tombs to commemorate funeral repasts, and also from a super- 

 stition prevalent among savage nations, which induces them to lay 

 up provisions for the manes of the dead in a future life. But in 

 none of these ancient monuments have any bones been found of the 

 elephant, rhinoceros, hyena, tiger, and other quadrupeds, such as are 

 found in caves, which might certainly have been expected had these 

 species continued to flourish at the time that this part of Gaul was 

 inhabited by man." 



I quote this, not only to show that there is a wide difference of 

 opijiion among geologists of eminence upon the antiquity of human 

 remains, but that Sir Charles himself, as he states further on, 

 became of opinion, from the arguments of M. Desnoyers and the 

 writings of Dr. Buckland on the same subject, and by visiting 

 several caves in Germany, that the human bones mixed with those 

 of extinct animals in osseous breccias and cavern mud in different 

 parts of Europe, were probably not coeval. 



This opinion, however, he limits, for he again states, " But of 

 late years we have obtained convincing proofs, as we shall see in the 

 sequel, that the mammoth, and many other extinct mammalian 

 species very common in caves, occur also in undisturbed alluvium, 

 imbedded in such a manner with works of art, as to leave no room 

 to doubt that man and the mammoth coexisted." I am not inclined 

 to dispute their coexistence, but I wish to offer my reasons for 

 believing that it took place in the chronologic era, and not in time 

 so far beyond it as to make the Bible a fable, and to scatter the 

 foundation of our religious belief to the winds. 



In the way that I am able to understand the geological evidence 

 on the subject, it docs not conflict with the sacred chronology, and 



