86 GOSSIP ON ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 



from the parent stock, but from each other. As men separated 

 from their fellows, they must have become divided into families- 

 groups and tribes, just such as peo23led the northern parts of 

 America when discovered by Europeans — wanderers who had lost 

 all trace of their origin and of the primitive civilization, — hunters, 

 and fishers — dependant upon the prolific sea, and upon, the wild 

 beasts of the forest for food and clothing. It is quite possible and 

 probable, that before that event the northern portions of Europe^ 

 in the order of creation, had been peopled with animals of forms- 

 and species largely developed, fitted for a previous condition of the 

 earth, but becoming gradually extinct under the operations of 

 altered nature. These fading species would have been contempo- 

 rary with man, have lived and died around him for ages, until he 

 and they were suddenly removed from the scene by destructive 

 agencies. It is to this buried world that I would direct your 

 attention. If the Noachian deluge erased from the earth by a signal 

 catastrophe all human traces from certain latitudes, and all traces 

 of other animals that existed there, you will see that ages must 

 have elapsed ere traces of man would again become visible, and 

 that then they would be found Avith a greatly changed contempo- 

 rary fauna, and a condition of the earth different from that which 

 preceded it. I believe that much of the cave phenomena and of 

 the alluvial deposits in Euj"ope, may be attributed to the Noachian 

 deluge, or catastrophes of the like nature that previously occurred, 

 of which there is no tradition, and that other instances quoted are 

 as truly antediluvian, but after the creation. 



There are some remarkable facts in Sir Charles Lyell's work, 

 in connection with deposits in which the remains of man occur 

 associated with those of the extinct animals. 1st. — These deposits 

 are not simple strata — limestones or other rock formations, but 

 are made up of the erosion of such formations including the 

 glacial drift and later accumulations, a loose incoherent mass of 

 chalky marl, sand, gravel and clay — none of which are native 

 of the place where they are found — but brought there by streams 

 from a distance, and from higher grounds. 2ndly. — The remains 

 are not in the relative positions in which we might expect to 

 find those of man, still an inhabitant of the earth, and those of 

 wild animals of such huge forms and assumed fierce dispositions as 



