GOSSIP ON ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 91 



cavern of Bize were near the bottom also, helow the extinct mam- 

 malia, and this taken with M. Tourual's assertion that they were 

 introduced at sitccesslve periods, enables me to draw the following 

 inference in support of my views : — 



We have no data to determine in what condition this part of the 

 earth may have been at the period assigned as that of man's crea- 

 tion. We know of but one spot that is said to have been altogether 

 pleasant. That previous to that event various species of animals 

 roamed here, died, and became embedded, is exceedingly probable. 

 Man at length came upon the scene, lived and died also. Conse- 

 quently his remains and his works, with those of recent species, 

 and those of extinctions, if some of them came down to his era, 

 lay at the surface. Ages elapse, oscillations occur, and there are 

 signs of approaching submergence of the land. Floods are fre- 

 quent, sweeping the surface of its contents, and precipitating them 

 into rents, communicating with systems of subterranean channels 

 and caves. They form the undermost deposits in all such caves. 

 Oscillations continue, lower strata are exposed and eroded, and 

 bones of quadrupeds, extinct even then, are washed out, and they 

 too are precipitated into caverns and channels, and form a super- 

 imposed secondary deposit. The grand submergence takes place — 

 the Noachian deluge prevails in these latitudes — the quick upheaval 

 follows, and animal relics, bones clothed with flesh, but rent and 

 dismembered by conflicting elements, are introduced. In process 

 of time stalactite drips through the roof, and stalagmite covers the 

 floor of the caverns, which remain in that condition until developed 

 by scientific research, a subject of speculation in the nineteenth 

 century of the Christian era. 



Time will not permit me to discuss this portion of the subject at 

 much greater length. It may however be observed that there will 

 be various modifications of cave deposits ; and that although the 

 proper place of human remains, washed from the surface and higher 

 levels, is underneath other remains, when so found, it may have 

 been that caverns were filled with relics long before man appeared ; 

 and in these the extinct animals and perhaps existing species may 

 have mingled, and the remains of man, if any, washed in at a 

 future period, would then be in the upper stratum. There ought 

 to be~ no mistaking the geological age of caverns like these. It 



