MOLLUSCA OF LOWER CANADA. 63 



fathers" were sometimes so reduced by hunger that they condes. 

 cendedto eat foxes. Their pottery seems to have been ornamented 

 in the rudest way with their finger-ends and their nails. The men of 

 the bronze age in Switzerland appear to have lived as late as the ear- 

 ly Roman period. Remains indicative of a battle-field have been 

 found in one of the Swiss Pfahlbauten of the bronze period, in the 

 shape of swords, pieces of chariots, and Gauliot coins. In Ireland, 

 lake habitations have been observed, but these are probably of 

 more recent origin, and are mentioned in early Irish history. 

 They were mere artificial islands on lakes ; but sometimes the Irish 

 like the Swiss, built their settlements on piles running pier-like 

 into the water. Both of these customs appear to be common to 

 savage nations in the historic period. Thus Venezuela obtained its 

 name, in early times, from its supposed resemblance to Venice. 

 From Herodotus we learn that in Poeonian villages the first plat- 

 form was made at the public expense, but afterwards, at every 

 marriage (polygamy being allowed) the bridegroom was expected 

 to add a certain number of piles to the common support. 



Thus it seems that at any rate during the earlier part of the post- 

 pliocene period, two races of mankind have appeared and disappear- 

 ed from the face of the earth, and with them have disappeared some 

 of the larger and more powerful mammals of the period. Yet the 

 general aspect of the animal and vegetable kingdoms seems to 

 have changed but little from that time. 



Some of the leaders in comparative ethnography have indulged 

 in speculations concerning the geological date of the creation of 

 man, in which they assign to the human race a far higher antiqui- 

 ty than the post-pliocene period. Speaking of the flint-imple- 

 ment-making men, Mr. Lubbock observes : " Whether the drift 

 race of men were realiy the aboriginal inhabitants of Europe, 

 still remained to be ascertained. M. Rutimeyer hints that our 

 geographical distribution indicates a still greater antiquity for the 

 human race." One of our ablest British naturalists goes much 

 further and thus sums up this question. " There was a lapse of 

 prodigious ages since man had appeared on the earth, and through 

 which the savage habits had continued without change. And, 

 immeasurably far back as is the age of the flint implement- 

 making men, as far, or farther bach still from them must we go 

 to trace the primitive abode of the human species. The 

 great battle to prove the existence of man among the mam- 

 moths, like many other first battles, has turned out in the 



