Cir. IX.] 



DEVELOPMENT OF OKGANIC LIFE. 



147 









i 



. A 











birds, with those of the same genera mentioned before, in 

 the next order ; those of qnadrupeds of extinct species in a 

 still more recent class; and it is only in the loose and 

 slightly consolidated strata of gravel and sand, and which 



emams 



animals 



belonging to extinct species 



ma 



tions, whether called secondary, tertiary, or diluvial, have 

 the remains of man, or any of his works, been discovered ; 



be convinced, 



and whoever dwells 



must 



that the present order of things, and the comparatively 



_ — 



recent existence of man as the master of the 

 tain as the destruction of a former and a different order, and 

 the extinction of a number of living forms which have no 

 types in being. In the oldest secondary strata there are no 



remains 



in the rocks, which may 



LLKJ VV MO-LV^-LX^ 



be regarded 



as more recently 



deposited, these remains occur but rarely, and with abun- 

 dance of extinct species; — there 



seems 



system 



destructions and creations preparatory to the existence of 



man 



In the above passages the author has done little more than 



Lamarck 



posed about thirty years before in his Philosophy of Zoology. 



mor 



since Davy wrote, one marked by ever-increasing activity in 

 paleontological research, yet the new facts brought to light 

 have scarcely made it necessary to modify any one of the 

 leading propositions above enumerated. Fossil remains of 

 man and rude works of art have, it is true, been detected 



formations termed bv Sir H 



mammoth 



frequently occur. 



But, 



although these 

 tie memorials of 



discoveries have 



step farther into the past, they have not shaken our belief m 

 the extremely modern date of the human 



com 



to that of a vast series of antecedent epochs, each of them 



* Sir H. Davy, Consolations in Travel: Dialogue III. ' The Unknown/ 



L2 



