166 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



light of day in the brightness of youthful creation, wit 

 dant meada and dense I imposed of botanical families 



still extant, abounding in Palms of different genera, in Bp 

 of giant ArundinacecB and Marsh Plants, at this day flourish- 

 ing in warm r ination might behold remaining 

 Pachyderms on the borders of lakes; huge Ruminants swarm- 

 ing on tli'' plains ; Saurians not as yet n duced in location, and 

 numbers basking or floundering on the banks of the w 

 Hyenas by the borders of the wood, or glaring from opening 

 caverns ; and. perhaps, a distant solitary column of white smoke 

 ascending from the forest, the certain indication 

 ence, as yet humble, and in awe of the brute monarchs around 

 him ; possessing no weapons beyond a club, nor a tool 1" 

 a flint knife ; timid on earth, because he is still unacqu 

 with his own rising superiority over other animated beings, 

 though they be more powerful than himself; and ignorant of 

 his destiny to survive their duration of existence, though he 

 may already have witnessed convulsions, which, while they 

 tend to benefit him, and set bounds to the rest, are yet causes 

 of apprehension, because he cannot wholly escape their opera- 

 tion. 



Whether such a condition of life, one that may be seen at 

 '.he present time in those regions and latitudes where the 

 a:tive-minded European has not yet overturned the old innate 

 habits of savage life, — whether such an existence dates so far 

 back as 6000 years, or 7322, according to Professor Wallace, 

 or does not amount to forty-two centuries, is not, in our view, 

 a question of importance; since, between the dates of Man's 

 creation and the present, there is abundant proof, not only of 

 one general diluvian catastrophe, but, also, of many others 

 more or less important; and these alone, in a great measure, 

 are sufficient cause for the dispersion of Man to all the points 

 of the earth where he is found to reside, and in many places 

 where the marks of his presence evidently date back to a very 

 remote period. 



