FOSSIL MAMMALIA. 23 



the period when those other animals hved there ; and their 

 situation and general circumstances, the accident of their intro- 

 duction. 



It is a fact not less remarkable, that no remains of the qua- 

 drumanous races, which occupy the next rank in creation to 

 man, at least in physical conformation, are to be found in the 

 strata of which we have been speaking. Nor will this fact be 

 deemed less remarkable, when it is considered that the majority 

 of the mammifera there found have their congeners at present 

 in the warmest regions of the globe, in the intertropical cli- 

 mates, where those anthropomorphous animals are almost ex- 

 clusively located. 



Where, then, was the human species during the periods in 

 question.? Where was this most perfect work of the Creator, 

 this self-styled image of the divinity ? If he existed any where, 

 was he surrounded by such animals as now surround him, and 

 of which no traces are discoverable among the organic fossils.'* 

 Were the countries which he and they inhabited overwhelmed 

 by some desolating inundation, at a time when his present 

 abodes had been left dry by the retreating waters ? These are 

 questions, says the Baron, to which the study of the extraneous 

 fossils enables us to give no reply. 



It is not meant, however, to deny that man did not exist at 

 all in the eras alluded to — he might have inhabited a limited 

 portion of the earth, and commenced to extend his race over 

 the rest of its surface, after the terrible convulsions which had 

 devastated it were passed away. His ancient country, however, 

 remains as yet undiscovered. It may, for aught we know, lie 

 buried, and his bones along with it, under the existing ocean, 

 and but a remnant of his race have escaped to continue the 

 human population of the globe. All this, however probable, 

 is but conjecture. But one thing is certain, that in a great 

 part of Europe, Asia, and America, countries where the organic 

 fossils have been found, man did not exist previously to the 

 revolutions which overwhelmed these remains, nor even pre- 



