-438 PALEONTOLOGY. 



Ovibos and Stellerus shew that they were contemporaries of 

 Elephas primigcnius and Rhinoceros tichorhinus. 



Bnt recent discoveries indicate that in the case of these 

 and other extinct quadrupeds,* a rude primitive human race 

 may have finished the work of extermination, begun by ante- 

 cedent and more general causes. 



On the land made dry after the boulder-clay period of 

 the glacial climate of the now temperate latitudes of Europe, 

 roamed the hair-clad elephant, under the varieties called 

 antiquus and primigenius, the ptychorhinoceros, the spelaean 

 lion, bear, and hyaena, huge species of bison, oxen, deer, with 

 the musk-buffalo and rein-deer : on this latest land a rude and 

 primitive race of men were their contemporaries. The shells 

 of both marine and fresh-water mollusks (in the sands and 

 gravel-beds containing evidences of the above-associated mam- 

 mals) are of the species still living in contiguous seas and rivers. 



Flint weapons, called " celts," have been discovered in beds 

 of sand and gravel, containing remains of the mammoth and 

 other extinct post-glacial beasts, in the valley of the Somme 

 near Abbeville and Amiens, at different periods, from the 

 year 1838 (Boucher de Perthes, "Antiquites celtiques et 

 antediluvienues," Paris, 1 847) to the present time. 



These evidences of the human species have been extracted 

 from the deposits in question, by Mr. Prestwich, gravel pit at 

 St. Acheul (" 1 7 feet from the surface in undisturbed ground," 

 "Proceedings of the Pvoyal Society," May 26, 1859); by Mr. 

 Flower (" 20 feet from the surface, in a compact mass of 

 gravel," " Times," November 18, 1859) ; by M. Gaudry ("LTn- 

 stitut," October 5, 1859) ; and by M. Geo. Pouch et, — all with 

 their own hands in the course of the year 1859. 



* Lartet, " Sur line ancienne station humaine avec sepulture contemporaine 

 des grands mammiferes fossiles reputes caracteristiques de la derniere periode 

 geologique." Bulletin de la Soc. Philomath. Paris, Mai, 1861. 



