206 Biographical Notice of 
Who shall be the fortunate interpreter of these strange 
facts ¢ | 
Gmelin and Pallas think that an immense irruption of the 
sea, coming from the south-east, could alone transport these 
huge remains, all belonging to southern animals, into the 
northern lands. 
Inspired by a loftier genius, Buffon, now almost an octo- 
genarian, conceived the idea of extinct species. 
“ The bones preserved in the bosom of the earth,” he says, 
“ are proofs as authentic as they are unexceptionable, which 
demonstrate to us the past existence of colossal species diffe - 
ent from all those now existing.”’ 
“ It is with regret,’’ he adds with eloquent emotion ; “ it 
is with regret that I leave these precious monuments of a 
former world, which my advanced age denies me time to ex- 
amine. This investigation of beings which have disappeared, 
would of itself require more time than I have to live, and I 
can only recommend it to posterity ; others will come after 
me.” 
This prophecy has been fulfilled. 'To the glory of our own 
age, Cuvier has created a new art; he touches these scattered 
relics, and revives to our astonished view the extinct races. 
He examines every stratum of the globe, and each gives up 
to him its peculiar population. 
He first finds the crustacea, mollusca, and fishes ; then rep- 
tiles; next mammifera, but mammifera of a race no longer 
existing; he finds the races now living only at the actual 
surface of the globe. 
Life, then, is developed only gradually, progressively ; and 
the beautiful theory of the succession of beings grows and 
rises like the most certain deduction from the best established 
observations. 
There have been, according to Cuvier, many partial and 
successive creations; these multiplied populations became 
perfected, while they became diversified ; and we must sup- 
pose violent and sudden causes to account for the rapid dis- 
appearance of so many species at once. 
M. de Blainville takes up each of these propositions, one 
after another, and combats them all. 
