36 
Rev. T. M. Gorman. — I must dissent from one portion of Professor Birks’ 
statements, for in the text of the earlier chapters of Genesis I cannot dis- 
cover sufficient data for an exact chronology ; but we may be sure that 
the true chronology would harmonize with the facts of science. 
Captain F. Petrie (Hon. Sec.). — Without offering any opinion upon the 
special question raised in the paper, I venture to refer to two remarks 
made by Dr. Currey : the first is that in which he alluded to Sir C. Lyell’s 
calculation as to the antiquity of man in the Mississippi valley. Sir 
C. Lyell, in the fourth edition of his Antiquity of Man (1873), refers 
to only two instances of fossil human remains having been found in 
the Mississippi valley ; the first being that of the skeleton of a Red 
Indian, the cranium in good preservation, found 16 feet below the 
surface when excavating for some gas-works : Dr. Dowler considered 
it to be 57,600 years old. Sir C. Lyell cites his opinion with ap- 
parent approval (p. 46), and gives his reasons, founded upon a calculation 
as to the rate of deposit of the mud ; but Messrs. Humphreys and Abbot, 
quoted by Sir C. Lyell in the later edition of his work as reliable 
authorities, have calculated that the whole ground on which New Orleans 
stands, down to a depth of 40 feet, has been deposited in forty-four 
centuries. In regard to the second instance of fossil human remains, Sir 
C. Lyell says, “ It is necessary to suspend our judgment as to the high 
antiquity of the fossil ” (p. 239). To show the rapid rate of deposit in the 
valley, M. Fontaine mentions that near Tamaulipas Street, New Orleans, 
the whole area to the depth of over 100 feet has been deposited within 
the last sixty years ; and that since the construction of the gas-works, 
some deep excavations at Port Jackson, at a considerable distance from 
the river, and at a depth of from 15 to 20 feet below the surface, a piece 
of wood shaped by human art had been found, which on examination proved 
to be a portion of a modem boat. In a work entitled The Recent Origin of 
Man it is mentioned (p. 472) that the body of a man, which had been buried 
between two stumps of trees, had been covered by the deposit of the river to a 
much greater extent in four years than even 16 feet. With respect to the 
discovery of fossil human remains, many have been found, in regard to every 
one of which some controversy has taken place : a. skeleton in the British 
Museum is a curious example ; it is that of an Indian, killed in battle only 
two centuries ago ; it is embedded in solid rock, and came from the North- 
west coast of Guadaloupe, where “ the rock is a limestone, harder than 
statuary marble, and is forming daily : it contains minute fragments of 
shells and coral, encrusted with a calcareous cement resembling travertine, 
by which the particles arc bound together : the skeleton still contains 
some of its animal matter and all the phosphate of lime.” ( Recent Origin 
of Man, p. 78.) The foregoing remarks may show some of the difficulties 
with which we have to cope in our search for geological facts which will 
throw light upon “the antiquity of man.” At the recent conference, 
held on May 22, 1877, the President, Mr. John Evans, F.li.S., “pointed 
