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ments that I remember having seen, it would have required an enormous 
hand to have wielded it, and in other cases it has seemed to me that the 
hand which used the implement was likely to have suffered fully as much as 
the enemy against which it was directed. With these few remarks I 
must apologize for having so imperfectly stated what I deem to be the 
difference between the Glacial and the Diluvial theory ; indeed, the latter 
can scarcely be regarded as a theory, since it rests upon Scriptural testimony ; 
but my wish is most earnestly to suggest that the points I have ventured to 
put before you are worthy of examination, and that the names of Cuvier 
and Buckland are deserving of the respect of the geologists of the present 
day. (Applause.) 
Mr. D. Howard. — Mr. Mello has asked very fairly whether, if the 
extinct animals lived up to the date of the Romans, we should not have 
heard something about them ; and this is certainly a strong argument against 
finally accepting the suggestion that the extinct animals were to be found in 
England at the time when Csesar wrote. At the same time, I would ask, — 
are we quite sure that we have not the records of the existence of 
those extinct animals at a somewhat older date, in the traditions that are 
to be found among almost all nations of strange and monstrous beasts 1 It is 
a curious fact that we find some remarkable coincidences between some of 
these old traditions and some of the discoveries that have been made in 
modern times. Take, for instance, the gorilla, it is evident that this 
animal answers the descriptions given of the “ wild man ” by certain of the 
early writers, — although we denied the existence of anything but imagination 
in those early writers until we found the animal itself. Is it not curious 
also that the early hunters are invariably said to have chased monstrous beasts, 
and that the descriptions given of these creatures do most nearly approach 
the forms of the extinct animals 1 It seems surprising how the evidence of 
immense antiquity disappears in the comparatively high position in which 
the remains of these animals were found in the stalagmite of Kent’s Cavern, 
as well as the animals found in the flesh at the mouth of the Lena. (Hear, 
hear.) The traditions of monstrous beasts, which might very well have 
been these creatures themselves, all seem to point to the idea that these 
animals have been, if not actually contemporaneous with the Romans, at 
least contemporaneous with our not very remote ancestors ; and it is not 
merely a question of whether they existed 9,000 years ago, but of whether 
they were in existence 2,000 or 3,000 years ago. It is certainly easier to 
believe that the frozen beast on which the dogs actually fed lived 
2,000 years than 10,000 years ago. (Hear, hear.) It is likewise 
easier to believe that an inch of stalagmite which preserved some of the 
bones found in Kent’s Cavern took 2,000 years for its formation than that 
it took 10,000 years. Certainly the more recent discussions on this 
subject have brought out very clearly that stalagmite does form very fast. 
I think the testimony of our old traditions, and even of our nursery 
tales is not below the notice of scientific men, — there must have been some 
reason for them. Some jhavs even gone so far as to say that the universal 
