POST TERTIARY ANIMALS. 
85 
“ Time wTites no wrinkles on thine azure brow^, 
Such as creation's dawn beheld thou rollest now!" 
In investigating the remains of gravel 
deposits, and of some dried up lakes, it is 
difficult to separate them in some instances 
from the tertiary beds belonging to the geol¬ 
ogy of a previous era. An examination of the 
fauna of these deposits is more decisive of 
their true position, than an inspection of 
their flora; but our limits do not permit us 
to describe the occupants of the plains and 
forests at the morning of the historical era. 
In Europe the great Elk, the aurochs, the 
red deer, the wolf, succeed to an empire 
once owned by the cavern-bear; the ele¬ 
phant, rhinoceros, hyena, and their conge¬ 
ners, during the epoch of caves: be¬ 
tween the two dynasties a vast drift from 
'* the north, probably accompanied by float- 
ing ice and glaciers, devastated the surface 
f and entombed the former inhabitants. The 
remains of man and his works confer a 
mysterious interest on the forests which 
appear to have been contemporary with his 
nearly appearance here. Our rude fore- 
G 
