170 HUMAN BONES TO BE LOOKED FOR IN CENTRAL ASIA. 
bited by man, it is highly improbable that they ever will be found. On 
this important subject I fully coincide with the opinions expressed by 
Mr. Weaver, “ that the satisfactory solution of the general problem, as 
far as it relates to man, is probably to be sought more particularly in 
the Asiatic regions, the cradle of the human race ; and that another 
interesting branch of inquiry connected with it is, whether any fossil 
remains of elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, and hyaena, exist in 
the diluvium of tropical climates; and if they do, whether they agree 
with the recent species of these genera, or with those extinct species, 
whose remains are dispersed so largely over the temperate and frigid 
zones of the northern hemisphere*.” 
* One probable reason why such remains have not been noticed in the banks of the 
rivers of Central and Southern Asia, and of Africa, may be, that in warm climates, they 
cannot have been preserved in ice as in the higher latitudes in a state of perfection fit 
for the purposes of commerce; and consequently, can have afforded to the natives no 
motive to collect them for sale. The absence of roads also in these barbarous coun¬ 
tries, and consequent non-existence of open gravel pits (in which such remains are 
for the most part found in Europe), is another cause, which helps to explain the total 
ignorance in which we have so long stood, and are likely to continue, as to the presence 
or absence of bones of any kind in the diluvium of Central Asia, and Africa. To these 
we must add the utter inattention of the natives to scientific investigations, and the fatal 
jealousy with which any European would be regarded who should be rash enough to 
attempt extensive excavations in search of what they never could be taught to believe 
was any thing else than gold. 
