in this disguise; and, from that time to the present, the common impression of the public, with respect to the Mastodon, is, that it was a fierce and FLESH-eating animal, and quite unlike the modern race of elephants. In a late number of a cheap and popular publication, intended for the diffusion of knowledge amongst the poor, the figure of the Mastodon, or the Mammoth, is accordingly given with the tusks placed in this unnatural and inconvenient position. 377 CHAPTER XIII. Human Fossil Remains.― Why they cannot be so numerous as those of other Animals.—Lime-stone Caves and Fissures.-An Example in the Cave of Gaylenreuth, with its Fossil Contents.-Dr. Buckland's Theory of Caves and Fissures.-Human Fossils found at Guadaloupe.-Also at Durfort.-Great Fossil Deposit in Spain, containing Human Bones.-Quarries at Köstritz, containing Human Bones.-Natural Conclusions from the above Account.Dr. Buckland's Conclusion respecting Köstritz, inconsistent with other parts of his Theory.-Caves and Fissures in Lime-stone.-General spread of Diluvial Effects. We now come to the consideration of a part of the subject of organic fossil remains in rocks and soils, which has, hitherto, occasioned very considerable difficulty, and has thrown a shade of doubt and uncertainty over the historical account of the Deluge, which, however, appears to be totally unwarranted by facts. I allude to the rarity of human fossil remains amongst those of the animated beings, which are frequently discovered in such abundance on the earth. For, it is objected, if all the human race, excepting one single family, perished by the Flood, at a period when the population of the world must have been very considerable, there can be no good reason given, why we should not also find their remains in the same abundance as those of other animals, on every part of the surface of the present dry lands. In reply to this objection, it may be answered, that there can be no doubt that we have a consistent right to expect, occasionally, to find such fossil remains. But that we should discover them in any thing like the abundance in which we find the remains of other animals, would be to expect what, from the very nature of the case itself, must be an utter impossibility. 66 When we look back to the early history of the world, and consider that man was created, one male, and one female, from whom the whole human race was to spring; while all the other species of animated beings were produced "abundantly," and the earth at once replenished with them; we must readily perceive, that at the end of any given period, such, for instance, as the 1656 years between the Creation and the Deluge, there could be, numerically, no proportion between the race of man, and that of other animals. We should come to the same conclusion, cr * "The kingdom of Congo, like most other parts of "Africa, produces a prodigious variety of wild animals. Amongst the most remarkable are the elephants, which "are found chiefly in Baurda, a province abounding with "woods, pastures, and plenty of water. They go in troops even in our own times, and in the most populous countries, where, as in England, the number of inhabitants bears but a small proportion to that of quadrupeds and birds.* Much more then, if we extend our view generally, over the whole inhabited earth, where the immense forest tracts are peopled with millions of quadrupeds and birds, for every hundred of the human species. For instance, if we conceive any such event as the Deluge to happen to the continent of America, at the present time, when the wilds of 66 66 "of 100 or more, and somè are said to be of so monstrous a size, that the prints of their feet measure from four to seven spans. They delight in bathing during the heat of "the day. Lions, of immense size, tigers, wolves, and "other beasts of prey, abound in this country. The zebra, "the wild ass, the buffalo, and numerous tribes of deer "and antelopes, are all most abundant; and the forests swarm with hyænas and wild dogs, which hunt in packs "with dreadful howlings." 66 Bibliot. Univers. de Voyages. * The population of England, which is not exceeded by that of any country in Europe, in proportion to its extent, is about ten or eleven millions. It is calculated that there are about twenty-six millions of sheep in this country alone; and if we include Scotland and Wales, where the disproportion is infinitely greater, we may form some tolerable idea of how the matter stands, when we add to the sheep, every other species of quadruped and bird, with which our woods and plains are so abundantly peopled. that country are swarming with deer, wild cattle, horses, and every inferior race of quadrupeds and birds, with a human population, scarcely worthy of calculation, in proportion: we should feel no surprise, if, on being enabled to examine the wreck, we should discover the remains of the former, in thousands of instances, for one of the latter. Instead, then, of exciting astonishment, or creating doubt, the circumstance of the comparative rarity of human fossil remains, ought rather to be looked upon as the strongest confirmation of the general history 66 "The Missouri and Arkansas territories, which would "be capable of sustaining, probably, more than fifty millions of inhabitants, if in a state of civilization, are, at pre"sent, occupied by something more than one hundred "thousand Indians; and they have been computed to "contain about one million of square miles." "The buffaloes go in immense herds, and no one, igno❝rant of the extent of these fertile prairies, can form any "idea of the countless myriads that are spread over, and "find support on them." Hunter's Memoirs of his Captivity among the "On the south of the River Saladillo, (in Buenos Ayres,) "are the immense plains of Pampas, which present a sea of waving grass for NINE HUNDRED MILES. Their "luxuriant herbage affords pasture to innumerable herds of cattle, which rove about unowned, and unvalued : they are, also, the abode of immense troops of wild horses, "deer, ostriches, armadillos, and every sort of game.” 66 66 |