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extinct by that event.' But, naturalists assure us of the extinction of whole genera, both of land and sea animals, and also of vegetables, neither of which Icould have existed between the creation of man and the flood, but the memorials of whose existence are transmitted to us in their present fossilated remains.* And, that distinguished naturalist Cuvier, in his essay on the Theory of the Earth, admits the possibility that there are many genera of SEA animals yet unknown, but denies that it can apply to the larger genera of LAND animals,' which, as the reader will perceive, strongly corroborates the above statement. Then also, the Strata, in which these fossil remains are deposited, have been evidently torn and rent by some mighty convulsion of nature; and though it be admitted that this was the effect of the deluge, yet it is clear that the strata themselves must have existed prior thereto. Finally, allowing the hypothesis, that fossil remains, which are of such prodigious extent (( as to form even whole masses of secondary mountains, were all the effects of the general deluge, how are we to account for the fact, that, of the millions of

1. Consult Gen. vi., 19—22; vii., 2, 3, 8, 9; viii., 19.

2. Mr. Faber on this subject observes - It is possible, I allow, that many genera of marine animals, as yet unknown to naturalists, may even now be in existence: but it is next to impossible, that any genera of the larger land animals should still be in existence, and should nevertheless have hitherto remained concealed from human observation. See this matter well discussed in Cuvier's Essay on the theory of the earth. § 25, p. 61. 4th Edit. Treat. on the three Disp. Vol. I., p. 122, 123.

3. Theory, &c. p. 61-§ 25. Ed. the 4th.

human beings "who perished at that time," the " proper fossilized " remains of not even one of them should ever yet have been found

mighty mass?1

among that

1. It is quite undeniable, says Mr. Cuvier, that no human remains have been hitherto discovered among the extraneous fossils: and this furnishes a strong proof, that the extinct races, which are now found in a fossil state, were not varieties of known species, since they never could have been subjected to human influence.

When I assert, that human bones have not been hitherto found among extraneous fossils, I must be understood to speak of fossils or petrifactions properly so called: as, in peat depositions or turf bogs and in alluvial formations as well as in ancient burying grounds, the bones of men, with those of horses and other ordinary existing species of animals, may readily enough be found; but among the fossil paleotheria and elephants and rhinoceroses, the smallest fragment of human bone has never been detected. Most of the laborers in the gypsum quarries about Paris are firmly persuaded, that the bones they contain are in a great part human: but, after having seen and carefully examined many thousands of those bones, I may safely affirm, that not a single fragment of them has ever belonged to our species. I carefully examined at Pavia the collection of extraneous fossil bones brought there by Spallanzani from the island of Cerigo: and, notwithstanding the assertion of that celebrated observer, I affirm that there is not a single fragment among them that ever formed part of a human skeleton. Every where else, the fragments of bone, considered as human, have been found to belong to some animal, either when the fragments themselves have been actually examined, or even when their engraved figures have been inspected. Such real human bones, as have been found in a fossil state, belonged to bodies, which had fallen into crevices of rocks or had been left in the forsaken galleries of ancient mines and were covered up by incrustation: and I extend this assertion to the human skeletons, discovered in Guadaloupe, in a rock formed of pieces of madrepore thrown up by the sea and united by water impregnated with calcareous matter.

Every circumstance, therefore, contributes to establish this post

These considerations we deem of such importance, to our general argument as not to allow that they should be viewed simply in the light of collateral evidence of the fact, as to the great antiquity of our globe. Cuvier on this subject observes, that it is only to the investigation of the relations of extraneous fossils with the strata in which they are contained, that we owe the commencement even of a Theory of the earth: as, but for them, we could never have even suspected that there had existed any successive epochs in the formation of our Earth, and a series of different and consecutive operations in reducing it to its present state. By them alone we are enabled to ascertain, with the utmost certainty, that our earth has not always been covered over by the same external crust because we are thoroughly assured, that the organized bodies, to which these fossil remains belong, must have lived upon the surface, before they came to be buried, as they now are, at a great depth.

Now, having, in accordance with this statement, demonstrated, the existence of fossil remains of extinct

tion: that the human race did not exist in the countries, in which the fossil bones of animals have been discovered, at the epoch when these bones were covered up; as there cannot be a single reason assigned, why men should have entirely escaped from such general catastrophes, or, if they also had been destroyed and covered over at the same time, why their remains should not be now found along with those of the other animals. Essay on the theory of the earth. § 30., p. 128-133.

A fossil human skeleton from Guadaloupe, but pronounced to be • recent formation, is now in the British Museum.

1. Theory of the Earth. § 23., pp. 54, 55.

marine and land animals and vegetables, it remains that we adduce evidence, as already observed, of the impossibility of harmonizing the scriptural cosmogony of the creation with these scientific discoveries of physiology in any other way, than by a comparison of the statements of the one, with the existing phenomena as developed in the order of stratification of the other. And, in order to this, and for the sake of greater perspicuity and accuracy, we will present a brief of the order of formation of each of the six days or epochs consecutively, as laid down in the Mosaic Cosmogony. The primitive rocks are represented as being first separated from the chaotic waters; plants and herbs are formed next; then fishes; then birds; next, land-animals and reptiles; and finally, man. Now, upon the supposition, that the six days of formation as given by Moses, were each periods of vast length, i. e., of length sufficient to produce the fossil remains of marine and land-animals and vegetables as above represented, then these fossilated remains must be found to exist in the same order of stratification continuously, with that in which they are said to have been at first organized. In other words, they must "follow each other upward in the precise order of the Mosaic Narrative." Accordingly, thus we find it. The structure of our globe in the order of stratification, presents to view first, the primitive rock or granite, entirely free from all fossil remains: next follow fossil plants and vegetables: next, fossil fishes: next, fossil birds: next, fossil land-animals and rep tiles. Human fossils, none. From this order, except

indeed that occasional intermixtures may occur, there is no variation.

We shall now proceed to classify the Mosaic cosmogony of the creation, and the order of formation of the six days, with Cuvier's classification of the series of strata, with their extraneous fossils, reckoning upwards from the primitive rocks; after which, we shall assign the reasons, on physiological data, for the occasional deviations from this order, discoverable in the intermixtures of strata, as given in the table of that writer. And, for the purpose of perspicuity, we shall arrange the two accounts in opposite columns, thus,

[blocks in formation]

III. Third day.

land and water.

First appearance of primary Primitive Rocks. No fossil orrock, in the early part of this pe-ganic remains. riod. No fossil remains.

Middle part of this period, vegetables. Trees, plants, herbs.

IV. Fourth day. Sun, moon, and stars.

V. Fifth day. Fishes and Birds.

Transition Rocks. First appearance of fossil shells and corals. First sandstone or old red sandstone and old red conglomerate. Fossil wood. First limestone or mountain limestone. Fossil corals and shells. Coal formation. Impressions of plants, many with a tropical aspect. New red conglo

merate.

Second limestone, or magnesian limestone. First appearance of fossil fishes, and of fossil oviparous quadrupeds. Second sand-stone, or new red sand-stone. Fossil shells, corals, and vegetables. Third limestone or Jura oölite and lias lime

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