CHAP. VI.

PART III. deposited, they would have found different bottoms. The bodies which were lodged upon beds of sand, clay, or other loose soils, would sink within them, and become encompassed by them; while those which fell upon a rocky bottom, in which were cavities and caverns, would not be imbedded, but would be gradually rolled, propelled, or drawn into those cavities, by the action of the water, continually entering and returning; for, the returning water would not have equal power upon the bodies with the entering water, which moved with the weight of the whole mass. So that where the soil was not sufficiently soft to receive them, they would be driven forward, and finally urged into the inmost recesses of the caverns; where they would afterwards be found, in confused, multitudinous, and exposed masses, with all the circumstances which they now exhibit. And because they would have been fixedly lodged before their skeletons were stripped of their integuments, and because the sea presently abandoned them, no appearance of trituration would be discoverable in their bones; which is a phænomenon that much embarrasses the mineral geology. This diversity of position, would be the necessary consequence of one and the same revolution, in different localities. It is therefore quite unnecessary to resort, with

De Luc, to two different revolutions; or to PART III. embrace his whimsical conclusion, that "these "ancient caverns were-comme des cimetières

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pour les animaux-a sort of burying-place in "ancient islands for sick animals, which retired

thither to die; and which, he says, can alone "account for the prodigious quantity of their bones, heaped together, and incrusted with "stalactites1."

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Thus, then, every thing concurs to testify; that the bodies of equatorial animals, found in northern soils, were transported thither by the great agent which we have ascertained; and thus we perceive, that the phænomenon of their presence in those soils, is amply accounted for by the second revolution reported in the Mosaic record.

CHAP. VI.

1 Lettres Géologiques, p. 219.

CHAPTER VII.

PART III. THERE is a phænomenon, intimately connected with the preceding, which will demand our very particular consideration.

CHAP. VII.

The Mosaical record asserts, that the catastrophe which caused the universal destruction of the brute creation, caused likewise that of the whole human race; one family alone excepted. But, if the human creation perished at the same time with the brute, we naturally expect to find human exuvia, as well as brute exuvia; whereas, "it is very remarkable, ob

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serves the mineral geology, that in all the "extensive moveable soils in which we find "the bones of these large quadrupeds, and "in which we find also bones perfectly "similar to those of our horses, oxen,

dogs, &c. no human bones are ever found.— “And yet, these bones are as durable as those "of the brute species, if placed in similar cir"cumstances. Every thing, therefore, induces us to believe, that the human race did not "exist at the period when those fossil bones were buried, and in the countries where they

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CHAP. VII.

"are found, although they may have existed PART III. " elsewhere. The establishment of man in "these regions, that is, in a great part of Europe, "Asia, and America, must necessarily have "been posterior, not only to the revolution which " imbedded those bones, but also, to that which exposed the soils enclosing them: which re"volutions, are the last that our globe has sus"tained.- In examining, attentively, all that "has passed on the surface of the earth since it was rendered dry for the last time; we see

clearly, that this last revolution, and conse"quently the establishment of the actual so"cieties of nations, cannot be very ancient. This " is one of the results the best proved, and the "least expected, of sound geology; a result the

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more valuable, as it connects, by an uninterrupted chain, natural history and civil history1."

This is, indeed, an important remark of the mineral geology; but there is yet a step or two for it to take, before it can become "sound

geology." We find here many valuable concessions to the Mosaical geology; viz. "that "mankind did not inhabit our present continents, "until after the revolution which imbedded "that confused multitude of bones within their

'D'AUBUISSON, tom. ii. p. 514, 5.

PART III.

CHAP. VII.

soils-that they never occupied the regions " in which those bones are found, prior to the "revolution which buried them:- that the "human race may have existed elsewhere:— "that the revolution which exposed the soils containing those bones, is the last which our globe has sustained :—and, that this last revolution, and consequently the establishment of "the actual societies of nations in Europe, Asia, "and America, cannot be very ancient."

These are, indeed, remarkable concessions; but we find them associated with the constant error, of multiplying revolutions without any reason; which must necessarily falsify both history and chronology. This able writer assumes, gratuitously, that the revolution which exposed the soils containing the fossil exuvia, was different from, and posterior to, that which imbedded them; and different again from that, which gave origin to the actual societies of nations; consequently, that all the three took place in different periods of time. Whereas, we must perceive, by the record, that all were effects of one and the same revolution; and where one cause accounts simply, and with high probability, for two or more effects, it is improbable to reason that they should be the effects of different causes. The mineral geology, however, does not draw any inference, from the