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skeleton of a man-that even the substance of the bones, and what is more, the flesh, and parts still softer than flesh, are incorporated in the stone; in fact, that it is one of the rarest relics that we can possess of the devoted race which perished at the flood!"* What must have been the state of science when a philosopher and an eminent physician knew so little of comparative anatomy? when the scientific world could be persuaded to believe that an arrangement of bones so dissimilar, resembled the human form? Our astonishment at the crudities and absurdities of the early theories of the earth ceases, when we regard the extraordinary ignorance which then prevailed. But how great had been the progress of comparative anatomy, and with what rapid strides it must have marched, when Cuvier could deduce from a single bone the form and species of the entire animal! Scheuchzer's imposture, however, did not long continue, it was soon discovered that this was the skeleton of an individual of some other 66 race maudite,"

relics of animals and plants; which are said to be of species belonging to a climate approximating to that of Europe at the present day, while in older deposits they are referrible exclusively to tropical species. The Rhine has cut a passage through this rock since its deposition.

* The deception might not have been originally so palpable, as the collateral parts of the skeleton were not developed until Cuvier, at the request of the director of the museum at Haarlem, in 1811, examined and chisseled away the stone, where from the model of a living species he expected to find other bones-a process which must have been singularly gratifying to the Baron, as hitherto concealed portions rose up as it were beneath his chisel, in accordance with his expectations, and in conformity with the model of the species of animal to which he had at first glance referred it.

and eventually the " man who saw the deluge" was proved by Cuvier to be an aquatic salamander.

But this is not the only mistake into which philosophers have fallen, in their eagerness to discover some traces of the antediluvian population. Two real skeletons of human beings, discovered in a solid rock on the shores of the island of Guadaloupe, a few years ago, were for some time regarded as unequivocal remains of the unfortunate contemporaries of Noah; and to this day hundreds of those who view the well-known fossil skeleton in the British Museum, for want of better information, regard it as a genuine homo diluvii testis. But even this inference, sanctioned as it appears to be by probability, was too hasty, and is now abandoned by geologists. A careful examination of the spot where they were discovered, proves that the mass of rock which enclosed them is of very recent origin, and in fact, is still accumulating, being merely a bank raised by the sea at the foot of a slope on the shores of the island, and formed of sand, shells, coral, and other matter thrown up by the waves, and solidified in the manner of stalactites* and travertin, which we described among the effects of the existing operations of nature, so that in all probability these ancient relics, are merely the encrusted bones of some shipwrecked mariners of this or the preceding century. It is impossible to infer the age of any of these sedimentary rocks from their mineral character, the most recent and even contemporary deposits, as we have seen, being sometimes as completely indurated as the most ancient marbles.

* Solid matter deposited from water holding lime in solution.

Among the extinct animals which modern research has brought to light, the megatherium, from mega great, and therion wild beast, is the most remarkable for its colossal size and extraordinary proportions. It may not, perhaps, strictly belong to the period under consideration, and indeed the general inference is, that it existed subsequently to the extinction of the palæotherium, and the other strange quadrupeds buried in the supracretaceous rocks of Europe, but it is too remarkable a character to be omitted in our retrospect of the early inhabitants of the earth, and is, moreover, deserving of attention from the interesting inferences to be adduced from its peculiar organization. Only two individuals of this species of animal have been discovered, but from the fortunate circumstance of one having been found almost entire, naturalists have been able to investigate its structure with more precision than that of many others, whose remains, though existing in greater abundance, are generally dispersed. The discovery of this interesting skeleton was entirely accidental. A peasant passing along the river Solado, near Buenos Ayres, threw his lasso at something which stood half-concealed in the stream, and dragged on shore the enormous pelvis of the animal. This led to a further search, the river was diverted from its course by means of a dam for that purpose, and the rest of the bones with the teeth and claws, imbedded in a stratum of blue clay, through which the river had cut its channel, were soon brought to light and transferred to Madrid, where, the several portions having been carefully put together and the animal anatomically re-constructed, this "mighty pre-Adamite" now forms the most remarkable feature of the royal museum.

The megatherium, although of such gigantic dimensions, is considered to have been a species of sloth, with a maily covering like the armadillo. Cuvier calls it the "paresseux géant," and inferred from its organization, that like the sloth it fed upon vegetables, but while the one lived upon leaves the other fed upon roots. Buffon and other naturalists have regarded the organization of these animals as imperfect, and considered them clumsy performances of nature, in which the inconveniences resulting from deformity were attended with no compensating advantages. Professor Buckland, in a recent lecture, has shewn the absurdity of this inference, and proved by an admirable train of inferential reasoning, deducing the habits of the extinct animal from its organization, that so far from their being abortions, they are beautiful instances of that richness of contrivance by which all organized beings are adapted to the circumstances in which they are placed, and the part they are destined to perform in the creation. The peculiarities of the sloth, although they unfit it for moving with ease upon the earth, admirably adapt it for its destined residence upon the branches of trees; so the proportions of the megatherium, apparently so anomalous, are exquisitely arranged with a view to its intended subsistence upon those tubercular roots which abound in the countries where its remains were found, and which, from the construction of its grinders, it is inferred, were the food of this animal. "Its teeth," says Dr. Buckland, "though ill-adapted for the mastication of flesh or grass, are wonderfully contrived for the crushing of roots, with the further advantage of keeping themselves sharpset in the very act of performing their work."

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An idea may be formed of the outline and general proportions of the megatherium, from the subjoined sketch, copied from Cuvier's very accurate drawing.

[graphic]

The animal was about twelve feet long and eight high. The fore feet, nearly a yard in length and exceeding a foot in breadth, were armed with three enormous claws, each more than a foot long, which it is supposed to have constantly employed in scraping roots from the ground, while the weight of its ponderous body rested firmly upon its hinder extremities-the anterior part of the skeleton, it will be perceived, is light and elegant compared with the posterior proportions, which are said to exceed in bulk those of the largest elephant. To this incongruous mass of bones was added a coat of mail, which it is suggested was to protect the animal from the annoyance which the sand and dirt raised in digging for its food would occasion,* or it might have been intended to render the animal invulnerable to all external attacks, whether from venomous insects, to which, in the tropical climates where it existed, it would be exposed, or from

* The armadillos which obtain their food by digging in this manner, are also covered with a maily skin.

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