in the same track, and added many
valuable facts, and a host of other laborers in the same field have since
appeared. So extensive have been the discoveries of the works of man
buried with the bones of the _Elephas primigenius_ and of cavern-bears and
extinct hyenas, that we are forced to recognize the fact of the
coexistence of man with those ancient animals, for the occurrence of
deposits containing the bones of the two cannot any longer be regarded as
doubtful; and certainly stone tools fashioned by man have been found so
widely spread in the ancient alluviums and deposits of the post-Pliocene
age, as to remove all doubt of the fact, and to destroy the objection that
they might be local accidents of an equivocal character.

More recently,--namely, within four or five years,--the discovery of the
habitations of lost races of men on the borders of the Swiss lakes, and of
remains of various articles which those people once used,--tools, weapons,
ornaments, bones of animals they fed upon, seeds of plants they cultivated
and consumed,--has given a new impetus to these researches into the
antiquity of the human race. Borings into the alluvial deposits of the
Nile have proved the existence of man in that valley more than thirty
thousand years ago, as estimated by the known rate of deposit of the
alluvium of the Nile. Considerations as to the origin and spread of
languages also seem to require a much greater antiquity for the human race
than has been popularly allowed; and geologists have always claimed
myriads of years as required for the sedimentary formations of the globe.
Sir Charles Lyell, ever an active collector of geological facts, and an
excellent writer on the science of Geology, has engaged with his usual
zeal in verifying the researches of the French, Swiss, and German
geologists, and has written a very readable book on these new revelations
concerning the ancient history of the human race. It is the best English
presentation of the subject, and is written in a style that every one can
read and understand.

We regret, however, that he has abandoned his former views as to the
persistency of species, and has adopted Darwin's theory of transmutation
and development by variation and natural relation, and must say, after
carefully reading his book, that he has not given any geological proofs of
the correctness of Darwin's opinions, but, like that distinguished writer,
he is obliged to take refuge behind the deficiency