- First of all, if I want to be well understood, it is necessary that I tell you what Paleontology is. Geologists have given this name to the study of the animals that lived before the Deluge, and whose bones and fossil relics are found buried in the different layers of earth that form the bark of the globe.
- And what is this the cortex of the globe?
-Now I will tell you. Descending in the mines and in the wells, looking at the cracks of the mountains and the ravines, it was observed that the soil, at whatever depth one descended, was always composed of layers of earth or rocks, placed more or less parallel one on the other like beds, and that these beds appeared usually in a horizontal or slightly inclined position. Continuing to dig, all these layers were passed through and arrived at the granite. And this is no longer found in layers, but in mass: it is never overlaid in more or less regular banks, and it is believed that under it there are no longer horizontal or regular beds. It was concluded, a little boldly, that the granite formed the core of the globe, and that the stratified soils were the mineral bark of the globe.
- So be it: but what has this bark to do with Paleontology?
- It was also observed that throughout the earth, in Europe, Asia, America, etc., these layers do not change in nature or place.these layers do not change in nature or place. Above the granite kernel, for example, layers or beds of slate schists, or clayey schists, etc., are everywhere found.- Above these, those of calcaria carbonifera, of podinghe and carbon fossil etc.; - then the layers of rose-colored stoneware, mottled etc., then of calcaria of iridescent manna shells etc.; - then of clay, rough lime, - It was also observed that throughout the earth, in Europe, Asia, America, etc., these layers do not change in nature or place.these layers do not change in nature or place. Above the granite kernel, for example, layers or beds of slate schists, or clayey schists, etc., are everywhere found.- Above these, those of calcaria carbonifera, of podinghe and carbon fossil etc.; - then the layers of rose-colored stoneware, mottled etc., then of calcaria of iridescent manna shells etc.; - then of clay, rough lime, chalk, marl, silex lime, marl subappennine etc, finally, all the recent layers formed from transport deposition, that is terras, sands, gravel evidently dragged from the high mountains in the lowlands from the pluvial waters. And from the ravines, and therefore transported or rolled from the torrents and the rivers. And just in these last lands are found the remains of the antediluvian man, that is the fossil man , as in the same lands and in the previous we have found the remains of other animals and plants. - But it is also said that fossil man has never been found among the remains of ancient animals, and that the Paris Academy of Sciences still denies that there are anthropoliths or fossil men.
- At first it is rare the case. in which the Academies act as sails, and winds, and steam for civilization; more often they fulfill the ballast office and sometimes, (unfortunately) the one attributed one day to the Remora. Secondly, Cuvier's vote still holds the lords of the Academy tied.
But get close to a cave in the Liege area, and I will show you a being that you will undoubtedly recognize. He is the one you see drawn on the last page of this issue of Cosmorama.
- Yes, Sir.
- Devil! He seems a monkey!
- And that you want! It therefore was so made, and the characters of its race are still, but isolatedd, in living nature
- What! And that head with that prominent snout...
- Scrupulously it was designed over a found fossil skull in sands of Baden near Vienna. However some Etiops show still the same figure to you
- And those thin legs without hunkers and polpe. These feet hollow of length a lot out of proportion
- If you have the patience to consult the great edition of the travel of captain Dumont Durville, you will see in the beautiful gravures adorning it that the inhabitants of the harbor of king George, and of many others contrade of the Oceania have fewer buttocks, hunkers and polpe of my fossil man, and that they have the foot equally long and crushed.
- But that thumb that separates from the other fingers of the foot like the thumb of the hand?
- If you have seen the wild ones of Brazil, or of some population near Cajenna. you will have observed that they had the thumb of the feet separate and nearly antagonistic to the other fingers. Therefore they ride very well, because with this thumb of the foot they holds himselfs to their brackets of rope excellently
- But, my sir. I never did not see a man hairy how much a bear .
- Because the continued use of the dresses made this first garment of the nature useless. Let read sacred Scripture and you will find Esaù hairy how much a kid. And still exist little individuals for this respect not inferior to the son of Isac.
- Why do you have put a stone axe in hand?
-Because in the cave near Liege they are found, mixed to boneses of men, rhinoceros, bears etc, various objects of the human beginning industry: f.e., a needle made with a fish-bone; a bone thicked in tip: pieces of silex shaped in way of arrows, knives, axes.
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