124 A COMPARATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE Part HI. CHAPTER VIL There is a phenomenon, intimately connected with the preceding, which will demand our most particular consideration. The Mosaical record asserts; that the cata strophe 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 exuviae no less than brute exuviae; whereas, the mineral geology observes, “ in all the exten- “ sive 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,^."—“ It is certain, (says M. Cuvier,) “ that human bones have not been found among “ fossil bones ; and yet, the former are as durable as those of the brute species, if placed in "" similar circumstances.—Every thing, therefore, “ leads us to believe; that the human race did “ not exist in the countries where fossil bones “ have been discovered, at the epocha of the “ revolution that buried the bones, although 1 D’AUBUISSON, tom. ii. p. 514.
