an entire fossil of the human race, actually belong-

ing to the quarternary period! The human skull was perfectly recognizable. Had a soil of very peculiar nature, like that of the ceme- tery of St, Michel at Bordeaux, preserved it during countless ages? This was the question I asked my- self, but which I was wholly unable to answer. This head with stretched and parehmenty skin, with the teeth whole, the hair abundant, was before our eyes as in life ! I stood mute, almost paralyzed with wonder and awe before this dread apparition of another age. My uncle, who on almost every occasion was a great talker, remained for a time completely dumfounded. He was too full of emotion for speech to be possible. After a while, however, we raised up the body to which the skull belonged. We stood it on end. It seemed, to our excited imaginations, to look at us with its terrible hollow eyes. After some minutes of silence, the man was van- quished by the Professor. Human instincts suc- cumbed to scientific pride and exultation. Profes- sor Hardwigg, carried away by his enthusiasm, for- got alt the circumstances of our journey, the extra- ordinary position in which we were placed, the im- mense cavern which stretched far away over our heads. There can be no doubt that he thought him- self at the institution addressing his attentive pu- pils, for he put on his most doctoria! style, -waved his hand, and began — "Gentlemen, I have the honor on this auspicious occasion to present to you a man of the quarternary period of our globe. Many learned men have de- nied his very existence, while other able persons, perhaps of even higher authorityj have affirmed , their belief in the reality of his life. If the St. Thomases of Paleontology were present, they would reverentially touch him with their fingers and be- lieve in his existence, thus acknowledging their ob- stinate heresy. I know that science should be cai-e- ful in relation to all discoveries of this nature. I am not without having heard of the many Barnums and other quacks who have made a trade of such like pretended discoveries. I have, of course, heard of the discovery of the knee-bones of Ajax, of the pre^ tended finding of the body of Orestes by the Spar- tiates, and of the body of Asterius, ten spans long, fifteen feet — of which we read in Paiisanias, "I have read everything in relation to the skele- ton of Trapani, discovered in the fourteenth cen- tury, which many persons chose to regard as that of Polypheums, and the history of the giant dug up 'during the sixteenth century in the environs of Palmyra. You are as well aware as I am, gentle- men, of the existence of the celebrated analysis made near Lucerne, in 1577, of the great bones which the celebrated Doctor Felix Plater declared belonged to a giant about nineteen feet high, I have devoured all the treatises of Cassanion, and all those memoirs, pamphlets, speeches, and replies, pub- lished in reference to the skeleton of Teutobochus, king of the Cimbri, the invader of Gaul, dug out of a gravel pit in Dauphiny, in 1613. In the eighteenth century I should have denied, with Peter Campet the existence of the preadamites of Seheuchzer. I have had in my hands the writing called Gigans — " Here my uncle was afflicted by the natural infirm- ity which prevented him from pronouncing difficult words in public. It was not exactly stuttering, but a strange sort of constitutional hesitation, "The writ- ing named Gigans — " he repeated. He, however, could get no further. "Gigayiteo — " Impossible! The unfortunate: word would not come out. There would have been great laughter at the Institution, had the mistake happened there. "Gigantosteology!" at last exclaimed Professor Hardwigg, between 1;wo savage growls. "Yes, gentlemen, I am well acquainted with all these matters, and know, also, that Cuvier and Blumenbach fully recognized in these bones, the undeniable remains of mammoths of the quaternary period. But after what we now see, to allow a. doubt is to insult scientific inquiry. There is the body; you can see it; you can touch it. . It is not a skeleton, it ia a complete and uninjured body, pre- served with an anthropological object." I did not attempt to controvert this singular and astounding assertion. "If I could but wash this corpse in a solution of sulphuric acid," continued my uncle, "I would un- dei-take to remove all the earthly particles, and these resplendent shells, which are incruated all over this body. But I am without this precious dissolving medium. Nevertheless, such as it is, this body will tell its own history." Here the Professor held up the fossil body, and exhibited it with rare dexterity. No professional shovnnan could have shown more activity. "As on examination you will see," my uncle con- tinued, "it is only about six feet in length, which is a long way from the pretended giants of early days. As to the particular race to which it belonged, it is incontestabJy Caucasian. It is of the white race, that is, of our own. The skull of this fossil being is a perfect ovoid without any remarkable or promi- nent development of the cheek bones, and without any projection of the jaw. But I will advance still farther on the road of inquii-y and deduction, andl dare venture to say that this human sample or specimen belongs to the Japhetic family, which spread over the world from India to the uttermost - limits of western Europe. There is no occasion, gentlemen, to smile at my remarks," Of course nobody smiled. But the excellent Pro- fessor was so accustomed to beaming countenances at hia lectures, that he believed he saw all his au- dience laughing during the delivery of hia learned dissertation, 'Yes," he continued, with renewed animation, "this is a fossil man, a contemporary of the mas- todons, with the bones of which this whole amphi- theatre ia covered. But if I am called on to explain how he came to this place, how these various strata! by which he is covered have fallen into this vast cavity, I can undertake to give you no explanation. But there is the man, surrounded by the works of his hands, bis hatchela, and his carved flints, which belong to the stone period; and the only rational supposition is, that, like myself, he visited the cen- ter of the earth as a traveling tourist, a pioneer of science. At all events, there can be no doubt of his great age, and of his being one of the oldest race of human beings." The Professor with these words ceased his ora- tion, and I burst forth into loud and "unanimous" applause. Besides, after all, ray uncle was right.