This statement aroused
research in every direction, and the number of fossil Mammalia found
within the next few years, and proved by comparison to be different from
any living species, soon demonstrated the truth of his conclusion.
[Illustration]
Shortly after the discovery of fossil elephants had opened this new path
of investigation, some curious bones were found by some workmen in the
quarries of Montmartre, near Paris, and brought to Cuvier for
examination. Although few in number, and affording but very scanty
_data_ for such a decision, he at once pronounced them to be the remains
of some extinct animal preceding the present geological age. Here, then,
at his very door, as it were, was a settlement of that old creation in
which he could pursue the inquiry, already become so important in its
bearings. It was not long before other bones of the same kind were
found, though nothing as yet approaching an entire skeleton. However,
with such means as he had, Cuvier began a comparison with all the living
Mammalia,--with the human skeleton first, with Monkeys, with the larger
Carnivora and Ruminants, then with all the smaller Mammalia, then with
the Pachyderms; and here, for the first time, he began to find some
resemblance.
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