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  [Illustration: IDEAL RESTORATION OF THE NEANDERTHAL MAN.]

  A MANUAL
  OF THE
  ANTIQUITY OF MAN.

  BY

  J. P. MACLEAN.

  "In order to know what Man is, we ought to know what Man has been."
                                                     --PROF. MAX MÜLLER.

  _REVISED EDITION._

  BOSTON:
  UNIVERSALIST PUBLISHING HOUSE,
  37 _Cornhill_,
  1877.

  Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by
  J. P. MACLEAN,

  In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

PREFACE.

In lecturing upon the Antiquity of Man I have found the minds of the
people prepared to receive the evidences, and ready to believe the
conclusions of the geologists. I have felt the need of a popular work to
place in the hands of the public, that would be both instructive and
welcome. The works of Lyell and Lubbock are too elaborate and too
expensive to meet the popular need. My object has been to give an
outline of the subject sufficient to afford a reasonable acquaintance
with the facts connected with the new science, to such as desire the
information but cannot pursue it further, and to serve as a manual for
those who intend to become more proficient.

As the Unity of Language and the Unity of the Race are so closely
connected with the subject, I have added the two chapters on these
questions, hoping they will be acceptable to the reader. It was my
intention to have written a more extended chapter on the relation of the
Holy Scriptures to this subject, but was forced to condense, as I had
done in other chapters, in order not to transcend the proposed limits of
the book.

In the preparation of this work I have freely used Lyell's "Antiquity of
Man" and "Principles of Geology," Lubbock's "Pre-Historic Times,"
Buchner's "Man in the Past, Present, and Future," Figuier's "Primitive
Man," Wilson's "Pre-Historic Man," Keller's "Lake-Dwellings," the works
of Charles Darwin, Dana's "Manual of Geology," Huxley's "Man's Place in
Nature," Prichard's "Natural History of Man," Pouchet's "Plurality of
the Human Race," and others, referred to in the margins.

I am indebted to my friend, Mr. Frank Cushing, for the ideal restoration
of the Neanderthal Man. The engraving was made especially for this work.
The references to Buchner are from his work entitled, "Man in the Past,
Present and Future."

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION.
                                                                    PAGE
    Interest in the subject--Influence of Lyell--Usher's
    Chronology--Aimé Boué first to proclaim the high antiquity
    of man--Dr. Schmerling the founder--Boucher de Perthes the
    apostle--Classifications by Lubbock, Lartet, Renevier, and
    Westropp--Plan of the work--No Universal Age of Stone,
    Bronze, or Iron--Epochs not sharply defined--Outlines of
    History--Superstitious Notions--Skull from Constatt--Stone
    hatchet from London--Cavern of Gailenreuth--Axes from
    Hoxne--Human jaw from Maestricht--Skeleton from Lahr--
    "Reliquiæ Diluvianæ"--Discoveries by Tournal and Christol--
    Engis and Enghihoul Caverns--Schmerling's labors--Lyell's
    opinions--Arrow mark on skull of Cave-Bear--Boucher de
    Perthes and the Valley of the Somme--Jaw of Moulin-Quignon--
    Kent's Hole--Fossil Man of Denise--Remains from the
    Manzanares--Cave of Aurignac--Lyell declares his belief--
    Lake-Dwellings of Switzerland Neanderthal Skull--Caverns
    near Torquay--Cave of Massat--Cave of Lourdes--Caverns of
    Ariége--Tertiary at St. Prest--Implements near Gosport--
    Bones from Colmar--Implements near Bournemouth--Trou de
    la Naulette--Bones near Savonia--Reindeer Station--Foreland
    Cliff--Fossil Man of Mentone--Other Discoveries near Mentone.     11

CHAPTER II.

GLACIAL EPOCH.

    Starting point for the investigation--Advance of the ice--
    Fauna of Europe--Geological Period--Probable Date--Probable
    Duration--Evidences of the Existence of Man--Implements from
    Hampshire--Flint tools at Bournemouth--Oval flint from
    Foreland Cliff--Implements from the Valley of the Somme--
    Jaw of Moulin-Quignon--Implements from the Seine--Axes
    near Madrid--Kent's Hole--Brixham Cave--Human jaw from
    Maestricht--Skeleton from Lahr--Cave of La Naulette--
    Implements from Hoxne--Bones from Colmar.                         25

CHAPTER III.

GLACIAL--CONTINUED.

    Belgian Caverns--Caverns of Liége--Engis Skull--Remarks of
    Prof. Huxley--Views of Busk, Schmerling, Buchner, and Vogt--
    Neanderthal Skull--Prof. Huxley, Dr. Buchner, and Dr.
    Fuhlrott on Geological time of Neanderthal Skull--Opinions
    of Huxley, Buchner, Schaaffhausen, and Busk--Skull from the
    Loess of the Rhine, Constatt, Cochrane's Cave, Island of
    Moën, Minsk, and Plau--Borreby Skulls--Human skulls of Arno.      44

CHAPTER IV.

PRE-GLACIAL EPOCHS.

    North America during the Tertiary--Europe--Climate--Fauna of
    Eocene--Of Miocene--Of Pliocene--Traces of Man--Opinions of
    Lyell, Lubbock, and A. R. Wallace--Man in the Pliocene--
    Hearth under Osars--Human bones from Savonia--Discoveries at
    St. Prest--Skull from Altaville--Prof. Denton's Statement--
    Man in the Miocene--Flints from Pontlevoy--Flint-flake from
    Aurillac--Marks on bones near Pouance--Implements from
    Colorado and Wyoming--Eocene--Glacial Periods during the
    Miocene.                                                          58

CHAPTER V.

CONDITION OF MAN IN THE EARLIEST TIMES.

    No knowledge of the first appearance of Man--Fauna of India
    during the Miocene--Intellect of Man--Contests with the
    Beasts--A weapon invented--Earliest type--Advancement slow--
    Climate changes--Sufferings of Man--Known by the Remains--
    Structure of the Neanderthal Man--Engis Man--Men both large
    and small--Animal structure of jaws from La Naulette and
    Moulin-Quignon.                                                   63

CHAPTER VI.

INTER-GLACIAL EPOCH.

    Condition of the earth--Numerous traces of Man--Cave of
    Aurignac--Conclusions of Lartet and Cartailhac--Caverns of
    Maccagnone--Wokey Hole--Fossil Man of Denise--Reindeer
    Station on the Schusse--Dr. Buchner's Conclusions.                68

CHAPTER VII.

CONDITION OF MAN IN THE INTER-GLACIAL.

    Length of the Inter-Glacial--Man an improvable being--
    Implements improved--Art of engraving begun--Religious
    nature--Denton's description of primeval man--Language
    improved.                                                         76

CHAPTER VIII.

REINDEER EPOCH.

    Advance of the Glaciers--Fauna---Reindeer epoch a distinct
    one--Evidences of the existence of Man--Caves of Central and
    Southern France--Implements from Les Eyzies--Relics from La
    Madeleine--Workshops of Laugerie-Haute and Laugerie-Basse--
    Cave and rock shelters of Bruniquel--Cave of Gourdan--Fossil
    Man of Mentone--Other remains near Mentone--Other bone caves
    of France--Belgian Caverns--Trou de Frontal--Trou Rosette--
    Trou des Nutons--Cave of Chaleux--Cave at Furfooz--Cave of
    Thayngen--Cave near Cracow.                                       79

CHAPTER IX.

MAN OF THE REINDEER EPOCH.

    Man under a more favorable aspect--Type of--Dwellings--
    Clothing--Food--Cannibalism--The Arts--Traffic--Burial--
    Dupont's Report.                                                  89

CHAPTER X.

NEOLITHIC EPOCH.

    How characterized--Caves of this period--Contents of--Cave
    of Saint Jean d'Alcas--Danish Shell-Mounds--Danish Peat
    Bogs--Lake-Dwellings of Switzerland--Enumeration of--
    Robenhausen--Fauna and Flora of--Troyon and Keller on--
    Other Lake-Dwellings--Chronology.                                 94

CHAPTER XI.

MAN OF THE NEOLITHIC.

    Type of--Advancement--Habitations--Clothing--Food--Arts and
    Manufactures--Vast number of implements discovered--War--
    Agriculture--Burial--Dolmens, Tumuli, Cromlechs, and Menhirs--
    Victims, or Cannibalism.                                         103

CHAPTER XII.

BRONZE EPOCH.

    No direct relation to Antiquity of Man--How characterized--
    Type--Habitation and Food--Clothing--Implements--Arts--
    Agriculture--Fishing and Navigation--Burial--Religious
    Belief--Stone crescents.                                         108

CHAPTER XIII.

IRON EPOCH.

    Civilization established--Swiss Lake-Dwellings--Dr. Keller's
    Observations.                                                    112

CHAPTER XIV.

TRACES OF MAN IN AMERICA.

    Great opportunities for the Archæologist--Aim of the chapter--
    Skull from Osage Mission--Comstock lode--Charcoal at Toronto--
    Knife from Kansas--Pelvic bone from Natchez--Skeleton from New
    Orleans--Remains from the reefs of Florida--Caverns of Brazil--
    Shell Heaps--Mound-Builders--Extent of Mounds--Implements of--
    Sacrificial--Sephulchral--Temple--Symbolical--Antiquity of--
    Fort Shelby--How long the Mound-Builders remained.               114

CHAPTER XV.

WRITTEN HISTORY.

    Mystery of Ancient Empires--Rollin's difficulties--Egypt--
    Manetho's list--Statement of Herodotus--Mariette's
    explorations--Borings in the mud deposits of the Nile--
    Dr. Schliemann's discoveries at Troy--History of Chaldea
    by Berosus--Astronomical calculations--Chinese history--
    Mexican History.                                                 123

CHAPTER XVI.

LANGUAGE.

    A field for study--Three divisions of language--Rhematic
    period--Origin of--Various theories--Change of--Views of
    Ancients--Number of--Comparative permancy of written
    language.                                                        132

CHAPTER XVII.

UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE.

    Objections to the Unity of the Race--Anatomical--
    Geographical--Disparity of--Non-existence of medium types--
    Phenomena caused by two united types--Objections answered--
    Both man and animals affected by climate, food, and
    condition--Examples--Argument from language--Ocean navigated
    by frail crafts--Examples--Captain Tyson and party--The two
    extremes exist in all nations, and even in families--People
    who have retrograded--Races will amalgamate and perpetuate
    their kind--Griquas--Papuas--Pitcairn Islanders--Law of
    hybridity--Close affinity of the races--Slow change of.          136

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE BIBLE.

    Controversy--Perversion of meaning--Men of science branded--
    Design of the chapter--Creation--"Bara"--Day--Man's
    appearance--Two accounts--Case of Cain--Sons of God--Remarks
    of Dr. Livingstone--Doctrine of unity of the race--
    Chronology--The Deluge--Septuagint--Monarchies--The
    Dispersion--Opinion of Dr. Hedge--No supernatural aid in the
    formation of Language--What God may do does not imply what
    he has done--Dean Stanley on the Biblical account of Creation.   143

A MANUAL OF THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION.

No subject, of late years, has so much engrossed the attention of
geologists as the antiquity of the human race. The interest was greatly
increased by the publication of Sir Charles Lyell's "Antiquity of Man."
This work called the attention of the public to the subject, and so
great became the interest that many volumes and memoirs have been added
to the list, discussing the question in various ways, and, for the most
part, in such a manner as to add fresh interest and throw more light on
the subject. The scientific men were slow to take advantage of the
discoveries continually being made of the bones and works of man found
in caves and associated with the remains' of extinct animals. It is
probable, even at this late day, there would not have been so much
discussion of this subject had not Sir Charles Lyell lent the weight of
his great name to it. Educated men, everywhere, began to doubt the
correctness of Archbishop Usher's chronology, and so complete has been
the revolution of opinion that it is almost impossible to find an
intelligent man who would limit the period of man's existence to 6,000
years.

To Aimé Boué, a French geologist, must be attributed the honor of having
been the first to proclaim the high antiquity of the human race; to Dr.
Schmerling, the learned Belgian osteologist, on account of his
laborious investigations, untiring zeal, and great work on the subject,
the merited title of being the founder of the new science; to M. Boucher
de Perthes, its great apostle; while to Sir Charles Lyell and Sir John
Lubbock must be ascribed the honor of having made the new theory
popular.

The new science soon became permanently established, and the geologists
at once set about classifying the facts before them, in order to assign
to them their respective places in the geological epochs. All are agreed
in respect to the chronological orders, but all have not used the same
nomenclature, in consequence of which more or less confusion has been
the result. Sir J. Lubbock has divided pre-historic archæology into four
great epochs, as follows:

"I. That of the Drift; when man shared the possession of Europe with the
mammoth, the cave-bear, the woolly-haired rhinoceros, and other extinct
animals. This we may call the 'Palæolithic' period.

"II. The later or polished Stone Age; a period characterized by
beautiful stone weapons and instruments made of flint and other kinds of
stone; in which, however, we find no trace of the knowledge of any
metal, excepting gold, which seems to have been sometimes used for
ornaments. This we may call the 'Neolithic' period.

"III. The Bronze Age, in which bronze was used for arms and cutting
instruments of all kinds.

"IV. The Iron Age, in which that metal had superseded bronze for arms,
axes, knives, etc."[1]

These divisions are recognized by Lyell and Tylor.

Edward Lartet has proposed the following classification:

I. THE STONE AGE.

1st. Epoch of extinct animals (or of the great bear and mammoth).

2d. Epoch of migrated existing animals (or the reindeer epoch).

3d. Epoch of domesticated existing animals (or the polished stone
epoch).

II. THE METAL AGE.

1st. The Bronze Epoch.

2d. The Iron Epoch.

This mode of division is adopted by M. Figuier, in his "Primitive Man,"
by the Museum of Saint-Germain in that portion devoted to pre-historic
antiquities, and adhered to in essential points by Troyon and d'Archiac.

Professor Renevier, of Lausanne, has proposed a somewhat different
scheme, founded upon the epochs of Swiss glaciation. It is as follows:

"I. _Pre-glacial Epoch_, in which man lived cotemporaneously with the
elephant (_Elephas antiquus_), rhinoceros (_R. hemitæchus_), and the
cave-bear (_Ursus spelæus_).

"II. _Glacial Epoch_, in which man lived cotemporaneously with the
mammoth (_Elephas primigenius_), rhinoceros (_R. tichorrhinus_),
cave-bear, etc.

"III. _Post-glacial Epoch_, in which man lived cotemporaneously with the
mammoth and reindeer (_Cervus tarandus_).

"IV. _Last Epoch_, or epoch of the _Pile-buildings_, in which man lived
cotemporaneously with the Irish elk (_Megaceros hibernicus_), aurochs
(_Bison Europæus_)," etc.[2]

Westropp divides the periods of man, in respect to his stages of
civilization, as follows: _Savagery_, _hunters_, _herdsmen_, and
_agriculturists_.

In the following pages a somewhat different classification has been
adopted, and may be thus explained:

I. _Pre-glacial Epoch_; that period antedating the glaciers of the
post-tertiary, in which man lived cotemporaneously with the animals of
the tertiary, southern elephant (_E. meridionalis_), etc.

II. _Glacial Epoch_; that period of the post-tertiary when man was
forced to contend with the great ice-fields and the floods immediately
succeeding them, when the mammoth (_E. primigenius_), rhinoceros (_R.
tichorrhinus_), cave-bear, etc., began to flourish.

III. _Interglacial Epoch_; that period between the glacial and the
second advance of the ice, in which man lived cotemporaneously with the
animals of the preceding epoch, and the cave bear became extinct.

IV. _Reindeer Epoch_; that period when the glaciers again advanced; in
which man's chief food consisted of the flesh of the reindeer (_C.
tarandus_), that animal having made its way in numerous herds as far
south as the Pyrenees.

V. _Neolithic Epoch_; that period in which man polished his weapons of
stone, and sought to domesticate certain animals, the dog, etc.

VI. _Bronze Epoch_; that period characterized by weapons and implements
being made chiefly of bronze.

VII. _Iron Epoch_; that period in which bronze was generally superseded
by iron.

This classification, on the whole, seems to be the best that could be
devised, for the reason it attempts to place the evidences of the
existence of man in their relative geological positions.

Other methods have misled the student. There was no universal Stone,
Bronze, or Iron Age. The classification given by Lubbock applies to
Europe, but is too general. I have adopted the word "Neolithic" for want
of a better term, although the signification of the word is appropriate
to the period it is intended to represent.

These various epochs are not sharply defined, the one from the other;
but one merges into the other by gradual progression covering a period
of thousands of years. The growth of the various plants and animals, and
their retreat or final extinction, have also been very slow.

An outline of the history of the discoveries which led to a careful
investigation of the question, and which resolved the question into a
science, is not only one of interest but also of importance to the
careful thinker seeking information on the subject.

Prior to the study of the ancient implements the "people had so little
notion of the nature and signification of the stone axes and weapons of
earlier and later times that they were regarded with superstitious fear
and hope, and as productions of lightning and thunder. Hence for a long
time they were called thunderbolts even by the learned.... As late as
the year 1734 when Mahndel explained in the Academy of Paris that these
stones were human implements, he was laughed at, because he had not
proved that they could not have been formed in the clouds."[3]

As early as the year 1700, a human skull was dug out of the calcareous
tuff of Constatt, in company with the bones of the mammoth. It is
preserved in the Natural History Museum at Stuttgart.

In the year 1715, an Englishman named Kemp found in London, by the side
of elephants' teeth, a stone hatchet, similar to those which have been
subsequently found in great numbers in different parts of the world.
This hatchet is still preserved in the British Museum.

In 1774, in the cavern of Gailenreuth, Bavaria, J. F. Esper discovered
some human bones mingled with the remains of extinct animals.

In 1797, unpolished flint axes were dug out in great numbers from a
brick-field near Hoxne, county of Suffolk, where they occurred at a
depth of twelve feet, mingled with the bones of extinct species of
animals. They were gathered up and thrown by basketsful upon the
neighboring road. In the year 1801, before the Society of Antiquaries,
John Frere read a paper upon them, in which he stated that they pointed
to a very remote period. This communication, short as it was, contained
the essence of all subsequent discoveries and speculations as to the
antiquity of man. But the society regarded the subject as of no
importance.

During the construction of a canal (1815-1823) in Hollerd, there was
found, near Maestricht, in the _loess_, a human jaw in company with the
bones of extinct animals. This bone is preserved in the museum at
Leyden.

In 1823, Aimé Boué disinterred portions of a human skeleton from ancient
undisturbed loess near Lahr, a small village nearly opposite Strasbourg.
These bones were placed in the care of Cuvier, but, having been
neglected, are now lost.

In the same year, Dr. Buckland, an English geologist, published his
"Reliquiæ Diluvianæ," a work principally devoted to a description of the
Kirkdale Cave. The author combined all the known facts which favored the
coexistence of man, with the extinct animals.

In 1828, M. Tournal and M. Christol explored numerous caverns in the
south of France. In the cavern of Bize, Tournal found human bones and
teeth, and fragments of rude pottery, together with the bones of both
living and extinct species of animals, imbedded in the same mud and
breccia, cemented by stalagmite. The human bones were in the same
chemical condition as those of the extinct species.

M. Christol found in the cavern of Pondres, near Nimes, some human bones
in the same mud with the bones of an extinct hyena and rhinoceros.

In 1833, Dr. Schmerling explored the two bone-caverns of Engis and
Enghihoul (Belgium). In the former he found the Engis skull (now in the
museum of the University of Liége), at a depth of nearly five feet,
under an osseous breccia. The earth also contained the teeth of
rhinoceros, horse, hyena, and bear, and exhibited no marks of
disturbance. He also found the skull of a young person imbedded by the
side of a mammoth's tooth. It was entire, but so fragile, that it fell
to pieces before it was extracted. In the cave of Enghihoul he found
numerous bones belonging to three human individuals, mingled with the
bones of extinct animals. In these caves he noted rude flint
instruments, but did not collect many of them. In the care of Chokier,
he discovered a polished and jointed needle-shaped bone, with a hole
pierced through it, at its base. The caves of Engis and Chokier have
been annihilated, while only a part of Enghihoul remains.

Soon after these discoveries Dr. Schmerling published a work which
described and represented a vast quantity of objects which had been
discovered in the Belgian caverns. The scientific men were not yet
prepared to receive the new discoveries, and it attracted but little
attention at that time.

Too much praise cannot be bestowed upon Dr. Schmerling for his
unremitting labors. Of these labors Sir Charles Lyell has said: "To have
undertaken, in 1832, with a view of testing its truth (antiquity of
fossil human bones) to follow the Belgian philosopher through every
stage of his observations and proofs, would have been no easy task even
for one well-skilled in geology and osteology. To be let down, as
Schmerling was, day after day, by a rope tied to a tree, so as to slide
to the foot of the first opening of the Engis cave, where the
best-preserved human skulls were found; and, after thus gaining access
to the first subterranean gallery, to creep on all fours through a
contracted passage leading to larger chambers, there to superintend by
torchlight, week after week and year after year, the workmen who were
breaking through the stalagmitic crust as hard as marble, in order to
remove piece by piece the underlying bone-breccia nearly as hard; to
stand for hours with one's feet in the mud, and with water dripping from
the roof on one's head, in order to mark the position and guard against
the loss of each single bone of a skeleton; and at length, after finding
leisure, strength, and courage for all these operations, to look
forward, as the fruits of one's labor, to the publication of unwelcome
intelligence, opposed to the prepossessions of the scientific as well as
the unscientific public;--when these circumstances are taken into
account, we need scarcely wonder.... that a quarter of a century should
have elapsed before even the neighboring professors of the University
of Liége came forth to vindicate the truthfulness of their indefatigable
and clear-sighted countryman."[4]

In 1835, M. Joly, then professor at the Lyceum of Montpellier, found in
the cave of Nabrigas (Lozére) the skull of a cave-bear, on which an
arrow had left its mark. Close by, was a fragment of pottery marked by
the finger of the moulder.

It was in the valley of the Somme (a river in the north of France) that
M. Boucher de Perthes found those famous flint-axes of the rudest form.
His explorations had been going on for a long time. He did all he could
to bring these discoveries before the public. In the year 1836 he began
to proclaim the high antiquity of man, in a series of communications
addressed to the Société d'Emulation of Abbeville. To the same society,
in the year 1838, he exhibited the flint-axes he had found, but without
result. In 1839, he took these hatchets to Paris, and showed them to
some of the members of the Institute. At first they gave some
encouragement toward these researches; but this favorable feeling did
not last long. In 1841 he began to form his collection, which has since
become so justly celebrated. He engaged trained workmen to dig in the
diluvial beds, and in a short time he had collected twenty specimens of
flint wrought by the hand of man, though in a very rude state. In 1846,
he published his first work on the subject, entitled "De l'Industrie
Primitive, ou les Arts et leur Origine." In the following year he
published his "Antiquités Celtiques et Antédiluviennes," in which he
gave illustrations of these stone implements. This work attracted no
attention until the year 1854, when a French _savant_, named Rigollot,
made a personal examination and was successful in his search for these
relicts in the neighborhood of Amiens. He was soon followed by Sir C.
Lyell, Sir John Lubbock, Dr. Falconer, Sir Roderick I. Murchison, and
other eminent scientists.

Boucher de Perthes, continuing his researches, was rewarded, in the year
1863, by finding the lower half of a human jaw bone, covered with an
earthy crust, which he extracted with his own hands from a gravel-pit at
Abbeville. A few inches from it a flint hatchet was discovered. They
were at a depth of fifteen feet below the surface. This bone has been
called the jaw of Moulin-Quignon, and is preserved in the Museum of
Natural History at Paris.

The discovery of this bone produced a great sensation among English
geologists. Christy, Falconer, Carpenter, and Busk went to France and
examined the locality where the bone was found. They went away satisfied
with both its authenticity and antiquity. Some geologists, however,
doubted its authenticity; but at the present time all, or nearly all,
recognize the truth of the conclusions of Boucher de Perthes.

Not far from the same locality, he was again successful, in 1869, in
finding a number of human bones presenting the same character as the jaw
of Moulin-Quignon.

In 1840, Rev. J. MacEnery, of Devonshire, England, found in a cave,
called Kent's Hole, human bones and flint knives among the remains of
the mammoth, cave-bear, hyena, and two-horned rhinoceros, all from under
a crust of stalagmite. Mr. MacEnery began the explorations of this cave
as early as 1825. He did not publish his notes on his discoveries but
they remained in manuscript until 1859, when they were obtained by Mr.
Vivian.

Mr. Godwin-Austen, in his communication to the Geological Society in the
year 1840, states, in his description of Kent's Hole, he found works of
art in all parts of the cave.

The fossil Man of Denise was discovered by a peasant, in an old volcanic
tuff, near the town of Le Puy-en-Velay, Central France, an account of
which was first published by Dr. Aymard, in 1844. Able naturalists, who
have examined these bones, especially those familiar with the volcanic
regions of Central France, declared that they believed them to have
been enveloped by natural causes in the tufaceous matrix in which they
are now seen.

In the years 1845-1850, Casiano de Prado made discoveries on the banks
of the Manzanares, near Madrid. They consisted of portions of the
skeletons of the rhinoceros, and a nearly perfect skeleton of an
elephant in the diluvial sand. Lying beneath this ossiferous sand, were
several flint axes of human workmanship.

  [Illustration: FIG. 1. SIR CHARLES LYELL.]

Near the town of Aurignac, France, a workman named Bonnemaison, in the
year 1852, accidently discovered a cave containing the remains of
seventeen human skeletons. These bones were taken by Dr. Amiel, the
mayor of Aurignac, who was ignorant of their value, and consigned to the
parish cemetery. The spot of their re-inhumation has been forgotten, and
this treasure is now lost to science. In 1860, the cave was explored by
Edward Lartet. After a long and patient examination, he came to the
conclusion that the cave was a human burial place, cotemporary with the
mammoth and other great animals of the quaternary epoch.

It was at the meeting of the British Association, in 1855, that Sir
Charles Lyell declared his belief in the great antiquity of the human
race. He had before opposed the idea, but was convinced of the truth by
personal examination of human bones and flint hatchets, from the
quarries of St. Acheul. He became enthusiastic in his investigations,
and, in order to present the discussion clearly to the scientific
public, he published his "Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man,"
in 1863. In the last edition of his "Principles of Geology," he bestows
considerable space to the discussion of the subject. He was closely
followed, in the same view, by other eminent geologists.

The remains of the ancient Lake Dwellings of Switzerland were discovered
in the winter of 1853-1854. That winter was so dry and cold that the
water of the lakes fell far below its ordinary level. On account of
this, a large tract of ground of Lake Zurich was gained by the people
throwing up embankments. In the process of the work, the piles on which
stood the dwellings, fragments of pottery, bone and stone implements,
and various other relics, were discovered.[5] Dr. Keller, of Zurich,
examined the objects, and at once came to a right understanding as to
their signification. He carefully examined the remains, and described
these lake habitations in six memoirs presented to the Antiquarian
Society of Zurich, in 1854, 1858, 1860, 1863, and 1866. In 1866 these
memoirs were translated into English by J. E. Lee, together with
articles from other antiquaries, under the title of "The Lake Dwellings
of Switzerland, and other parts of Europe." This work contains
ninety-seven plates, besides many wood-cuts.

Memoirs of the Dwellers of different lakes have, from time to time, been
published, but they are included in the translated work of Dr. Keller.

The far-famed Neanderthal skull was discovered by Dr. Fuhlrott, in the
year 1857, in a limestone cavern, near Düsseldorf, in a deep ravine
known by the name of Neanderthal. This skull, with parts of the skeleton
to which it belonged, was found under a layer of mud, about five feet in
thickness. It is now in the cabinet of Dr. Fuhlrott, Elberfeld, Rhenish
Prussia.

In 1858, a bone-cavern was found near Torquay, not far from Kent's Hole.
This cave was examined by a scientific commission. At first it was
undertaken by the Royal Society, but when its grants had failed, Miss
Burdett-Coutts paid the expenses of completing the work. In this cave,
under a layer of stalagmite, were found many flint knives, associated
with the bones of extinct mammals.

M. A. Fontan found in the cave of Massat (Department of Ariége), in
1859, human teeth and utensils associated with the remains of the
cave-bear, the fossil hyena, and the cave-lion (_Felis speloea_).

In 1861, M. A. Milne Edwards found certain relics of human industry
mingled with the fossil bones of animals, in the cave of Lourdes,
France.

In 1862, Dr. Garrigou published the result of the researches which he,
in conjunction with Rames and Filhol, had made in the caverns of Ariége.
These explorers found the jaw-bones of the cave-bear and cave-lion,
which had been wrought by the hands of man.

In the upper strata of the tertiary beds (pliocene) at St. Prest
(Department of Eure), in the year 1863, M. Desnoyers found the bones of
extinct animals which were cut or notched by flint instruments. In the
same strata Abbé Bourgeois discovered implements of stone. He
communicated his discoveries to the International Congress held at Paris
in 1867.

In 1864, James Brown found flint implements midway between Gosport and
Southampton, included in gravel from eight to twelve feet thick, capping
a cliff which at its greatest height is thirty-five feet above
high-water mark. These flint tools exactly resemble those found at
Abbeville and Amiens. Some of them are preserved in the Blackmore Museum
at Salisbury.

In 1865, there was found in the loess of the Rhine, near Colmar, Alsace,
human bones in the same bed with bones of the mammoth, horse, stag,
auroch, and other animals.

In 1866, Alfred Stevens first dug out a hatchet from the gravel at the
top of the sea-cliff east of the Bournemouth opening, Southampton river.
Soon after, Dr. Blackmore, to the west of the valley, obtained two other
flint implements. The spot was examined by Lyell in 1867.

Dr. Edward Dupont, an eminent Belgian cave explorer, in the year 1866,
found a fragment of a human jaw in the Trou de la Naulette, a bone cave
situated on the bank of the river Lesse not far from Chaleux.

At the International Congress of 1867, M. A. Issel reported he had found
several human bones in beds of Pliocene age, near Savonia, in Liguria.

The Reindeer Station on the Schusse, in Swabia, was discovered in 1867,
during the operations undertaken for the improvement of a mill-pond. The
Schusse is a little river which flows into the lake of Constance, and
its source is upon the high plateau of Upper Swabia between the lake of
Constance and the upper course of the Danube.

In 1868, Thomas Codrington discovered an oval flint implement in gravel
at the top of the Foreland Cliff, Isle of Wight, five miles southeast of
Ryde.

The fossil Man of Mentone was discovered, in 1873, by M. Riviére, in a
cave near Nice, France. The skeleton was almost entire, and imbedded
twenty feet below the surface of the deposit.

In 1873, M. Riviére discovered another human skeleton, by the side of
which lay a few unpolished stone implements, in one of the caves in the
same neighborhood.

In 1873 and 1874, M. Riviére was again so fortunate as to discover, in
neighboring caves, the remains of three persons, two of them those of
children. The skeletons were in the same condition, and decked with
similar ornaments, as those he had previously discovered.

CHAPTER II.

GLACIAL EPOCH.

Happily for the Archæo-geologist, there is given him a point from which
to start in his researches into the antiquity of his race. Without it
his calculations would be very indefinite and his efforts would be shorn
of much of their interest. The Glacial Epoch, that has puzzled the mind
of both the geologist and the astronomer, is a guide-post where he may
not only look both ways, but also estimate the length of ages and number
the years of man. Nothing, then, is of more importance, in this
investigation, than an understanding of the condition of the earth prior
to the glacial, and the knowledge of the date and length of this epoch.

For untold ages the earth, to all appearance, had been preparing itself
for the reception of man. There was an abundance of game, the forests
were beautiful, the domestic animals had made their appearance, the
climate was warm, the soil rich, and the coal had been formed.
Everything seemed to point to a bright and glorious future for man, who
had already entered upon the scene. It is true there were fierce and
savage beasts to contend with. These seemed but a motive power to stir
man to action and develop the resources of his mind. Should he fail for
a time to overcome the wild beasts a retreat was provided in the hollow
recesses of the earth. But nature felt her work was still unfinished.
The earth had passed through the ordeal of fire, and withstood the
devastations of water, and now her long summer must come to an end. The
arctic regions had been growing colder and colder, and the change was
felt in the countries to the south. The northern animals were being
clothed with a hairy or woolly garment for their protection. The aspect
began to be forbidding. The future prospect of man was not only gloomy,
but foreboded he should perish along with the many species of animals
that were gradually succumbing to the cold. Great fields of ice were
slowly accumulating at both the poles, and at last, by the power of
their great weight, assisted by some geographical changes, began to move
toward the equator, crushing and grinding the great rocks, and either
driving before them, or else destroying, every living thing in their
relentless march. Slowly but surely they moved on. The mountains groaned
under the enormous weight of ice. Their heads were scarred, their sides
bruised, torn and cut. The icy monsters listened not to the pleadings of
earth, the lowing of cattle, or the cries of man. Centuries elapsed
before the sun re-asserted his power. The rays of the sun, the internal
heat of the earth, and other causes, produced a change. The northern ice
was broken up by the time it reached latitude 39° North America, leaving
its indelible traces in the bowlders, gravel, beds of sand and clay
which mark its course. In Europe this sheet of ice extended as far south
as Spain and Corsica. The glaciers of the Antarctic regions extended as
far as latitude 41° south.

_Fauna of Europe._--Among the Fauna may be mentioned the gigantic
elephants, of nearly twice the bulk of the largest individuals that now
exist, which roamed in herds over England, and extended across the
Siberian plains and from Behring Strait to South Carolina. Two-horned
rhinoceroses wallowed in the swamps of the ancient forests.
Hippopotamuses inhabited the lakes and rivers. The great cave-bear,
which sometimes attained the size of a horse, and the cave-tiger, twice
as large as the living tiger, preyed upon the animals of less strength
than themselves. Troops of hyenas, larger than those of South America,
disputed with other beasts of prey. A species of wild-cat, lynx, and
leopard found retreats in the same forests. Then there was a remarkable
carnivorous animal called _Machairodus_, about the size of a tiger, and
from the shape and size of the sword-like teeth, must have been a very
destructive creature. The lemming and the musk ox found a home, and the
wild horse pranced about unrestrained by the hand of man. The great
Irish elks swiftly moved over the ground, and must have been very
numerous, as their remains occur in abundance in peat-bogs and
marl-pits. Nor should it be unmentioned that there was also a species of
gigantic ox nearly as large as an elephant, that subsisted on the
plains. All these animals followed the retreat of the glaciers and some
of them were in close proximity to the ice.

_Geological Period._--The glacial epoch occurred during the geological
period known as the post-tertiary. The tertiary had gradually passed
away and its time had been recorded on the pages of geological history.
A new epoch began to dawn. This was the epoch of ice, the birth and
almost the childhood of the post-tertiary.

_Probable Date._--In discussing the probable date of the glacial epoch,
Sir Charles Lyell says, "The attempt to assign a chronological value to
any of our geological periods except the latest, must, in the present
state of science, be hopeless. Nevertheless, independently of all
astronomical considerations, it must, I think, be conceded that the
period required for the coming on of the greatest cold, and for its
duration when most intense, and the oscillations to which it was
subject, as well as the retreat of the glaciers and the 'great thaw' or
disappearance of snow from many mountain-chains where the snow was once
perpetual, required not tens but hundreds of thousands of years. Less
time would not suffice for the changes in physical geography and organic
life of which we have evidence. To a geologist, therefore, it would not
appear startling that the greatest cold should be supposed to have been
two hundred thousand years ago, although this date must be considered
as very conjectural, and one which may be as likely to err in deficiency
of time as in excess."[6]

Sir John Lubbock, in his dissent from some calculations made by Mr.
Geikie on the general effect produced by rivers in excavating valleys
and lowering the general level of the country, says, "As regards the
higher districts, however, his data are perhaps not far wrong, and if we
apply them to the valley of the Somme, where the excavation is about two
hundred feet in depth, they would indicate an antiquity for the
palæolithic epoch of from one hundred thousand to two hundred and forty
thousand years."[7]

Dana, in his chapter on the length of geological time, says, in speaking
of the time required to excavate the gorge of Niagara River, that "on
both sides of the gorge near the whirlpool, and also at Goat Island,
there are beds of recent lake shells ... the same kinds that live in
still water near the entrance to the lake, and which are not found in
the rapids. The lake, therefore, spread its still waters, when these
beds were formed, over the gorge above the whirlpool. A tooth of a
mastodon (_M. giganteus_) has been found in the same beds. This locates
the time in the Champlain epoch.... Six miles of the gorge have been
excavated since that mastodon was alive....

"There is a lateral valley leading from the whirlpool through the
Queenstown precipice at a point a few miles west of Lewiston. This
valley is filled with drift of the glacial epoch, and this blocking up
of the channel may have compelled it to open a new passage.

"If, then, the falls have been receding six miles, and we can ascertain
the probable rate of progress, we may approximate to the length of time
it required. Hall and Lyell estimated the average rate at one foot a
year,--which is certainly large. Mr. Desor concluded, after his study of
the falls, that it was 'more nearly three feet a century than three feet
a year.' Taking the rate at one foot a year, the six miles will have
required over thirty-one thousand years; if at one inch a year--which is
eight and one third feet a century--three hundred and eighty thousand
years."[8]

The calculation made by Dana is for the Champlain epoch. As this epoch
was subsequent to the glacial, the time must be either thrown still
farther back, or else allow the calculations to begin with the end of
the glacial.

_Probable Duration._--Lyell has attempted to form an estimate of the
duration of the glacial epoch by considering "the most simple series of
changes in physical geography which can possibly account for the
phenomena of the glacial period," and enumerates as follows:

"First, a continental period, toward the close of which the forest of
Cromer flourished; when the land was at least five hundred feet above
its present level, perhaps much higher, and its extent probably greater
than that given in the map, Fig. 41." (In this map the whole of the
British Isles are connected with one another, and with the
continent--the German Ocean and the English Channel constituting dry
land).

"Secondly, a period of submergence, by which the land north of the
Thames and Bristol Channel, and that of Ireland, was gradually reduced
to an archipelago; and finally to such a general prevalence of sea as is
seen in map, Fig. 39." (This map is intended to represent the British
Isles as they appeared above water when Scotland was submerged to two
thousand feet and other parts of the isles to one thousand three hundred
feet.) "This was the period of submergence and of floating ice, when the
Scandinavian flora, which occupied the lower grounds during the first
continental period, may have obtained exclusive possession of the only
lands not covered with perpetual snow.

"Thirdly, a second continental period, when the bed of the glacial sea,
with its marine shells and erratic blocks, was laid dry, and when the
quantity of land equalled that of the first period.... During this
period there were glaciers in the higher mountains of Scotland and
Wales....

"The submergence of Wales to the extent of one thousand four hundred
feet, as proved by glacial shells, would require fifty-six thousand
years, at the rate of two and a half feet per century; but taking
Professor Ramsay's estimate of eight hundred feet more, that depression
being required for the deposition of some of the stratified drift, we
must demand an additional period of thirty-two thousand years, amounting
in all to eighty-eight thousand; and the same time would be required for
the reëlevation of the tract to its present height. But if the land rose
in the second continental period no more than six hundred above the
present level ... this ... would have taken another twenty-six thousand
years; the whole of the grand oscillation, comprising the submergence
and reëmergence, having taken, in round numbers, two hundred and
twenty-four thousand years for its completion; and this, even if there
were no pause or stationary period, when the downward movement ceased,
and before it was converted into an upward one."[9]

Lyell admits that the average rate of two and a half feet per century is
a purely arbitrary and conjectural one, and there are cases where the
change is even six feet a century, yet the average rate of motion, he
thinks, will not exceed that above proposed. With this opinion, Lubbock
believes most geologists will agree.[10]

By the estimates already given a basis is formed upon which a
calculation can be made as to the time when this epoch began. At the
time of the most intense cold the eccentricity of the earth's orbit
was .0575; the difference in millions of miles between the greatest and
least distances of the earth from the sun 10-1/2; the number of days by
which winter, occurring in aphelion was longer than the summer in
perihelion 27.8; the mean temperature of the hottest summer month in
the latitude of London when the summer occurs in perihelion, 113°; the
mean temperature of the coldest winter month in the latitude of London
when the winter occurs in aphelion, 0° 7'. Sixty thousand years later
the eccentricity of the earth's orbit was but .0332; the difference of
distance in millions of miles was 6; number of winter days in
excess, 16.1; mean of hottest month in latitude of London, 95°, and mean
of coldest month 12°. It is evident then at this time (one hundred and
fifty thousand years ago) a "great thaw" had taken place and the
glaciers driven back, although fifty thousand years later less intense
cold set in again. If thirty thousand years be allowed for the "great
thaw" from the extreme point of cold, and that extreme point to have
been two hundred and ten thousand years ago, then one hundred and eighty
thousand years ago the glaciers had become so broken up as to allow
vegetation to spring up in many localities, and the wild beasts to
partially reassert their dominion. If to this be added the time required
for the duration of the glacial epoch (two hundred and twenty-four
thousand years) then the time when the ice began to accumulate was four
hundred and four thousand years ago. But if the tables of Mr. Croll be
correct, their beginning could not have been earlier than three hundred
and fifty thousand years ago, as the eccentricity of the earth's orbit
varied but little from the present, and five hundred and fifty thousand
years ago it was almost identical with that of the present.[11]

During the last stages of this ocean of ice it must have melted very
rapidly,[12] for great rivers were formed, and the water pouring down
its icy bed sought other streams, and on the bosom of the earth swept
away loose sediment, depositing it along the course of rivers and in
caves of the earth, covering the remains of man along with those of
animals that perished during the long winter of ice.

  [Illustration: FIG. 2. STREAM ISSUING FROM A GLACIER.]

_Evidences of the Existence of Man._--The traces of man in the deposits
made during the glacial epoch are numerous. Out of the many, the most
noted will be given, with a view to their chronological order.

In all probability the very oldest implements of the post-tertiary, and
consequently the beginning of the glacial epoch, if not of the pliocene,
are those found in the south of Hampshire, between Gosport and
Southampton. They came from a tabular mass of drift which caps the
tertiary strata. "The great bed of gravel resting on eocene tertiary
strata, in which these implements have been found, consists in most
places of half-rolled or semi-angular chalk flints, mixed with rounded
pebbles washed out of the tertiary strata.... Many of them exhibit the
same colors and ochreous stain as do the flints in the gravel in which
they lay."

West of the Southampton estuary, "on both sides of the opening at
Bournemouth, flint tools of the ancient type have been met with in the
gravel capping the cliffs. The gravel from which the flint tool was
taken at Bournemouth is about one hundred feet above the level of the
sea.... The gravel consists in great part of pebbles derived from
tertiary strata."

The oval flint implement discovered in gravel at the top of the Foreland
cliff "is of the true palæolithic type, and the gravel in which it is
imbedded at the height of about eighty feet above the level of the sea,
may have once extended to the cliffs near Gosport; in which case we
should have to infer that the channel called the Solent had not yet
been scooped out when this region was inhabited by palæolithic man."[13]

It may be safely inferred that the implements in the above three
enumerations were imbedded at about the same time.

The flint implements from the valley of the Somme, which have been of so
much interest, and convinced so many sceptical geologists, belong to the
early part of this epoch. This valley may be represented by Fig. 3.

  [Illustration: FIG. 3. SECTION ACROSS THE SOMME IN PICARDY.

    1. Peat, twenty to thirty feet thick, resting on gravel, _a_.

    2. Lower level gravel, with elephants' bones and flint tools
       covered with fluviatile loam, twenty to forty feet thick.

    3. Upper level gravel, with similar fossils, and overlying loam.
       In all thirty feet thick.

    4. Upland loam without shells, five or six feet thick.

    5. Eocene tertiary strata, resting on the chalk in patches.]

In explanation of the above it may be well to remark that No. 2
indicates the lower level gravels, and No. 3 the higher ones, which are
from eighty to one hundred feet above the river. Of a later date than
these is the peat, No. 1, which is from ten to thirty feet in thickness.
Underneath the peat is a bed of gravel, _a_, from three to fourteen feet
thick, resting on undisturbed chalk. But between the gravel and the peat
is a thin layer of impervious clay. This section of the valley of the
Somme is a pretty fair representation of the arrangements of the
different beds at Abbeville, Amiens, and and St. Acheul.

In these beds are the records of two drift periods, marked by 2 and 3.
The two are separated by a layer of fresh-water deposits, which contains
river shells and is sometimes as much as sixteen feet thick. The lower,
or gray diluvium, (No. 2), marks the glacial epoch, as distinct from the
glaciers of the reindeer epoch. In the lower gravel, lying immediately
upon the tertiary formation, were found the flint hatchets, together
with the bones of the mammoth and fossil rhinoceros.

In order to understand the deposits still more clearly, the following
figure is given.

  [Illustration: FIG. 4. SECTION OF A GRAVEL-PIT AT ST. ACHEUL.

    1. Vegetable and made soil from two to three feet thick.

    2. Brown loam from four to five feet thick, containing a few
       angular flints.

    3. Bed of sandy marl from five to six feet thick, with land and
       fresh-water shells, covered with a thin layer of angular gravel
       from one to two feet thick.

    4. A bed of partially rounded gravel containing well-rolled
       tertiary pebbles. In this bed the flint implements are chiefly
       found--ten to fourteen feet thick.

    5. Formation of chalk.
        _a._ Part of elephant's molar, eleven feet from surface.
        _b._ Entire molar of mammoth (_E primigenius_), seventeen feet
             from surface.
        _c._ Position of flint hatchet, eighteen feet from surface.
        _d._ Gravel projecting five feet.]

At St. Acheul, in bed No. 4, were found large numbers of flint
implements. Some of them have the shape of a spear-head, and are over
seven inches in length. The oval-shaped hatchets are so rude in some
instances as to require a practised eye to decide their human origin. In
the same bed are found small round bodies having a tubular cavity in the
centre. Dr. Rigollot has suggested that these perforated stones or
gravel were used as ornaments, possibly strung together as beads.

In this bed, No. 4, seventeen feet from the surface, was found a
mammoth's tooth. About one foot below the tooth, in densely compressed
gravel, was found a stone hatchet of an oval form.

  [Illustration: FIG. 5. FLINT IMPLEMENT FROM ST. ACHEUL.

    Half the size of the original, which is seven and a half inches
    long.

      _a._ Side view.
      _b._ Same seen edgewise.

    "These spear-headed implements have been found in greater number,
    proportionally to the oval ones, in the upper level gravel at St.
    Acheul, than in any of the lower gravels in the valley of the
    Somme. In these last, the oval form predominates, especially at
    Abbeville."--_Antiquity of Man_, p. 114.]

That this bed was formed by action of glaciers is shown, not only from
the well-rounded tertiary pebbles, but also from the great blocks of
hard sandstone, some of which are over four feet in diameter. These
large fragments not only abound at St. Acheul in both the higher and
lower level gravels at Amiens, and at the higher level at Abbeville, but
they are also traced far up the valley wherever the old diluvium occurs.
All of these sandstones have been derived from the tertiary strata which
once covered the chalk.

  [Illustration: FIG. 6. FLINT IMPLEMENT FROM ABBEVILLE.

    _a._ Oval-shaped flint hatchet from Mautort near Abbeville, half
         size of original, which is five and a half inches long, from
         a bed of gravel underlying the fluvio-marine stratum.

    _b._ Same seen edgewise.

    _c._ Shows a recent fracture of the edge of the same at the point
         _a_, or near the top. This portion of the tool, _c_, is drawn
         of the natural size, the black central part being the unaltered
         flint, the white outer coating, the layer which has been formed
         by discoloration or bleaching since the tool was first made.

    The entire surface of Figure 6 must have been black when first
    shaped, and the bleaching to such a depth must have been the
    work of time, whether produced by exposure to the sun and air
    before it was imbedded, or afterward when it lay deep in the
    soil.--_Antiquity of Man._]

As the flint implements of Abbeville and Amiens are the same as those of
St. Acheul, and from the same beds, what has already been said will
apply to them. These implements have been found in these localities in
great numbers, as several thousand of them already taken from the beds
will amply testify.

From the gravel-pit in which were found the flint axes, at Abbeville,
and close to the ancient chalk, was taken the celebrated human bone
known as the _jaw_ of Moulin-Quignon. It was cotemporary with the axes,
and undoubtedly some of the flint implements there found were fashioned
by the man of whom that jaw formed so necessary a part.

This jaw-bone belonged to an old man, and is described as displaying "a
tendency toward the animal structure in the shortness and breadth of the
ascending ramus (the perpendicular portion of the lower jaw), the equal
height of the two apophyses (a process or regular prominence forming a
continuous part of the body of the bone), the indication of prognathism
(projecting jaw) furnished by the very obtuse angle at which the ramus
joins the body of the bone.[14]

Near the same locality other human bones were discovered Which presented
the same characteristics.

Boucher de Perthes having pointed out that flint implements could be
found in the valley of the Seine, in beds similar to those of Abbeville,
the antiquaries were soon rewarded and Boucher de Perthes' prediction
was fulfilled. M. Gosse, of Geneva, found the Abbeville type of
implements in the lowest diluvial deposits associated with the remains
of animals of that period.

The discovery made by Casiano de Prado, near Madrid, is very similar to
those of Abbeville. "First, vegetable soil; then about twenty-five feet
of sand and pebbles, under which was a layer of sandy loam, in which,
during the year 1850, a complete skeleton of the mammoth was discovered.
Underneath this stratum was about ten feet of coarse gravel, in which
some flint axes, very closely resembling those of Amiens, have been
discovered."[15]

The remains of man are also preserved in caverns associated with the
fossil bones of the mammoth, the woolly-haired rhinoceros, cave-bear,
and other extinct quadrupeds. Among these should be noticed Kent's Hole,
which has furnished a mine of wealth. Of his discoveries Godwin-Austen
says: "Human remains and works of art, such as arrow-heads and knives of
flint, occur in all parts of the cave, and throughout the entire
thickness of the clay; and no distinction founded on condition,
distribution, or relative position can be observed, whereby the human
can be separated from the other reliquiæ," which included bones of the
mammoth (_E. primigenius_), rhinoceros (_R. tichorrhinus_), cave-bear
(_Ursus spelæus_), cave-hyena (_H. spelæus_), and other mammalia. These
researches were conducted in parts of the cave which had never been
disturbed, and the works of man, in every instance, were procured from
undisturbed loam or clay, beneath a thick covering of stalagmite; and
all these must have been introduced before the stalagmite flooring had
been formed.[16] These specimens of man's handicraft were found far
below the stalagmite floor.[17] Closely allied to Kent's Hole is Brixham
Cave. The following gives the general succession of deposits forming the
contents of the cavern:

1. A layer of stalagmite varying from one to fifteen inches in
thickness.

2. Next below, ochreous cave-earth, from one foot to fifteen feet in
thickness.

3. Rounded gravel, in some places more than twenty feet in depth.

In the second layer there were found the remains of the mammoth,
rhinoceros, cave-bear, cave-hyena, cave-lion, reindeer, and seven other
species. Indiscriminately mixed with these bones were found many flint
knives, but chiefly from the lowest part of the ochreous cave-earth,
varying in depth from ten inches to thirteen feet. The antiquity of
these cannot be doubted, from the simple fact, even if there was no
other, that in close proximity to a very perfect flint tool was
discovered the entire left hind leg of a cave-bear, and every bone in
its natural position. From the bone earth there were taken fifteen
knives, recognized, by the experienced antiquaries, as having been
artificially formed. In the lowest gravel, underlying all, there were
found imperfect specimens of flint knives. The fine layer of mud was
deposited by the slow but regular action of water. Since these layers
were formed the stream has cut its channel seventy-eight feet below its
former level.[18]

On both banks of the Meuse, at Maestricht (Hollerd) are terraces of
gravel covered with loess. Below the city, on the left bank, one of
these terraces projects into the alluvial plain of the Meuse. During the
construction of the canal the terrace was opened to a depth of sixty
feet. The upper twenty feet consisted of loess and the lower forty feet
of stratified gravel. Great numbers of molars, tusks, and bones of
elephants, together with those of other mammalia, and a human lower jaw
with teeth, were found in or near this gravel. The human jaw was at a
depth of nineteen feet from the surface, in a stratum of sandy loam,
beneath a stratum of pebbly and sandy beds, and immediately above the
gravel. The stratum from which the jaw was taken was intact and had
never been disturbed. But the jaw was somewhat isolated, and the nearest
fossil object was the tusk of an elephant six yards distant, though on a
horizontal plane. This fossil is probably older than that discovered at
Lahr. It was probably covered just before the gush of the water when it
first began to flow from the gorges and had washed the ground at some
distance from the ice.[19]

The human skeleton from the undisturbed loess of the Rhine, near Lahr,
was found in nearly a horizontal position, but in such a manner as to
forbid the idea of sepulchre. These bones were exhumed from a
perpendicular cliff of solid loess, about five feet high. The town of
Lahr is situated four miles from, and about one hundred feet above, the
Rhine, and not far from the tributary valley drained by the Schutter,
flowing from the Black Forest.

In the alluvial plain into which the Schutter flows the the loess is two
hundred feet thick. The loess rises eighty feet above the Schutter. At
Lahr it has been denuded so as to form a succession of terraces on the
right bank. It was in the lowest of these from which the skeleton was
taken. Immediately below this bed there were found pebbles, and still
lower down was a bed of gravel containing rounded stones of sandstone
and gneiss from the Black Forest.

There are several interesting facts connected with this discovery. M.
Boué considers that the loess of the Lahr is continuous with that of the
Rhine, and before the loess had been denuded there was not less than
eighty feet of loamy deposit above the human skeleton. The glaciers had
deposited their great gravel beds, and had began to melt. The melting of
them had formed a mixture of loam and gravel. Then when the torrents
poured forth from the glaciers the loam was formed without the pebbles.
The unfortunate man, whose remains were found, was buried far beneath
the surface, during the very first part of the course of the violent
streams pouring forth from the field of ice. The glaciers were then on
the retreat, and the incautious man probably fell a victim while on the
chase.[20]

The cave of La Naulette, Belgium, afforded a jaw-bone similar to the
Moulin-Quignon. The bone came from a river deposit of loam covered with
a layer of stalagmite, and at a depth of thirteen feet from the surface.
Associated with it were the remains of the mammoth, woolly-haired
rhinoceros, and flint implements. These implements present the same type
as those of St. Acheul. With this jaw were also found a human ulna, two
human teeth, and a fragment of a worked reindeer born. This jaw-bone is
very thick, round in form, and the projection of the chin is almost
entirely absent. The chin is said to hold an intermediate position
between that of the animals and those of the present race of men. The
cavities for the reception of the canine teeth are very wide, and one of
the most remarkable things is that the three molars are reversed, that
is the first true molar is the smallest, and the last the largest. The
inner surface of the jaw at the point of the suture or symphysis, forms
a line obliquely directed upwards. Taking the jaw all in all, it is the
most ape-like human jaw ever discovered.[21]

The flint implements from Hoxne were found under three different layers
or beds. The first, vegetable, a foot and a half in depth. The second
was clay, seven and a half feet thick. The third, a bed of sand, with
shells one foot in thickness. The fourth layer, containing the
implements was a bed of gravel two feet in depth. The number of these
flints was so great that they were carried out by the baskets-full, and
thrown into the ruts of the adjoining road. On account of the great
number, this spot might have been the place where they were
manufactured. Their date is not coeval with the bowlder clay, but
undoubtedly belong, to the last of this epoch.

The human bones found in the loess of the Rhine, near Colmar, were two
fossilized fragments of the skull. They were found in undisturbed soil
along with the fossil bones of the extinct species of mammoth, horse,
gigantic deer, aurochs, and other mammalia. The fragment of the skull
"showed a depressed forehead, strongly projecting superciliary arches,
and a type, on the whole, approaching the so-called _dolichocephalic_,
or long-headed form."[22] These remains date so near the end of the
glacial as to almost enter the inter-glacial.

CHAPTER III.

GLACIAL EPOCH--CONTINUED.

_Belgian Caverns._--The relics discovered by Dr. Schmerling, in the
caves of Belgium, must be referred to the time of the retreat of the
glaciers. The glaciers were still in existence, but their receding had
freed immense tracts of land, and the space they now covered was small
in proportion to their former extent. Whether it be considered or not,
that vegetation greatly nourished and the great wild beasts were rapidly
increasing, one thing must be noticed, and that is, floods must have
succeeded or followed closely upon the retreat of the ice. Many remains,
referred to the glacial epoch, may in reality, have occupied the time of
the floods occurring just previous to the commencement of the
inter-glacial.

The Belgian Caverns, near Liége, either belong exactly to the ice, or
else to a period not far removed. Lyell considers the older monuments of
the palæolithic period to be the rude implements found in ancient river
gravel and in the mud and stalagmite caves.[23] Caves of this
description are those reported on by Dr. Schmerling.

The caverns of the province of Liége were not the dens of wild beasts,
but their contents had been swept in by the action of water. The bones
of man "were of the same color, and in the same condition as to the
amount of animal matter contained in them, as those of the accompanying
animals, some of which, like the cave-bear, hyena, elephant, and
rhinoceros, were extinct; others, like the wild-cat, beaver, wild boar,
roe-deer, wolf, and hedgehog, still extant. The fossils were lighter
than fresh bones, except such as had their pores filled with carbonate
of lime, in which case they were often much heavier. The human remains
of most frequent occurrence were teeth detached from the jaw, and the
carpal, metacarpal, tarsal, metatarsal, and phalangial bones separated
from the rest of the skeleton. The corresponding bones of the cave-bear,
the most abundant of the accompanying mammalia, were also found in the
Liége caverns more commonly than any others, and in the same scattered
condition."[24] In some of these caves, rude flint implements, of a
triangular form, were found dispersed through the cave mud. Dr.
Schmerling did not pay much attention to these, as he was engrossed in
his osteological inquiries. The human bones were met with at all depths,
in the cave mud and gravel, both above and below those of the extinct
mammalia.

The floors of these caverns were incrusted with stalagmite.[25] In the
cavern at Chokier there occur "three distinct beds of stalagmite, and
between each of them a mass of breccia, and mud mixed with quartz
pebbles, and in the three deposits the bones of extinct quadrupeds."[26]

FOSSIL SKULL OF THE ENGIS CAVE NEAR LIEGE.

The fossil skull from the cavern of Engis was deposited at a depth of
about five feet, under an osseous breccia containing a tusk of the
rhinoceros, the teeth of the horse, and the remains of small animals.
The breccia was about three and one-fourth feet wide, and rose to the
height of about five feet above the floor of the cavern. In the earth
which contained the skull there was found, surrounding it on all sides,
the teeth of the rhinoceros, horse, hyena, and bear, and with no marks
of the earth having been disturbed.

There was also found the cranium of a young person, in the floor of the
cavern, besides an elephant's tooth. When first observed, the skull was
entire, but fell to pieces when removed from its position. Besides these
there were found a fragment of a superior maxillary bone, with the molar
teeth worn down to the roots, indicating that of an old man; two
vertebræ, a first and last dorsal; a clavicle of the left side,
belonging to a young individual of great stature; two fragments of the
radius, indicating a man of ordinary height; a fragment of an ulna: some
metacarpal bones; six metatarsal, three phalanges of the hand and one of
the foot.

Dr. Schmerling found in this cave a pointed bone implement incrusted
with stalagmite and joined to a stone.

Of the Engis skull Professor Huxley has remarked, "As Professor
Schmerling observes, the base of the skull is destroyed, and the facial
bones are entirely absent; but the roof of the cranium, consisting of
the frontal, parietal, and the greater part of the occipital bones, as
far as the middle of the occipital foramen, is entire, or nearly so. The
left temporal bone is wanting. Of the right temporal, the parts in the
immediate neighborhood of the auditory foramen, the mastoid process, and
a considerable portion of the squamous element of the temporal, are well
preserved."

A piece of the occipital bone, which Schmerling seems to have missed,
has since been fitted on to the rest of the cranium by Dr. Spring, the
accomplished anatomist of Liége.

"The skull is that of an adult, if not middle-aged man. The extreme
length of the skull is 7.7 inches. Its extreme breadth, which
corresponds very nearly with the interval between the parietal
protuberances, is not more than 5.4 inches. The proportion of the length
to the breadth is therefore very nearly as 100 to 70. If a line be drawn
from the point at which the brow curves in towards the root of the nose,
and which is called the 'glabella' (_a_, Fig. 8), to the occipital
protuberance (_d_), and the distance to the highest point of the arch of
the skull be measured perpendicularly from this line, it will be
found to be 4.75 inches. Viewed from above, the forehead presents an
evenly rounded curve, and passes into the contour of the sides and back
of the skull, which describes a tolerably regular elliptical curve.

  [Illustration: FIG. 7. PROFESSOR T. H. HUXLEY.]

  [Illustration: FIG. 8. SIDE VIEW OF THE HUMAN SKULL FOUND IN THE CAVE
  OF ENGIS.

    _a._ Superciliary ridge and glabella.
    _b._ Coronal suture.
    _d._ The occipital protuberance.]

"The front view shows that the roof of the skull was very regularly and
elegantly arched in the transverse direction, and that the transverse
diameter was a little less below the parietal protuberances, than above
them. The forehead cannot be called narrow in relation to the rest of
the skull, nor can it be called a retreating forehead; on the contrary,
the antero-posterior contour of the skull is well arched, so that the
distance along that contour, from the nasal depression to the occipital
protuberance, measures about 13.75 inches. The transverse arc of the
skull, measured from one auditory foramen to the other, across the
middle of the sagittal suture, is about 13 inches. The sagittal suture
itself is 5.5 inches long. The superciliary prominences or brow-ridges
(_a_) are well, but not excessively, developed, and are separated by a
median depression. Their principal elevation is disposed so obliquely
that I judge them to be due to large frontal sinuses. If a line joining
the glabella and the occipital protuberance (_a_, _d_, Fig. 8) be made
horizontal, no part of the occipital region projects more than one-tenth
of an inch behind the posterior extremity of that line, and the upper
edge of the auditory foramen is almost in contact with a line drawn
parallel with this upon the outer surface of the skull."[27]

Some of the views expressed by Professor Huxley are at variance with
those of other eminent scientists. Lubbock reports him as saying, "There
is no mark of degradation about any part of its structure. It is, in
fact, a fair average human skull, which might have belonged to a
philosopher, or might have contained the thoughtless brains of a
savage."[28] Mr. Busk agrees and partially disagrees with Professor
Huxley, for he remarked to Lyell, "Although the forehead was somewhat
narrow, it might nevertheless be matched by the skulls of individuals of
European race."[29]

Dr. Schmerling, Buchner, and Vogt are arrayed against Huxley. The first
says, "I hold it to be demonstrated that this cranium has belonged to a
person of limited intellectual faculties, and we conclude thence that it
belonged to a man of a low degree of civilization."[30] "From the
narrowness of the frontal portion it belonged to an individual of small
intellectual development."[31] Buchner says, "In its length and
narrowness, the slight elevation of its forehead, the form of the widely
separated orbits and the well developed supra-orbital arches, it
resembles, especially when viewed from above, the celebrated Neanderthal
skull, but in general is far superior to this in its structure."[32]
Carl Vogt "regards it, with reference to the proportion of length to
breadth, as one of the most ill-favored, animal-like and simian of
skulls."[33]

The cause of this wide difference of opinion may arise from the failure
to observe the fact that the older the formation in which a skull is
found, the lower is the type. The ordinary observer, judging by the cast
of the skull, would see nothing ape-like about it, and certainly would
fail to see any indications of a philosopher.

NEANDERTHAL SKULL.

The Neanderthal skull was taken from a small cave or grotto in-the
valley of the Düssel, near Düsseldorf, situated about seventy miles
north-east of the region of the Liége caverns. The grotto is in a deep
ravine sixty feet above the river, one hundred feet below the surface of
the country, and at a distance of about ten feet from the Düssel River.
It is fifteen feet deep from the entrance (_f_), which is seven or eight
feet wide. Before the cavern had been injured, it opened upon a narrow
plateau lying in front. The floor of the cave was covered four or five
feet in thickness with a deposit of mud or loam, and containing some
rounded fragments of chert. Two laborers, in removing this deposit,
first noticed the skull, placed near the entrance, and further in met
with the other bones. As the bones were not regarded as of any
importance, at the time of their discovery, only the larger ones have
been preserved.

  [Illustration: FIG. 9. SECTION OF THE NEANDERTHAL CAVE.

    _a._ Cavern sixty feet above the Düssel, and one hundred feet
         below the surface of the country at _c_.

    _b._ Loam covering the floor of the cave near the bottom of which
         the human skeleton was found.

    _c_, _a_. Rent connecting the cave with the upper surface of the
              country.

    _d._ Superficial sandy loam.

    _e._ Devonian limestone.

    _f._ Terrace, or ledge of rock.]

Some discussion has arisen in respect to the geological time of these
bones. There was no stalagmite overlying the mud or loam in which the
skeleton was found, and no other bones met with save the tusk of a bear.
There is no certain data given whereby its position may be known.
Professor Huxley declares that the bones "indicate a very high
antiquity."[34] Buchner is very positive in his statement, and declares
that "the loam-deposit which partly fills the caves of the Neanderthal
and the clefts and fissures of its limestone mountains, and in which
both the Neanderthal bones and the fossil bones and teeth of animals
were imbedded, is exactly the same that, in the caverns of the
Neanderthal, covers the whole limestone mountain with a deposit from ten
to twelve feet in thickness, and the diluvial origin of which is
unmistakable."[35] Dr. Fuhlrott says, "The position and general
arrangement of the locality in which they were found, place it, in my
judgment, beyond doubt that the bones belong to the diluvium, and
therefore to primitive times, _i. e._ they come down to us from a period
of the past when our native country was still inhabited by various kinds
of animals, especially mammoths and cave-bears, which have long since
disappeared out of the series of living creatures."[36]

The diluvial or glacial origin of the Neanderthal skull is still further
confirmed by the discoveries made, in the summer of 1865, in the
Teufelskammer. This cavern is situated one hundred and thirty paces from
the one in which the human bones were found, and on the same side of the
river.. In the loam-deposit of this cave were found numerous fossil
bones and teeth of the rhinoceros, cave-bear, cave-hyena, and other
extinct animals. "A great part of these bones, especially those of the
cave-bears, agree in color, weight, density, and the preservation of
their microscopic structure, with the human bones found in the
Feldhofner Cave (in which the Neanderthal man was found), and both are
covered with the same _dendrites_, or tree-like markings."[37]

Before entering into a description and discussion of this remarkable
skull, an enumeration of the other bones will be given. All the bones
are characterized by their unusual thickness, and the great development
of all the elevations and depressions for the attachment of muscles. The
two thigh bones were in a perfect state, also the right humerus and
radius; the upper third of the right ulna; the left ulna complete,
though pathologically deformed, the coronoid process being so much
enlarged by bony growth that flexure of the elbow beyond a right angle
was impossible; the left humerus is much slenderer than the right, and
the upper third is wanting. Its anterior fossa for the reception of the
coronoid process is filled up with a bony growth, and, at the same time,
the olecranon process is curved strongly downwards. The indications are
that an injury sustained during life was the cause of this defect. There
was an ilium, almost perfect; a fragment of the right scapula; the
anterior extremity of a rib of the right side, and two hinder portions
and one middle portion of ribs resembling more the ribs of a carnivorous
animal than those of man. This abnormal condition has arisen from the
powerful development of the thoracic muscles.

  [Illustration: FIG. 10. SIDE VIEW OF THE HUMAN SKULL FROM FELDHOFNER
  CAVE, IN THE NEANDERTHAL, NEAR DÜSSELDORF.

    _a._ The superciliary ridge and glabella.
    _c._ The apex of the lambdoidal suture.
    _b._ The coronal suture.
    _d._ The occipital protuberance.]

The cranium is thus described by Professor Huxley. "It has an extreme
length of 8 inches, while its breadth is only 5-3/4 inches, or in other
words, its length is to its breadth as 100 is to 72. It is exceedingly
depressed, measuring only about 3.4 inches from the glabello-occipital
line to the vertex. The longitudinal arc, measured in the same way as in
the Engis skull, is 12 inches; the transverse arc cannot be exactly
ascertained, in consequence of the absence of the temporal bones, but
was probably about the same, and certainly exceeded 10-1/4 inches. The
horizontal circumference is 23 inches. But this great circumference
arises largely from the vast development of the superciliary ridges,
though the perimeter of the brain case itself is not small. The large
superciliary ridges give the forehead a far more retreating appearance
than its internal contour would bear out. To an anatomical eye the
posterior part of the skull is even more striking than the anterior. The
occipital protuberance occupies the extreme posterior end of the skull,
when the glabello-occipital line is made horizontal, and so far from any
part of the occipital region extending beyond it, this region of the
skull slopes obliquely upward and forward, so that the lambdoidal suture
is situated well upon the upper surface of the cranium. At the same
time, notwithstanding the great length of the skull, the sagittal suture
is remarkably short (4-1/2 inches) and the squamosal suture is very
straight."[38] ... "The cranium, in its present condition, contains
about sixty-three English cubic inches of water. As the entire skull
could hardly have held less than twelve cubic inches more, its minimum
capacity may be estimated at seventy-five cubic inches.... It has
certainly not undergone compression, and, in reply to the suggestion
that the skull is that of an idiot, it may be urged that the _onus
probandi_ lies with those who adopt the hypothesis. Idiocy is compatible
with very various forms and capacities of the cranium, but I know of
none which present the least resemblance to the Neanderthal skull."[39]

Professor Huxley describes this skull to be the most ape-like of all the
human skulls he has ever seen, and in its examination ape-like
characters are met with in all its parts.[40] Buchner says that the face
of the Neanderthal man must have presented a frightfully bestial and
savage, or ape-like expression (see frontispiece).[41] Professor
Schaaffhausen and Mr. Busk have stated that "this skull is the most
brutal of all known human skulls, resembling those of the apes not only
in the prodigious development of the superciliary prominences and the
forward extension of the orbits, but still more in the depressed form
of the brain-case, in the straightness of the squamosal suture, and in
the complete retreat of the occiput forward and upward, from the
superior occipital ridges."[42]

Professor Schaaffhausen and Dr. Buchner regarded this skull as a
race-type, and Professor Huxley has said "that it truly forms only the
extreme member of a series leading by slow degrees to the highest and
best developed forms of human skulls."[43]

That this skull is a race-type is evident from the fact that it is not
an isolated case. The fragment of the skull from the loess of the Rhine
(Alsace), by its depressed forehead and strongly projecting superciliary
arches, greatly resembles the Neanderthal skull. The skull from the
calcareous tuff of Constatt, in its low, narrow forehead and strong
superciliary arches, resembles the Neanderthal.[44] The cranium found in
bone breccia, in Cochrane's Cave (Gibraltar), "resembles, in all
essential particulars, including its great thickness, the far-famed
Neanderthal skull. Its discovery adds immensely to the scientific value
of the Neanderthal specimen, if only as showing that the latter does not
represent, as many have hitherto supposed, a mere individual
peculiarity, but that it may have been characteristic of a race
extending from the Rhine to the Pillars of Hercules."[45] In speaking of
the Neanderthal skull, Professor Schaaffhausen says, "It is worthy of
notice that a similar, although smaller projection of the superciliary
arches has generally been found in the skulls of savage races.... The
remarkably small skull from the graves on the island of Moën, examined
by Professor Eschricht; the two human skulls, described by Dr. Kutorga,
from the government of Minsk (Russia), one of which, especially, shows a
great resemblance to the Neanderthal skull; the human skeleton found
near Plau, in Mecklenburg, in a very ancient grave, in a squatting
position, ... the skull of which indicates a very distant period, when
man stood on a very low grade of development;" and other similar
discoveries near Mecklenburg, their skulls likewise presenting short,
retreating foreheads and projecting eyebrows.[46]

Professor Huxley considers that the Borreby skulls, belonging to the
stone age of Denmark, "show a great resemblance to the Neanderthal
skull, a resemblance which is manifested in the depression of the
cranium, the receding forehead, the contracted occiput and the prominent
superciliary ridges."[47]

_Human Skull of Arno._--The human skull, found by Professor Cocchi in
the valley of the Arno, near Florence, in diluvial clay, together with
various bones of extinct species of animals, is considered by Carl Vogt
to be of like antiquity with the Engis and Neanderthal skulls.[48]

CHAPTER IV.

PRE-GLACIAL EPOCHS.

The age immediately preceding the glacial, and consequently the
post-tertiary, is known as the pliocene epoch, the last of the tertiary.

The tertiary period began with the close of the cretaceous. A map of the
early tertiary period would represent parts of Maryland, Virginia, the
Carolinas, Georgia, the whole of Florida, the lower parts of Alabama,
Mississippi, Texas, the whole of Louisiana, and the adjoining territory
on both sides of the Mississippi, as far as Cairo, as covered with
water. Also a great sea extending through Nebraska and the western part
of Dacotah, and taking a north-westerly course until it emptied into the
Pacific. In Europe, the great basin of Paris (excepting a zone of
chalk), the greater part of Spain and Italy, the whole of Belgium,
Holland, Prussia, Switzerland, Hungary, Wallachia, and northern Russia,
as one vast sheet of water. England and France were connected by a band
of rocks.

About the middle of the tertiary, a tropical climate and tropical fauna
and flora spread over the whole of Europe. Palms, cedars, laurels, and
cinnamon trees flourished in the valleys of Switzerland, and more than
thirty different species of oak adorned the forests of that time.

In Europe, in the eocene, there have been found thirty species of
crocodiles; many species of snakes, one twenty feet long; a dozen
species of birds; tapirs (_Palæothere_ and _Lophiodon_), two species of
hogs, some ruminants and rodents.

In the miocene, among _Pachyderms_ may be mentioned the mastodon,
elephant, dinothere (an elephantine animal), rhinoceros, hog, horse,
tapir, and hippopotamus; among _Carnivores_, the machairodus, hyena,
lion, and dog; among _Ruminants_, the camel, deer, and antelope. There
were monkeys, and many other animals.

In the pliocene, besides those enumerated, are found the bear, hare, and
other animals.

In the tertiary beds of America have been found mastodons, elephants,
rhinoceroses, deer, camels, foxes, wolves, horses, whales, and other
mammalia.

Owing to the great lapse of time it cannot be expected that many traces
of man will be discovered in this early period.

Upon theoretical grounds Lyell thought it very probable that man lived
in the pliocene; but in relation to miocene time, he says, "Had some
other rational being, representing man, then flourished, some signs of
his existence could hardly have escaped unnoticed, in the shape of
implements of stone or metal, more frequent and more durable than the
osseous remains of any of the mammalia."[49] Sir J. Lubbock, while
admitting the existence of man in the pliocene, goes farther and says,
"If man constitutes a separate family of mammalia, as he does in the
opinion of the highest authorities, then, according to all
palæontological analogies, he must have had representatives in miocene
times. We need not, however, expect to find the proofs in Europe; our
nearest relatives in the animal kingdom are confined to hot, almost to
tropical climates, and it is in such countries that we are most likely
to find the earliest traces of the human race."[50] Alfred R. Wallace
out-distances any of his cotemporaries, for he says, "We are enabled to
place the origin of man at a much more remote geological epoch than has
yet been thought possible. He may even have lived in the miocene or
eocene period, when not a single mammal was identical in form with any
existing species."[51]

Some of the older and some of the recent discoveries of geologists have
settled the question of tertiary man; and the "signs of his existence,"
in the "shape of implements of stone," as demanded by Lyell, have been
furnished.

_Man in the Pliocene._--It has already been intimated that the evidences
of man are but few in this early epoch. The first example, in the
following list, borders closely on the glacial, but far enough removed
as to be referred to the pliocene.

In the construction of a canal between Stockholm and Gothenburg it was
necessary to cut through one of those hills called _osars_, or erratic
blocks, which were deposited by the drift-ice during the glacial epoch.
Beneath an immense accumulation of osars, with shells and sand, there
was discovered in the deepest layer of subsoil, at a depth of about
sixty feet, a circular mass of stones, forming a hearth, in the middle
of which there were wood-coals. No other hand than that of man could
have performed the work.[52]

In the pliocene beds in the neighborhood of the town of Savonia in
Liguria, M. A. Issel found several bones which presented all the
physical signs of very high antiquity. Dr. Buchner is of the opinion
that before these bones can be employed as satisfactory evidence they
must have a more accurate test by scientific authorities.[53]

In the upper pliocene beds at St. Prest (France), M. Desnoyers found
traces of human action on the bones of animals belonging to the
tertiary. These fractures are analogous to those of human action
observed on bones from the glacial period, and identical with those made
by northern tribes of the present day, on the skulls of ruminants. The
marked bones found were those of the Southern elephant (_E.
meridionalis_), rhinoceros (_R. leptorinus_), hippopotamus major,
several species of deer, and two of the ox. Carl Vogt states that this
discovery is not only genuine, but also, the formation in which the
bones were found is decidedly tertiary. It is further characterized by
the presence of the southern elephant (_E. meridionalis_). As this
elephant became extinct before the glacial age, the bones consequently
precede the glacial, and the age of the cave-bear, the mammoth, and
tichorrhine rhinoceros. The eminent French naturalist, Quatrefages,
confirms the testimony of Desnoyers.[54]

The conclusions of Desnoyers are confirmed beyond a doubt by the more
recent discoveries of Abbé Bourgeois. In the same tertiary strata of St.
Prest, in which were found the marked or fractured bones, Bourgeois
discovered worked flints, including flakes, awls, and scrapers.[55]

A human skull, belonging to the pliocene, was found by James Matson, at
Altaville, in Calaveras county, California, at a depth of one hundred
and thirty feet, under five beds of gravel separated by five layers of
lava, associated with the bones of an extinct rhinoceros, camel, and
horse. The base of the skull is imbedded in a mass of bone-breccia and
small pebbles of volcanic rock. The shape of the skull resembles that of
the Digger Indians, and is of remarkable thickness.[56]

_Man in the Miocene._[57]--M. Bourgeois has found, in a stratum of
miocene near Pontlevoy, numerous worked flints, and other flints which
have been subjected to the action of heat. These works of man were
associated with the remains of the acerotherium (an extinct species
allied to the rhinoceros), and beneath five distinct beds, one of which
contained the rolled bones of rhinoceros, mastodon, and dinotherium.[58]

M. Tardy found a flint-flake of undoubted workmanship in the miocene
beds of Aurillac (Auvergne), together with the remains of _dinotherium
giganteum_, and _machaerodus latidens_.[59]

M. Bourgeois reports that Abbé Delaunay had found near Pouance
(Maine-et-Loire), fossil bones of a _halitherium_ (an herbivorous
cetacean of the miocene), with evident signs of having been operated
upon by cutting instruments.[60]

In the miocene gravel beds of Colorado and Wyoming territories,
chert-flakes, hammers, chisels, knives, and wrought shells have been
found.[61]

_Eocene._--As yet geologists have failed to discover any traces of man
in the Eocene epoch.

CHAPTER V.

CONDITION OF MAN IN THE EARLIEST TIMES.

Of the first appearance of man on the globe there is no precise
knowledge. His origin is a mystery. The place of his birth is generally
supposed to be in Central Asia. There the geologist looks with a longing
eye, and hopes ultimately to unravel, not only the hidden mystery of the
birth-place of his race, but also, how or through what natural process
he sprang into existence.

If the miocene be the earliest point in his history, and Central Asia
the place of his nativity, then he was ushered upon the scene of life
during the period of, and surrounded by, the numerous fauna of India, At
this time her mammalia included, besides the quadrumana, elephant (seven
species), mastodon (three species), rhinoceros (five species), horse
(three species), hippopotamus (four to seven species), hog (three
species), camel, giraffe, sivatherium (an elephantine stag, having four
horns and supposed to have had the bulk of an elephant and greater
height), antelope, musk-deer, sheep, ox (several species), dinotherium,
porcupine, species of hyena, lion, and many others.

It cannot be presumed that man's intellectual faculties were ordinarily
developed, as it would not be natural to suppose he was superior to that
of later times. Judging from the remains of later times, man could have
been but very little removed from the brute. It is natural to suppose
that at first he had no fire, no weapons of offence or defence. His food
must have been the herbs, roots, and the fruits of the tree, possibly
with an occasional morsel of raw meat. His pillow was a stone, his
retreat a cave or the boughs of a wide-spreading tree, and his clothing
a natural coat of hair.

In the presence of the fierce beasts, man's domain might seem to be of
short duration. Providence has ordered all things wisely. Placed low in
the scale of life--brutal, selfish, prowling, yet cautious--man, by the
very force of circumstances, was to develop gradually the powers of his
mind. With the elephant and the mastodon he could not cope nor would
they molest him. To the fierce carnivora he might fall a prey. From
these he could flee, and find a shelter in the tops of the trees or some
secure fastness of the earth. Learning his own strength by experience,
he would venture forth on excursions, and meet face to face his deadly
foe. For self-defence he discovered, probably by accident, that a club
was a powerful weapon with which to beat back his fierce opponent.
Gradually he came to learn that a sharp flint driven into the end of a
club was a safer and more deadly weapon. With this he could withstand an
unequal contest.

The mode of life, together with the trials of his strength, developed
his muscular system. His muscles became large and tough, and his bones
thick and heavy. The earliest type of man is generally supposed to be
_dolichocephalic_, or long-headed. The walls of the skull were thick,
and the crown low. He was of ordinary stature, but built for action, and
of great power. His make-up was the result of his surroundings.

His advancement was very slow. Throughout the entire length of the
miocene and pliocene epochs it is not traceable. There was no revolution
in his mind; one step in advance would have been a mighty leap. Nor
could it be expected that there should be rapid progress. The mind was
brutal; and all the instincts sensual. But there was pending a mighty
change. The tropical climate should change into a winter of snow and
ice. Man should feel it, and be benefited by the new danger. His
sluggish mind should be quickened, and the inventive genius should be
called into action. The sun no longer could give its heat. The forests
grew cold, the chilling winds swept over the plains, and the retreat in
the cave was damp and forbidding. The wild beasts were either dying of
cold, or else becoming clothed with thick, long hair, and retreating
before the accumulating snow. Man earnestly looked about him. He
suffered greatly, and his numbers grew less. Fire had been produced.
How, no one can tell; possibly by accident. He now became more careful
of the fire, and with brand in hand he went from place to place kindling
the fires at the various resting-places. Nor was this sufficient. His
ingenuity was taxed to its greatest extent. Colder and colder grew the
winds. The snow, coming in great flakes, was soon consolidated, and
became as ice. The body could not be kept warm. Clothing must be had,
and this must be furnished by the wild beasts. Their hides must assist
in protecting the life of man. The stiffened, frozen animals would not
alone furnish sufficient covering. Knives must be invented. From the
flint rude knives were fashioned, by means of which the skins were
removed and transferred to the bodies of men. But the long winter
continuing, the lives of the living animals must be forfeited, both for
the flesh and and the skins. Rude, almost shapeless arrow-heads were
produced. Wood must be had with which to warm and cook, and rude rafts
formed, by means of which the swelling rivers might be crossed. Then
those stone hatchets of the Somme were shaped, and answered the purpose.

Man was at last prepared to face the rigors of winter, the perils of
ice, and secure himself against starvation. Not content with his
conflicts with nature, his brutal passion is aroused against his
fellows. Death-dealing blows fall rapidly upon each other, the blood
flows freely, the bones give way, and the weaker one has succumbed.
There are fierce contentions over the common prey, and the strong impose
upon the weak. True to his instinct, he is gregarious. He lives in
communities; and the more daring--the hunters--having their common
places of meeting, fashion their weapons, and vie with each other in
feats of prowess.

During the glacial epoch the condition of man must have remained
unchanged, after he had supplied himself with rude stone weapons. His
time was spent, for the most part, in self-preservation. He was
retreating before, yet bounding over, the frozen flood in pursuit of
game. This experience must ultimately tell for good. When the glaciers
began to recede, man followed closely, and forgot not the value of those
stone weapons which had secured food for himself. They served against
the cave-bear, cave-hyena, cave-lion, and would be of great service in
the ages yet to come. By a little remodelling they could be used to
greater advantage; and this change of shape was accomplished, and other
uses of flint were made known.

Man's form, aspect, and true position are comprehended by the relics of
the glacial age. The human bones tell a tale which any anatomist may
read, and even one not well skilled in the art. The primitive type is no
mystery, and those fossil bones tell of the terrific strifes of by-gone
times.

The Neanderthal man has already been described. Its structure is animal.
Its history agrees with the generally received idea of primitive man as
conceived by the geologist. The illustration (frontispiece) presents him
bestial and ape-like. A powerful organization, and well adapted to those
times. His bones tell of fearful conflicts. He lived to an old age, as
the traces of every suture are effaced. His skull was very thick. The
strong, prominent superciliary arches denote large perceptives, making
him watchful and always on the alert. Those bones tell of a terrible
conflict. The left arm was broken; who knows but in a contest with the
great cave-bear. He survived the contest and lived to see that arm
dwindle and become almost useless. Over the right eye he received a
blow, from some source, so great as to carry away a portion of the bone.
The claw of a cave-bear, or a flint weapon in the hand of one of his
race, may have produced that fracture. Still he lived, and the wound
healed. All this tells of his strength and hardihood. It gives an inside
view of the wonderful hardships and vicissitudes of primeval man.

The Engis skull belongs to the same type, though less bestial. Possibly
this individual did not enter upon the chase, and engage in the manly
pursuits of those times. He may have been an adviser or a dandy; or, his
ingenuity may have led him to the vocation of fashioning weapons and
implements from the flint.

In the time of the Engis man there were large as well as short,
heavy-set men. In the same cavern there was found a clavicle belonging
to a young person who must have been of great stature.

The jaws of La Naulette and Moulin-Quignon display a great tendency to
animal structure, and confirm the impressions as given of the primitive
condition of man during the glacial and pre-glacial ages.

CHAPTER VI.

INTER-GLACIAL EPOCH.

The glaciers have departed. Summer comes again. The forests bloom and
the wild beast roams about. Many species withstood the long siege of
cold; others perished; still others followed the ice as it retreated,
preferring the cold to the coming heat. The floods had abated and man
spread himself over the different tracts blooming with flowers and
radiant with earthly splendors.

The evidences of man's existence during this period are numerous,
consisting in works of art and fossil remains. Only a few examples are
given, as not many will be required to present the evidence and show
man's condition.

The hyena-den at Wokey Hole, explored by Mr. Dawkins, affords specimens
of the works of man. When discovered this den was filled to the roof
with _débris_. Under this rubbish was found several layers of the
excrement of the cave-hyena (_H. spelæa_), each of which indicates an
old floor and a separate period of occupation.

The implements were under these layers of excrement, showing that the
cave had been occupied by the hyenas after the time of the savages.
These implements had not been disturbed by the action of water. In the
bone earth along with the remains of the cave-hyena were found those of
the mammoth, Siberian rhinoceros, (_R. tichorrhinus_), gigantic ox (_Bos
primigenius_), gigantic Irish deer (_Megaceros Hibernicus_), reindeer,
cave-bear, cave-lion (_Felis spelæa_), wolf (_Canis lupus_), fox (_Canis
vulpes_), and the teeth and bones of the horse in great numbers.
Intermixed with these bones were chipped flints, a bleached flint
weapon of the spear-head Amiens type, and arrow-heads made of bone.

  [Illustration: FIG. 11. IDEAL SCENE IN THE POST-TERTIARY.

    On the right is shown the megatherium. This animal belonged to the
    sloth tribe, and was a native of South America. It exceeded in
    size the largest rhinocerous, and the length of its skeleton
    sometimes attained eighteen feet. In front, near the centre, is
    the glyptodon another South American animal of the armadillo
    tribe. The length of its shell, along the curve, was five feet,
    and the total length of the animal, nine feet. Just back of the
    glypodon, and holding on to a tree, is the mylodon, belonging to
    both North and South America, one species of which was much larger
    than the western buffalo. On the left, and in the rear, is the
    mastodon, the remains of which are found in both North and South
    America, though of different species. While this scene does not
    represent the animals with which we are dealing, yet the general
    features give an idea of those with which we are interested.]

  [Illustration: FIG. 12. SECTION OF THE SEPULCHRAL GROTTO, IN THE HILL
  OF FAJOLES, AURIGNAC.

    _a._ Vault in which the seventeen human skeletons were found.

    _b._ Layer of made ground, two feet thick, inside the grotto in
         which a few human bones, with entire bones of extinct and
         living species of animals, and many works of art, were
         imbedded.

    _c._ Layers of ashes and charcoal eight inches thick, containing
         broken, burned, and gnawed bones of extinct and living
         mammalia, also hearth-stones and works of art; no human
         bones.

    _d._ Deposit with similar contents; also a few scattered cinders.

    _e._ Talus of rubbish washed down from the hill above.

    _f_, _g._ Slab of rock which closed the vault.

    _i_, _f._ Rabbit-burrow.

    _h_, _k._ Original terrace.

    _N._ Nummulitic limestone.]

In the cavern of Maccagnone, in Sicily, there were found ashes and rude
flint implements in a breccia containing the bones of the elephant (_E.
antiquus_), hyena, a large bear, lion, (probably _F. spelæa_), and large
numbers of bones belonging to the hippopotamus. The concrete of ashes
had once filled the cavern, and a large piece of bone breccia was still
cemented to the roof.

The vast number of hippopotamuses implies that the physical condition of
the country was different from what it is at present. The bone breccia
cemented to the roof, and coated with stalagmite, testifies that the
cave, at some time since the formation of the breccia, has been washed
out. The exact time of the formation of this breccia cannot be given,
but, in all probability, not long after the extinction of the cave-bear,
if not before.

The cave or grotto of Aurignac, in which the seventeen human skeletons
were found, was carefully examined by Lartet eight years after its
discovery. The recess was formed in nummulitic limestone. In front of
the grotto, and next to the limestone (_c_, Fig. 12) was a layer of
ashes and charcoal, eight inches thick, containing hearth-stones, works
of art, and broken, burned, and gnawed bones of extinct and recent
mammalia. Immediately above this layer (_d_) was another, of made
ground, two feet thick, extending into the grotto; and its contents
similar to the other, save that within the grotto were found a few human
bones. The grotto was closed by a slab, and the made earth without was
covered by a talus of rubbish (_e_), washed down from the hill above.

In these layers were found not less than one hundred flint instruments,
consisting of knives, projectiles, sling-stones, chips, and a stone made
for the purpose of modelling the flints. The bone implements were
barbless arrows, a well-shaped and sharply pointed bodkin made of the
horn of the roe-deer, and other tools made of reindeer horn. Besides
these there were found eighteen small round and flat plates, of a white
shelly substance, made of some species of cockle (_cardium_), pierced
through the middle; also the tusk of a young cave-bear, the crown of
which had been carved in imitation of the head of a bird.

The following is a list of the different species found in the layers,
together with the approximate number of individuals belonging to each:

I.--CARNIVORA.

                                               Number of Individuals.
  1. Cave Bear (_U. Spelæus_)                                    5-6
  2. Brown Bear (_U. arctos_)                                      1
  3. Badger (_Meles taxus_)                                      1-2
  4. Polecat (_Putorius vulgaris_)                                 1
  5. Cave Lion (_Felis spelæa_)                                    1
  6. Wild Cat (_Felis Catus ferus_)                                1
  7. Hyena (_H. spelæa_)                                         5-6
  8. Wolf (_Canis lupus_)                                          3
  9. Fox (_C. vulpes_)                                         18-20

II.--HERBIVORA.

   1. Mammoth (_E. primigenius_)        Two molars and an astragalus.
   2. Rhinoceros (_R. tichorrhinus_)                               1
   3. Horse (_Equus caballus_)                                 12-15
   4. Ass (_E. asinus_)                                            1
   5. Boar (_Sus scrofa_)                               Two incisors.
   6. Stag (_Cervus elephas_)                                      1
   7. Gigantic Irish Deer (_Megaceros Hibernicus_)                 1
   8. Roebuck (_C. capreolus_)                                   3-4
   9. Reindeer (_C. tarandus_)                                 10-12
  10. Aurochs (_Bison Europæus_)                               12-15

The bones on the outside of the grotto were found to be split open, as
if for the extraction of the marrow, and many of them burned. The spongy
parts were wanting, having been gnawed off by the hyenas.

M. Lartet came to the conclusion that this grotto was a place of
sepulchre, and the broken or split bones were the remnants of the
funeral feasts. This he argued from the fact that the bones within the
grotto were not split, broken or gnawed, save the astragalus of the
mammoth. This meat was placed in the grotto, probably as an offering to
the dead. The bones without the cave were scraped, and while the men
were yet engaged in the funeral feast, the hyenas prowled about the
spot, and at the close of the banquet, devoured the flesh that
remained. The slab in front of the cave debarred their entrance, and
consequently the bones and human remains within were left untouched.

The observations made by M. Cartailhac, in 1870, lead to different
conclusions. On close inspection, he discovered a difference in the
color of the walls of the cave, indicating that the lower deposit was of
a yellow color, and the next above of a much lighter tint. In the
crevices of the lower he found a tooth of the rhinoceros, one of the
reindeer, and some fractured bones of the cave-bear. In the higher
deposit occurred some small bones of living animals and of man, and a
fragment of pottery. From these evidences, M. Cartailhac inferred that
the lower deposits of the grotto corresponded with that outside of it,
and the layer containing human bones was formed at a subsequent time.

That this grotto was a place of resort at a very early period is proven
from the numerous remains of the cave-bear. This animal was one of the
first of those great post-tertiary mammalia to become extinct. The exact
position of the remains of the reindeer is not given. If its bones were
intermixed with the others and found in the lowest as well as the other
layers, it would indicate that the climate was not very warm during the
deposit of the layers, but to have been similar to that of Switzerland
of the present day. The probability is, the reindeer bones did not occur
in the lowest layer, and hence that layer was formed during the tropical
climate, and the reindeer bones and human skeletons were consigned to
the grotto about the close of the inter-glacial, or beginning of the
reindeer epoch.

The fossil man of Denise, taken from an old volcanic tuff, must be
assigned to this period, since there have been found, in similar blocks
of tuff in the same region, the remains of the cave-hyena and
hippopotamus major. This fossil man consists of a frontal part of the
skull, the upper jaw, with teeth, belonging to both an adult and young
individual; a radius, some lumbar vertebræ, and some metatarsal bones.
The tuff is light and porous, and none of the bones penetrate into the
more compact rock.

In the rubbish heap, or reindeer station, at the source of the Schusse,
there were discovered more than six hundred split flints, with a
quantity of partly worked antlers and bones of the reindeer. The bones
were so numerous that Mr. Oscar Fraas was enabled to put together a
complete skeleton of the reindeer which is now preserved in the museum
of Stuttgart. Most of the bones were split open for the purpose of
extracting the marrow. There were numerous remains of fishes, and a
fish-hook manufactured from reindeer horn. There were also the bones of
other animals, such as the glutton, arctic fox, and other animals now
living in high northern latitudes.

Speaking of this station, Dr. Buchner says, "Not only the careful
investigations of the geognostic conditions of the place, but also the
flora of the time (for remains of mosses were found which now live only
in the extreme north), leave no doubt that the reindeer station on the
Schusse belongs to the glacial epoch, or that it probably belongs
exactly to the interval between the two glacial epochs which in all
probability Switzerland has experienced. Mr. E. Desor declared this
deposit to be _the terminal moraine of the Rhine-glacier_, which was
formerly very large. Moreover, according to him, this discovery is
particularly remarkable, because it is the first example of a station of
the reindeer-men in a free and open deposit, their remains having
hitherto been found only in caves."[62]

From the remarks of Dr. Buchner, the great number of bones of the
reindeer, and some show of advancement in the arts, it may be safe to
conclude that this station belongs to the close of the inter-glacial.

CHAPTER VII.

CONDITION OF MAN IN THE INTER-GLACIAL.

The Inter-Glacial period continued a great length of time, covering many
thousands of years.

Man is an improvable being, and some advancement may be expected in his
condition. His mode of life, and continued conflicts with the fierce
wild beasts, would tax his every device. Necessity compelled him to be
inventive. The limited, bestial mind which he possessed, could not
grapple with the higher problems of existence. United efforts and
fortified places were beyond his thoughts. Those old axes of flint were
great objects to his mind, and one step beyond them was a great stride
in progress. That they developed but little cannot be wondered at, not
only from their low type, but also from the knowledge that even in the
era of history there are nations whose civilization has become fixed and
stereotyped for ages; others, who, instead of advancing, have been
retrograding.

The impulse given by the rigors of glacial times acted beneficially
throughout this period. The rude axes and flints were retained, but
improvements were made in utilizing the bones and horns of animals. Out
of these, bodkins, fish-hooks, and arrow-heads were made. The teeth of
wild animals were perforated, and, along with corals and shells, were
used for ornaments. The caverns, used as dwelling-places, being
destitute of water, this necessary of life was supplied and carried
thither in rude vessels made of clay and dried in the sun. The arrows,
flint knives, and axes were used for killing and skinning the animals,
splitting the bones containing the marrow, shaping the bone implements,
felling trees, and stripping the bark, which was used at times for
clothing, after having been softened by beating. He commenced the art of
engraving, as is witnessed by a sketch of the great cave-bear wrought on
a curious stone found in the cave of Massat (Ariége), the bird's head
formed from the bone of a cave-bear, at Aurignac, and other examples.
The lower jaw-bones of the cave-bear and cave-lion, in the shape of
hoes, used for digging roots, were found in the caves of Lherm and in
Bouicheta. He made hearth-stones, and on them cooked his food. That he
paid honors to the dead, and sheltered them from the ravages of beasts
of prey, at present, must remain an open question. If he did, it might
seem to imply that he had a religious nature. But when it is considered
that he was very low in the scale of existence, it may be inferred that
this was done, if done at all, to propitiate an evil genius. Or it may
be a faint idea of a ghost state and that these feasts were made to
dissuade the ghost from molesting him. That they had a conception of a
Supreme Ruler, or a number of gods who ruled for the good of man, would
be too preposterous to believe.

Professor Denton has given a description of primeval time which, by a
little change, would represent inter-glacial times: "The seasons are
fairly established; and spring follows winter, and fall summer, as now;
though the summer is longer and warmer than we are accustomed to see in
those countries at the present time, and the winters colder. The country
is covered with dense forests, through which ramble mighty elephants in
herds, with immense curved tusks, coats of long, shaggy hair, and
flowing manes.... Shuffling along comes the great cave-bear from his
rocky den--as large as a horse: fierce, shaggy, conscious of his
strength, he fears no adversary. Crouched by a bubbling spring lies the
cave-tiger (_Felis spelæa_); and, as the wild cattle come down to drink,
he leaps upon the back of one, and a terrible combat ensues. It is as
large as an elephant, and its horns of enormous size; and even
cave-tigers could not always master such cattle as they.

"Are these the highest forms of life that the country contains? What
being is that sitting on yon fallen tree? His long arms are in front of
his hairy body, and his hands between his knees; while his long legs are
dangling down. His complexion is darker than an Indian's; his beard
short, and like the hair of his body; the unkempt hair of his head is
bushy and thick; his eyebrows are short and crisp; and with his sloping
forehead and brutal countenance, he seems like the caricature of a man,
rather than an actual human being.

"Beneath the shade of a spreading chestnut we may behold a group--one
old man ... and women and children, lounging and lying upon the ground.
How dirty! What forbidding countenances!--more like furies than women.
One young man, with a stone axe, is separating the bark from a
neighboring tree. Others, agile as monkeys, are climbing the trees, and
passing from branch to branch, as they gather the wild fruit that
abounds on every side. Some are catching fish in the shallows of the
river, and yell with triumph as they hold their captives by the gills,
dragging them to the shore."[63]

They have improved their language, and instead of the rude signs and
undistinguishable sounds of the glacial, may now be heard short, but
occasional sentences, which were the forerunners of the polished tongues
of modern Europe.

CHAPTER VIII.

REINDEER EPOCH.

The glaciers, to a limited extent, have again advanced. The gigantic
animals of the past age have either disappeared or are fast becoming
extinct. The great cave-bear, cave-lion, cave-hyena, mammoth, and
woolly-haired rhinoceros have almost become extinct. They have given way
to a less fierce and less gigantic fauna. The advance of the glaciers is
announced by the numerous herds of reindeer which are overrunning the
forests of Western Europe, and extending as far south as the Pyrenees.
In the forests there now existed the horse, bison, wild bull (_Bos
primigenius_), musk-ox, elk, deer, chamois, ibex, beaver, hamster-rat,
lemming, and many others. These animals were capable of withstanding and
flourishing in a rigorous climate. When the glaciers were again broken
up and the climate became warmer, the reindeer, musk-ox, elk, chamois,
wild-goat, hamster-rat, and lemming retired to the high northern
latitudes in close proximity to the snow, or else to the lofty summits
of great mountain-chains.

The evidences of the antiquity of the reindeer epoch, and that it
immediately followed the inter-glacial, are numerous. The vast number of
the reindeer bones and horns attest to a distinct epoch, and by the
remains of arctic animals, as well as the traces of glaciers, the
climate must have been unlike that of the present time. The remains of
the mammoth, cave-bear, and cave-lion, would not only connect this
period with the inter-glacial, but also prove that a few stragglers
continued to exist, at least for a short period, after the reindeer
epoch had begun. That this epoch was earlier than the Swiss
lake-villages, or Danish shell mounds, may be shown by the weapons or
implements which point to a more primitive people, the absence of the
remains of the dog, and, also, by the absence of the remains of the
reindeer in the shell-mounds.

There are no means, yet discovered, by which it can be told how long
this epoch lasted. It lasted a sufficient length of time to permit the
reindeer to increase greatly its species.

_Evidences of the Existence of Man._--M. Christy and M. Lartet examined
in conjunction the caves of Central and Southern France. Those which
have been most carefully examined are ten in number, and belong to the
Department of Dordogne. At Perigord there seems to have been quite a
settlement, judging by the number of caves and stations, the principal
ones being Les Eyzies, La Madeleine, Laugerie-Haute, and Laugerie-Basse.

At Les Eyzies there were found a flint bodkin and a bone needle used for
sewing, a barbed arrow made of reindeer horn and still fixed in a bone,
a flint whistle made from the first joint of the foot of the reindeer,
and two slabs of schist, on both of which were scratched animal forms,
but deficient in any special characteristic.

At La Madeleine there were found a geode very large and very thick,
which, it is supposed, was used for a cooking vessel, as one side of it
had been subjected to fire; an engraving of a reindeer on the horn of
that animal; on another horn the carved outlines of two fishes, one on
either side; a representation of an ibex on the palm of a horn; on
another, a very curious group, consisting of an eel, a human figure, and
two horses' heads. A slab of ivory, broken into five pieces, had an
outline sketch of the mammoth (Fig. 13). This was so accurately drawn
that the small eye, curved tusks, huge trunk, and the abundant mane,
could readily be distinguished. There was also found, on an arrow-head,
the figure of a tadpole.

There were workshops at Laugerie-Haute and Laugerie-Basse, where
weapons and utensils were manufactured; and they are noted for the
abundance of instruments made of reindeer horn. Among the works of art
found at the latter station may be mentioned, the stiletto, needle,
spoon made in the shape of rods tapering off at one end and hollow in
the middle, staff of authority, whistle, and harpoon, all from the horn
of the reindeer. On the head of a staff of authority is carved a
mammoth's head; there is a representation of the hind-quarters of some
herbivorous animal, sketched out with a bold and practiced touch; an
animal's head, with ears laid back, and of considerable length, is
carved on a round shaft of reindeer horn. It cannot be determined for
what purpose this shaft was intended, but as the other end was pointed,
and provided with a lateral hook, it may have been the harpoon of some
chief. On a slab of slate was drawn, in outline, a reindeer fight. On a
fragment of a spear-head there is a series of human hands, provided with
four fingers only, and represented in demi-relief. The delineations of
fish are principally on wands of authority--on one of which is a series
following one another.

  [Illustration: FIG. 13. SKETCH OF A MAMMOTH, GRAVEN ON A SLAB OF IVORY
  FROM LA MADELEINE.]

The cave and _rock shelters_ of Bruniquel (Tarn-et-Garonne) have been
carefully examined by competent explorers. These relics are so numerous
that M. de Lastic, the proprietor of the cavern, sold to the agent of
the British Museum fifteen hundred specimens, of every description,
which had been found on his property. In the cave there were found,
engraved on a bone, a perfectly recognizable horse's head and the head
of a reindeer, and daggers made of ivory and bone, on which were
representations of the above-mentioned animals. The engravings are
mostly on the horn of the reindeer. The cave has also furnished two
almost perfect human skulls, and two half-jaw bones which resemble the
Moulin-Quignon.

The _rock-shelters_ are overhanging rocks, under the projections of
which man found a shelter and built his rude dwellings of boughs and
sticks. In these shelters have been found fire-hearths, fish-hooks made
of splinters of bone, saws made of flint, a complete sketch of the
mammoth engraved on reindeer horn, the hilt of a dagger carved in the
shape of a reindeer, the cave-lion, engraved with great clearness, on a
fragment of a staff of authority, and two daggers made of ivory.

In the excavations which were made in the rock-shelters, was found a
quantity of human bones, including two skulls--one of an old man, the
other that of an adult.

The cave of Gourdan (Haute-Garonne) contained the largest collection of
implements of bone and horn ever discovered. The stones and reindeer
horns are carved with great care, and indicate a high degree of artistic
taste. There are sketches made of the reindeer, stag, chamois, goat,
bison, horse, wolf, boar, monkey, badger, antelope, fishes, and birds,
and also the representations of some plants. In the lowest layer of the
soil the most perfect works occur, and they grow less as the surface is
approached. Several of those implements called "batons of command"
occurred, ornamented with animals' heads. On the rib of a horse was
carved an antelope, and on the bone of a bird various figures--plants,
reindeer, and a fish. This cave was made the subject of a report by M.
Piette before the Paris Anthropological Society.

  [Illustration: FIG. 14. THE FOSSIL MAN OF MENTONE.]

The fossil man of Mentone, found in a grotto of Mentone, a village near
Nice, for some time past has produced much comment among scientists. The
skeleton was discovered in undisturbed earth; at a depth of twenty-one
feet. The cause of the discussion is that the skeleton is accompanied by
a multiplicity of bone-tools, needles, chisels, a baton of command, a
necklace, various species of the deer, indicating the reindeer epoch,
but surrounded also by the remains of the cave-bear, cave-hyena, and
woolly-haired rhinoceros. Dr. Garrigou arrives at the conclusion that
this cave was first inhabited by men of the preceding epoch, or
inter-glacial, and during the reindeer epoch was used as a place of
burial.[64] The attitude of the skeleton was that of repose (see Fig.
14). It was stained by oxide of iron. The tibiæ, or shin-bones, present
a noticeable feature by being more flattened than in the European of the
present time.

In the same neighborhood there have more recently been discovered, in
different caves, four other human skeletons. They were all stained with
oxide of iron, and two of them surrounded with pierced sea-shells, teeth
of the stag, constituting the remains of necklaces and bracelets. With
one skeleton, which belonged to a large individual, were discovered
implements of stone and bone, tooth of a cave-bear, bones of other
animals, and shells of edible marine mollusks. The other two skeletons
were those of children, and not accompanied by either implements or
ornaments.

The other bone caves of France, which have afforded much valuable
information, and belonging to this epoch, are: La Gorge d'Enfer,
Liveyre, Pey de l'Aze, Combe-Granal, Le Moustier and Badegoule
(Dordogne), cave of Bize (Aude), cave of La Vache (Ariége), cave of
Savigné (Vienne), grottos of La Balme and Bethenas, in Dauphiné, the
settlement of Solutré, the cave of Lourdes (Hautes-Pyrénées), and the
cave of Espalungue (Basses-Pyrénées)--the last two date back to the most
ancient period of the reindeer epoch.

The principal objects found in these caves, and the rock-shelters are
worked flakes, scrapers, cores, awls, lance-heads, cutters, hammers, and
mortar-stones. These works, though unpolished, are but little ruder than
those of the Esquimaux or the North American Indian.

_Belgian Caverns._--Under the auspices of the Belgian government M.
Edward Dupont examined more than twenty caves on the banks of the Lesse,
in the province of Namur. Among these were four, in which occurred
numerous traces of the reindeer-man, namely, Trou du Frontal, Trou
Rosette, Trou des Nutons, and Trou de Chaleux.

The cavern Trou de Frontal was a place of burial, and similar to the
cave of Aurignac. The mouth of the cave was closed by a slab of
sandstone, and within were the remains of fourteen human beings
belonging to persons of various ages, and some of them to infants
scarcely a year old. In front of the cave was an esplanade, where were
celebrated the funeral feasts, and which was marked by hearth-stone,
traces of fire, flint-knives, bones of animals, shells, etc. The human
bones were intermixed with a considerable number of the bones of the
reindeer and other animals, as well as the different kinds of
implements. Among the remains were two perfect human skulls, in a good
state of preservation. The bones were discovered in a state of great
confusion, which M. Dupont thinks was caused by the disturbance of
water. Sir John Lubbock regards the disturbance of the bones as due to