The only races of men that we could expect to find in Europe

during the Glacial Age would be Paleolithic tribes, and it is

equally manifest that we must find traces of them in beds of this

age, or in association with animals that are characteristic of

this age, or else we can not assert the existence of man at this

time. The valley of the river Somme, in Northern France, has

become classical ground to the student of Archæology, since it

was there that such investigations as we have just mentioned were

first and most abundantly made. It is now well known that the

surface features of a country—that is, its hills and dales, its

uplands and lowlands—are mainly due to the erosive power of

running water. Our rivers have dug for themselves broad valleys,

undermined and carried away hills, and in general carved the

surface of a country, until the present appearance is the result.

It must be confessed that when we perceive the slow apparent

change from year to year, and from that attempt to estimate the

time required to produce the effects we see before us, we are apt

to shrink from the lapse of time demanded for its accomplishment.

Let us not forget that “Time is long,” and that causes, however

trifling, work stupendous results in the course of ages.

Paleolithic Flints.

But a river which is thus digging down its channel in one place,

deposits the materials so dug away at other and lower levels, as

beds of sand and gravel. In the course of time, as the river

gradually lowers its channel, it will leave behind, at varying

heights along its banks, scattered patches of such beds. Wherever

we find them, no matter how far removed, or how high above the

present river, we are sure that at some time the river flowed at

that height; and standing there, we may try and imagine how

different the country must have looked before the present deep

valley was eroded.

In the case of the river Somme, we have a wide and deep valley, a

large part of which has been excavated in chalk rock, through

which the river now winds its way in a sinuous course to the

English Channel. Yet we feel sure that at some time in the past

it was a mighty stream, and that its waters surged along over a

bed at least two hundred feet higher than now. In proof of this

fact we still find, at different places along the chalky bluff,

stretches of old gravel banks, laid down there by the river,

“reaching sometimes as high as two hundred feet above the present

water level, although their usual elevation does not exceed forty

feet.”32

The history of the investigation of the ancient gravel beds of

the Somme is briefly this: More than one instance had been noted

of the finding of flint implements, apparently the work of men,

in association with bones of various animals, such as hyenas,

mammoths, musk-sheep, and others, which, as we have just seen,

lived in Europe during the Glacial Age. In a number of cases such

finds had been made in caves. But for a long time no one

attributed any especial value to these discoveries, and various

were the explanations given to account for such commingling. A

French geologist, by the name of Boucher DePerthes, had noted the

occurrence of similar flint implements, and bones of these

extinct animals, in a gravel pit on the banks of the Somme, near

Abbeville, France. He was convinced that they proved the

existence of man at the time these ancient animals lived in

Europe. But no one paid any attention to his opinions on this

subject, and a collection of these implements, which he took to

Paris in 1839, was scarcely noticed by the scientific world. They

were certainly very rude, and presented but indistinct traces of

chipping, and perhaps it is not strange that he failed to

convince any one of their importance. He therefore determined to

make a thorough and systematic exploration of these beds at

Abbeville. In 1847 he published his great work on this subject,

giving over sixteen hundred cuts of the various articles he had

found, claiming that they were proof positive of the presence of

man when the gravels were depositing.

Flint Implements, so-called.

Now there are several questions to be answered before the

conclusions of the French geologist can be accepted. In the first

place, are these so-called flint implements of human workmanship?

From our illustrations, we see that they are of an oval shape,

tending to a cutting edge all around, and generally more or less

pointed at one end. The testimony of all competent persons who

have examined them is, that however rude they may be, they were

undoubtedly fashioned by man. Dr. C. C. Abbott has made some

remarks on implements found in another locality, equally

applicable to the ones in question. He says: “We find, on

comparing a specimen of these chipped stones with an accidentally

fractured pebble, that the chipped surfaces of the former all

tend toward the production of a cutting edge, and there is no

portion of the stone detached which does not add to the

availability of the supposed implement as such; while in the case

of a pebble that has been accidentally broken, there is

necessarily all absence of design in the fracturing.”33

Like the watch found on the moor, they show such manifest

evidence of design, that we can not doubt that they were produced

by the hand of man. But it is not enough to know that they are

artificial, we must also know that they are of the same age as

the beds in which they are found.

Section of Gravel Pit.

This cut represents a section of a gravel pit at St. Acheul, on

the Somme. The implements are nearly always found in the lowest

strata, which is a bed of gravel from ten to fourteen feet thick.

Overlying this are beds of marl, loam, and surface soil,

comprising in all a depth of fourteen feet. It has been suggested

that the implements are comparatively recent, and have sunk down

from above by their own weight, or perhaps have been buried in

artificial excavations. The beds are however too compact to admit

of any supposition that they may have been sunk there; and if

buried in any excavation, evident traces of such excavation would

have remained. We can account for their presence there in no

other way than, that when the river rolled along at that high

elevation, and deposited great beds of sand, these implements

were someway lost in its waters, and became buried in the gravel

deposits.

Finally, we have to consider the age of the deposits. This is a

question that can be answered only by geologists, and we may be

sure that more than ordinary attention has been bestowed upon

them. The remains of many animals characteristic of the Glacial

Age were found in the beds at Abbeville. These include those of

the elephants, rhinoceros, hyenas, cave-bear, and cave-lion.34

In the formation of these gravel beds, ice has undoubtedly played

quite an important part. Bowlders that could have got there only

by the aid of ice, are found in several localities. Evidence

gathered from a great many different sources all establish the

fact that these gravels date as far back as the close of the

Glacial Age at least, and there are some reasons for supposing

them to be interglacial.

We can easily see that the melting away of the immense glaciers

that we have been describing would produce vast floods in the

rivers, and it is perhaps owing to the presence of such swollen

rivers that are due the great beds of surface soil, called loam

or loess, found in all the river valleys of France and Germany.35

These deposits frequently overlie the gravel beds. They are then

of a later date than the beds in which are found such convincing

proofs of the presence of man, and if they themselves date from

the close of the Glacial Age, it is no longer a question whether

the gravel beds themselves belong to that age. Thus we see that

we can no longer escape the conclusions of Boucher DePerthes. The

discovery of rudely worked flints in the drift of the Somme River

thus establishes the fact that some time during the Glacial Age,

man in a Paleolithic state lived in France.

Geological terms convey to us no definite ideas as to the lapse

of time, and we have an instinctive desire to substitute for them

some term of years. In most cases this is impossible, as we have

no means to measure the flight of past time, nor are we yet

prepared to discuss the question of time, since to do so we must

learn a great deal more about the cause of the Glacial Age. We

might, however, cite statements which can not fail to impress us

with the fact that a great extent of time has passed.

In the case of the river Somme we have a valley in some places a

mile or more in width, and about two hundred feet in depth. This

has mostly been excavated in chalk rock. Taking our present large

rivers as a basis, it would require from one to two hundred

thousand years for the Somme to perform this work.36 It will not

do, however, to take the present action of our rivers as a guide,

since we have every reason to suppose this work went forward much

more rapidly in past times. But we can not escape the conclusion

that it demands a very long time indeed to explain it. The valley

has remained in its present shape long enough to admit the

formation of great beds of peat in some portions. Peat is formed

by the decomposition of vegetable growth. Its growth is in all

cases slow, depending entirely upon local circumstances. European

scholars who have made peat formation a special study assure us

that to form such immense beds as occur near Abbeville, several

thousand years are required, even under the most favorable

conditions.

Yet we would be scarcely willing to rest such important

conclusions as the foregoing on the researches of one individual,

or in one locality. As already stated, DePerthes made his

discoveries public in 1847. Yet they were so opposed to all that

had been believed previously, that but few took the pains to

investigate for themselves. In 1853, Dr. Rigollot, of Amiens, who

had been skeptical as to DePerthes, commenced to look for himself

in the gravel beds at St. Acheul, about nine miles below

Abbeville. As might be expected, he was soon convinced.

Paleolithic Flint, England.

It may be said that the scientific world formally accepted the

new theory when such English scientists as Evans, Falconer,

Lyell, and Prestwich reported in its favor. Since that time, many

discoveries of ancient implements have been made at various

places in France and England under circumstances similar to those

in the valley of the Somme. In England they have been found along

almost all the rivers in the southern and south-eastern part. One

class of discoveries there gives us new ideas as to the extent of

time that has passed since they were deposited. That is where

they occur in gravel beds having no connection with the present

system of rivers. In one case the gravel forms a hill fifteen

feet high, situated in the midst of a swampy district, surrounded

on all sides by low, flat surfaces. Several such instances could

be given; but, in all such cases, we can not doubt that,

somewhere near, there once rolled the waters of an ancient river,

that man once hunted along its banks, and that, owing to some

natural cause, the waters forsook their ancient bed—and that

since then, in the slow course of ages, the action of running

water has removed so much of the surface of the land near there,

that we can not guess at its ancient configuration: we only know,

from scattered patches of gravel, that we are standing on the

banks of an ancient water-course.

One instance, illustrative of the great change that has come over

the surface features of the country, demanding for their

accomplishment a great lapse of time, is furnished by the Isle of

Wight. That island is now separated from the mainland by a narrow

channel, called the South Hampton Water, or the Solent Sea.

It is now known that this is nothing but an old river channel, in

which the sea has usurped the place of the river. The coast is a

river embankment, with the usual accompaniments of gravel beds,

flint implements, and fresh water shells. On the shores of the

island we find the opposite bank of the old river. A very great

change must have taken place in the surface features before the

sea could have rolled in and cut off the Isle of Wight from the

mainland.

In speaking of the length of time demanded for this change, Dr.

Evans says: “Who can fully understand how immeasurably remote was

the epoch when what is now that vast bay was high and dry land,

and a long range of chalk downs, six hundred feet above the sea,

bounded the horizon on the South? And yet that must have been the

sight that met the eye of primitive man who frequented the banks

of that ancient river, which buried their handiwork in gravels

that now cap the cliffs—and of the course of which so strange and

indubitable a memorial subsists in what has now become the Solent

Sea?”37

The illustrations scattered through this essay are

representations of the stone implements found in the drift of

European rivers. During all the long course of time supposed to

be covered by the Paleolithic Age, there are but very few

evidences of any improvement, as far as we can judge from the

implements themselves. This is in itself a melancholy proof of

the low condition of man. He had made so little advance in the

scale of wisdom, he possessed so little knowledge, he was so much

a creature of instinct, that, during the thousands of years

demanded for this age, he made no appreciable progress. The

advance of the last century was many times greater than that of

the entire Paleolithic Age. A blow struck on one end of a piece

of flint will, owing to the peculiar cleavage of flint, split off

pieces called flakes. This is the simplest form of implement used

by man. It is impossible to say with certainty how they were

used; but, from the evidence observed on them, they were probably

used as scrapers. The men of that day doubtless knew some simple

method of preparing clothing from the skins of the animals they

had killed, and probably many of these sharp-rimmed flakes were

used to assist in this primitive process of tanning.

Flint Flakes.

When the piece of flint itself was chipped into form, it was one

whose shape would indicate a spear-head or hatchet. We present

illustrations of each. Forms intermediate between these two are

found. Some have such a thick heavy base that it is believed they

were used in the hand, and had no handle or haft.

Others, with a cutting edge all round, may have been provided

with a handle. M. Mortillet, of France, who has had excellent

opportunities of studying this question very thoroughly, thinks

that the hatchet was the only type of implement they possessed,

and that it was used for every conceivable purpose—but that their

weapon was a club, all traces of which have, of course, long

since vanished away.38

Spear Head Type and Hatchet Type.

These few implements imply that their possessors were savages

like the native Australians. In this stage of culture, man lived

by hunting, and had not yet learned to till the ground, or to

seek the materials out of which his implements were made by

mining. Re merely fashioned the stones which happened to be

within reach in the shallows of rivers as they were wanted,

throwing them away after they had been used. In this manner the

large numbers which have been met with in certain spots may be

accounted for. Man at this time appears before us as a nomad

hunter, poorly equipped for the struggle of life, without

knowledge of metals, and ignorant of the art of grinding his

stone tools to a sharp edge.39 Of course we can not hope to learn

much of their social condition other than that just set forth.

DePerthes found some flints which show evidence of their human

origin, and yet it would be very difficult to say what was their

use. He thinks they may have a religious significance, and has

set forth a great variety of eloquent surmises respecting them.

It only need be said that such theorizing is worse than useless.

That while it is very probable these tribes had some system of

belief, yet there is no good reason for supposing these flints

had any connection with it. It has been supposed, from another

series of wrought flints, that the men of this epoch were

possessed of some sentiments of art, as pieces have been found

thought to represent the forms of animals, men’s faces, birds,

and fishes; but as very few have been able to detect such

resemblances, it is safe to say they do not exist.

As the love of adornment is almost as old as human nature itself,

we may not be surprised to find traces of its sway then. Dr.

Rigollot found little bunches of shells with holes through either

end. The supposition is that these were used as beads; which is

not at all strange, considering how instinctively savage men

delight in such ornaments. These ancient hunters made use of

beads partially prepared by nature.

Europe is not the only country where the remains of this savage

race are found. They are found in the countries bordering the

Mediterranean in Northern Africa, and in Egypt. In this latter

country they are doubtless largely buried under the immense

deposits of Nile mud; yet in 1878 Professor Haynes discovered in

Upper Egypt scrapers and hatchets, pronounced by archæologists to

be exactly similar to those of the river Somme. We are not

informed as to their geological age, but there can be no question

that they are much older than any monument of Egyptian

civilization hitherto known.40

Paleolithic implements have also been found in Palestine and in

India. In the latter country the beds are so situated that they

present the same _indicia,_ of age as do those of the Somme

Valley. A great portion of the formation has been removed, and

deep valleys cut in them by running water.41 They have also been

found in at least one locality in the United States; that is in

the glacial gravel of the valley of the Delaware at Trenton, New

Jersey. We must not confound these remains with those of the

Indian tribes found scattered over a large extent of surface.

Those at Trenton also are not only in all respects, except

materials, similar to those of the Somme, but are found imbedded

in a formation of gravel that was deposited at least as far back

as the close of the Glacial Age, thus requiring the passage of

the same long series of years since they were used, as do the

implements of European rivers.42 We must also bear in mind that

no country has been so carefully explored for these implements as

has Europe, and that the very country, Asia, where, for many

reasons, we might hope to find not only unequivocal proofs of

man’s presence but from our discoveries be able to clear up many

dark points, as to the race, origin, and fate of these primitive

tribes, is yet almost a sealed book.

But the scattered discoveries we have instanced show us that the

people whose implements have been described in this chapter were

very widely dispersed over the earth, and everything indicates

that they were far removed from us in time. The similarity in

type of implements shows that, wherever found, they were the same

people, in the same low savage state of culture—“Alike in the

somber forests of oak and pine in Great Britain, and when

surrounded by the luxuriant vegetation of the Indian jungle.”43

We have yet two important points to consider. The first is, what

race of men were these river tribes? and second, when did they

arrive in Europe? Did they precede the glacial cold? did they

make their appearance during a warm interglacial period? or was

it not until the final retreat of the glaciers that they first

wandered into Europe? These questions are far from settled; yet

they have been the object of a great amount of painstaking

research.

To determine the first point, it is necessary that anatomists

have skeletons of the men of this age, to make a careful study of

them. But for a great many reasons, portions of the human

skeleton are very rarely found in such circumstances that we are

sure they date back to the Paleolithic Age, and especially is

this true of the men of the River Drift. In a few instances

fragmentary portions have been found.

M. Quatrefages, of France, who is certainly a very high authority

on these points, thinks that the hunter tribes of the River Drift

belonged to the Canstadt race—“so named from the village of

Canstadt, in Germany, near which a fossil skull was discovered in

1700, and which appears to be closely allied to the Neanderthal

skull, discovered near Dusseldorf in 1857, and about which so

much has been written.”44 Quatrefages supposes that this type of

man is still to be found in certain Australian tribes. These are

not mere guesses, but are conclusions drawn from careful study by

eminent European scholars.45

It is well known that a competent naturalist needs but a single

fossil bone to describe the animal itself, and tell us its

habits. So also anthropologists need but fragments of the human

skeleton, especially of the skull, to describe characteristics of

the race to which the individual belonged.

Neanderthal Man.

This cut, though an ideal restoration, is a restoration made in

accordance with the results of careful study of fragmentary

skulls found in various localities in Europe. The head and the

face present a savage aspect; the body harmonized with the head;

the height was not more than five feet and a half; yet the bones

are very thick in proportion to their length, and were evidently

supplied with a powerful set of muscles, since the little

protuberances and depressions where the muscles are attached are

remarkably well developed.46 Huxley and Quatrefages have both

pointed out that representatives of this race are to be found

among some Australian tribes. Among the races of this great

island there is one, distributed particularly in the province of

Victoria, in the neighborhood of Port Western, which reproduces

in a remarkable manner, the characters of the Canstadt race.”47

Not the least interesting result of this discovery is the

similarity of weapons and implements. “With Mr. Lartet, we see in

the obsidian lances of New Caledonia the flint heads of the lower

alluvium of the Somme. The hatchet of certain Australians reminds

us, as it did Sir Charles Lyell, of the Abbeville hatchet.48

Yet some hesitate about accepting these interesting inferences,

thinking that the portions of the human skeleton thus far

recovered, which are beyond a doubt referable to this period, are

too fragmentary to base such important conclusions upon. This is

the view of Boyd Dawkins, who thinks “we can not refer them to

any branch of the human race now alive.”49 “We are without a

clew,” continues he, “to the ethnology of the River Drift man,

who most probably is as completely extinct as the woolly

rhinoceros or the cave bear.”50 Future discoveries will probably

settle this point.

It is yet a much disputed point to what particular portion of the

Glacial Age we can trace the appearance of man. We can profitably

note the tendency of scientific thought in this direction. But a

short time has elapsed since a few scholars here and there began

to urge an antiquity for man extending back beyond the commonly

accepted period of six thousand years. Though it is now well

known and admitted that there are no good grounds for this

estimate, yet such was its hold, such its sway over scientific as

well as popular thought, that an appeal to this chronology was

deemed sufficient answer to the discoveries of DePerthes,

Schmerling, and others. It was but yesterday that this popular

belief was overthrown and due weight given the discoveries of

careful explorers in many branches, and the antiquity of man

referred, on indisputable grounds, to a point of time at least as

far back as the close of the preceding geological age.51

It seems as if here a halt had been called, and all possible

objections are urged against a further extension of time. It is,

of course, well to be careful in this matter, and to accept only

such results as inevitably follow from well authenticated

discoveries. But it also seems to us there is no longer any doubt

that man dates back to the beginning of that long extended time

we have named the Glacial Age.52

In the first place, we must recall the animals that suddenly made

their appearance in Europe at the beginning of this age. Though

there were a number of species, since become extinct, the

majority of animal forms were those still living.53

These are the animals with which man has always been associated.

There is therefore no longer any reason to suppose the evolution

of animal life had not reached that stage where man was to

appear. We need only recall how strongly this point was urged in

reference to the preceding geological epoch, to see its important

bearings here. Mr. Boyd Dawkins has shown that the great majority

of animals which invaded Europe at the commencement of this age,

can be traced to Northern and Central Asia, whence, owing to

climatic changes, they migrated into Europe.54

Inasmuch as man seems to have been intimately associated with

these animals, it seems to us very likely that he came with them

from their home in Asia. We think the tendency of modern

discoveries is to establish the fact that man arrived in Europe

along with the great invasion of species now living.55

Turning now to the authorities, we find this to be the accepted

theory of many of those competent to form an opinion.

In England Mr. Geikie has strongly urged the theory that the

Glacial Age includes not only periods of great cold, but also

epochs of exceptional mildness; and he strongly argues that all

the evidence of the River Drift tribes can be referred to these

warm interglacial epochs; in other words, that they were living

in Europe during the Glacial Age.56

In answer to this it has been stated that the relics of River

Drift tribes in Southern England overlie bowlder clay, and must

therefore be later in origin than the Glacial Age.57

But, Mr. Geikie and others have shown that the ice of the last

great cold did not overflow Southern England,58 so that this

evidence, rightly read, was really an argument in favor of their

interglacial age.59 The committee appointed by the British

Association to explore the Victoria Cave, near Settle, urge this

point very strongly in their final report of 1878.60 To this

report Mr. Dawkins, a member of the committee, records his

dissent, but in his last great work he freely admits that man was

living in England during the Glacial Age, if he did not, in fact,

precede it.61

Mr. Skertchley, of the British coast survey, in 1879,62 announced

the discovery in East Anglia of Paleolithic, implements

underlying the bowlder clay of that section. Mr. Geikie justly

regards this as a most important discovery.63

Finally Mr. Dawkins, in his address as President of the

Anthropological section of the British Association, in 1882, goes

over the entire ground. After alluding to the discovery of

paleolithic implements in Egypt, India, and America, he

continues: “The identity of implements of the River Drift hunter

proves that he was in the same rude state of civilization, if it

can be called civilization, in the Old and the New World, when

the hand of the geological clock struck the same hour. It is not

a little strange that this mode of life should have been the same

in the forests of the North, and south of the Mediterranean, in

Palestine, in the tropical forests of India, and on the western

shores of the Atlantic.” This, however, is not taken as proving

the identity of race, but as proving that in this morning-time of

man’s existence he had nowhere advanced beyond a low state of

savagism. Mr. Dawkins then continues: “It must be inferred from

his wide-spread range that he must have inhabited the earth for a

long time, and that his dispersal took place before the Glacial

epoch in Europe and America. I therefore feel inclined to view

the River Drift hunter as having invaded Europe in preglacial

times, along with other living species which then appeared.” He

also points out that the evidence is that he lived in Europe

during all the changes of that prolonged period known as the

Glacial Age.64

Sir John Lubbock also records his assent to these views. He says

on this point: “It is, I think, more than probable that the

advent of the Glacial Period found man already in possession of

Europe.”65

In our own country Prof. Powell says: “It is now an established

fact that man was widely scattered over the earth at least as

early as the beginning of the Quaternary period, and perhaps in

Pliocene times.”66

This completes our investigation of the men of the River Drift.

We see how, by researches of careful scholars, our knowledge of

the past has been enlarged. Though there are many points which

are as yet hidden in darkness, we are enabled to form quite a

clear mental picture of this early race. Out of the darkness

which still enshrouds the continent of Asia we see these bands of

savages wandering forth; some to Europe, Africa, and the west;

others to America and the east.

This was at a time when slowly falling temperature but dimly

prophesied a reign of arctic cold, still far in the future. This

race does not seem to have had much capacity for advancement,

since ages came and went leaving him in the same low state.

During the climax of glacial cold he doubtless sought the

southern coasts of Europe along with the temperate species of

animals. But whenever the climatic conditions were such that

these animals could find subsistence as far north as England he

accompanied them there, and so his remains are found constantly

associated with theirs throughout Europe. Though doubtless very

low in the scale, and at the very foot of the ladder of human

progress, we are acquainted with no facts connecting them with

the higher orders of animals. If such exists, we must search for

them further back in geological time. The men of the River Drift

were distinctively human beings, and as such possessed those

qualities which, developing throughout the countless ages that

have elapsed, have advanced man to his present high position.

REFERENCES

This chapter was submitted to Prof. G. F. Wright, of Oberlin,

for criticism.

Lyell’s “Antiquity of Man;” Geikie’s “Prehistoric Europe,” p.

332.

It is, however, applicable to only a portion of the Quaternary,

or Post-tertiary period. (Wright.)

Chapter II.

Geikie’s “Prehistoric Europe,” p. 339.

Dawkins’s “Cave Hunting,” p. 365.

Dawkins’s “Early Man in Britain,” p. 112.

Geikie’s “Prehistoric Europe,” p. 337.

The majority of the Pliocene animals disappeared from Europe at

the close of the period in question. This includes such animals

as the mastodon, hipparion, and many kinds of deer (Geikie’s

“Prehistoric Europe,” p. 334). The following animals survived

into the Glacial Age, and some even into Inter-glacial periods:

African hippopotamus (still living), saber-toothed lion, bear

of Auvergne, big-nosed rhinoceros, Etruskan rhinoceros,

Sedgwick’s deer, deer of Polignac, Southern elephant.

(“Prehistoric Europe,” p. 95.)

The northern animals include the following: Alpine hare,

musk-sheep, glutton, reindeer, arctic fox, lemming, tailless

hare, marmot, spermophile, ibex, snowy vole, chamois. (Geikie’s

“Prehistoric Europe,” p. 32.)

Geikie’s “Prehistoric Europe,” p. 28.

The following animals are given as southern species:

Hippopotamus, African elephant, spotted hyena, striped hyena,

serval, caffer cat, lion, leopard. In addition to the above

there were also four or five species of elephants and three

species of rhinoceros, which have since become extinct.

(Geikie’s “Prehistoric Europe,” p. 32.)

It is scarcely necessary to give a list of these animals. Prof.

Dawkins enumerates thirty-three species. The following are some

of the most important: Urus, bison, horse, stag, roe, beaver,

rabbit, otter, weasel, martin, wildcat, fox, wolf, wild boar,

brown bear, grizzly bear. (Geikie’s “Prehistoric Europe,” p,

32.)

Dawkins’s “Early Man in Britain,” p. 191.

Lubbock’s “Prehistoric Times,” p. 316.

Geikie’s “Prehistoric Europe,” p. 87.

Geikie’s “Prehistoric Europe,” p. 50.

Geikie’s “Prehistoric Europe,” p. 54.

Ibid., p. 55.

Kane’s “Arctic Exploration,” Vol. I, p. 225.

Geikie’s “Prehistoric Europe,” p. 180.

Wallace’s “Island Life,” p. 104.

Geikie’s “Prehistoric Europe,” p. 189.

Ibid., p. 192, _et seq._

Dawkins’s “Early Man in Britain.”

For fuller information on this topic see James Geikie’s “The

Great Ice Age;” also, by the same author, “Prehistoric Europe.”

In Appendix “B” of this latter work the author gives a map of

Europe at the climax of the Glacial Age, showing the great

extension of the glaciers. This map embodies the results of the

labors of a great many eminent scholars. See also Croll’s

“Climate and Time;” also Wallace’s “Island Life,” pp. 102-202.

We are not aware that the statements as set forth above are

seriously questioned by any geologist of note. Some consider it

quite possible that the bowlder clays of Southern England and

Central Germany were deposited during a period of submergence

from melting icebergs. (Dawkins’s “Early Man in Britain,” p.

116.) But even this demands vast glaciers to the north of this

supposed submergence to produce the icebergs. The weight of

authority, however, is in favor of the glaciers. (Geikie’s

“Prehistoric Europe,” p. 175.)

Haywood’s Heer’s “Primeval World of Switzerland,” p. 200.

“Prehistoric Europe,” p. 261. It is no longer a question that

there was at least one mild period separating two periods of

cold in Europe. See Lubbock’s “Prehistoric Times,” p. 316;

Dawkins’s “Early Man in Britain,” pp. 115-120; Lyell’s

“Antiquity of Man,” pp. 282-285., Dana’s “Manual of Geology,”

first edition, p. 561; Haywood’s Heer’s “Primeval World of

Switzerland,” Vol. II, p. 203; Wallace’s “Island Life,” p. 114;

Croll’s “Climate and Time.” Mr. Geikie, in his works, “The

Great Ice Age” and “Prehistoric Europe,” maintains there were

several warm interglacial epochs.

Wright.

Morgan’s “Ancient Society,” p. 29.

Geikie’s “Prehistoric Europe,” p. 365. Morgan’s “Ancient

Society,” p. 39.

Rau’s “Early Man in Europe,” p. 14.

“Primitive Industry,” p. 485.

Lubbock’s “Prehistoric Times,” 384.

Geikie’s “Prehistoric Europe,” chap. ix. Most geologists

suppose there was a general depression of the region below the

sea level, or so as to form inland lakes, and that the loess

was thus deposited, as perhaps it is depositing at the present

time in the lakes of Switzerland. (Wright.)

Lubbock’s “Prehistoric Times,” p. 423.

Evans’s “Ancient Stone Implements,” p. 621.

_Pop. Science Monthly,_ Oct., 1883.

Dawkins’s “Ear. Man in Brit.,” p. 163.

Wright’s “Studies in Science and Religion,” p. 278. See also

British Association Report, 1882, p. 602.

Lubbock’s “Prehistoric Times,” p. 356.

Abbott’s “Primitive Industry.”

Dawkins’s “Early Man in Britain,” p. 172.

Wright.

Quatrefages’s “Human Species,” p. 307.

“Human Species,” p. 305.

Ibid., p. 307.

Quatrefage’s “Human Species,” p. 306.

“Early Man in Britain,” p. 173.

Ibid., p. 233.

We do not give any estimate in years as to this antiquity in

this chapter.

We must remember that this age is also variously called the

Quaternary, Pleistocene, and Post Tertiary. We do not now refer

to the evidence of man’s existence in the Miocene and Pliocene,

treated of in the preceding chapter.

Mr. Dawkins finds that fifty-five out of seventy-seven species

are yet living. “Early Man in Britain,” p, 109.

“Early Man in Britain,” p. 110.

Those who reject the proofs of the existence of man in Pliocene

times because the evolution of life had not then reached a

stage where we could hope to find man, are here confronted with

a difficulty. If Mr. Dawkins be right (as stated above) then

the various animals in question must have been living in Asia

during the preceding Pliocene Age. There is no reason to

suppose man was not associated with them, since he belongs to

the same stage of evolution (Le Conte’s “Elements of Geology,”

p. 568), and though, owing to climatic and geographical causes,

the animals themselves might have been confined to Asia, there

is surely no good reason why man may not, in small bands, and

at various times, have wandered into Europe.

“Prehistoric Europe,” “The Great Ice Age.”

Dawkins’s “Early Man in Britain,” p. 170.

“Prehistoric Europe,” p. 268.

Ibid., 360.

British Assoc. Rep., 1878.

“Early Man in Britain,” pp. 137, 141, and 169, with note.

British Assoc. Rep., 1879.

Prehistoric Europe, p. 263.

British Assoc. Rep., 1882.

Preface to Kains-Jackson’s “Our Ancient Monuments.”

“First Annual Report, Bureau of Ethnology,” p. 73.

Chapter IV

CAVE-MEN.1

Other sources of Information—History of Cave Exploration—The

formation of Caves—Exploration in Kent’s Cavern—Evidence of two

different races—The higher culture of the later race—Evidence of

prolonged time—Exploration of Robin Hood Cave—Explorations in

Valley of the River Meuse—M. Dupont’s conclusions—Explorations in

the Valley of the Dordogne—The Station at Schussenreid—Cavemen

not found south of the Alps— Habitations of the Cave-men—Cave-men

were Hunters—Methods of Cooking—Destitute of the Potter’s

art—Their Weapons—Clothing—Their skill in Drawing—Evidence of a

Government—Of Religious belief—Race of the Cave-men—Distinct from

the men of the Drift—Probable Connection with the Eskimos.

We have been delving, among the sands of ancient river bottoms

for a proof of man’s existence in far remote times. Slight and

unsatisfactory as they may be to some, they are the materials

with which we reconstruct a wondrous story of life and times

removed from us by many a cycle of years.

Men have frequently resorted to the caverns of the earth for

protection. In places we find caves that served this purpose

during the Paleolithic Age. The men of the Drift, however, do not

appear to have used them, save as temporary places of refuge,

perhaps as a protection from bands of savage enemies, or from

unusually inclement weather. But yet most surprising results have

attended the exploration of caves in England, France, and

Belgium. We find in those gloomy places that the men of the Drift

were not the only tribes of men inhabiting Europe during the

Glacial Age. In fact, living at later date than the Drift tribes,

but still belonging to the Paleolithic Age, were tribes of people

who appear to have utilized caverns and grottoes as places of

permanent resort, and, judging from their remains, they had made

considerable advance in the arts of living as compared with the

tribes of the Drift.

But before pointing out the grounds upon which these conclusions

rest, it may be well to give a slight review of the history of

cave research. The dread and awe which kept people away from

caves during the Middle Ages preserved their contents for later

discoverers. In the seventeenth century, some adventurous spirits

began to search in them for what they called Unicorn horns, which

were deemed a most efficacious remedy for various diseases. This

search served the good purpose of bringing to light various

fossil bones of animals, and calling the attention of scientific

men to the same.

The cave of Gailenreuth, in Bavaria, was explored by Dr. Goldfuss

in 1810. He came to the conclusion that the bones of bears and

other extinct animals were proofs of the former presence of the

animals themselves. Dr. Buckland, a celebrated English writer,

visited the cave in 1816, and became much interested in the work;

so much so that when Kirkdale Cavern, in England, was discovered

in 1821, he at once repaired to the spot and made a careful

exploration. The results satisfied him that hyenas and other

extinct animals had once lived in England. He followed up his

explorations in a number of cases, and published a work on this

subject in 1822, which marks the commencement of a new era in

cave research.

In 1825 Kent’s Cavern, near Torquay, was discovered, and Rev. J.

McEnry made partial explorations in it. He discovered flint

implements and perceived they might be a proof of the presence of

man with these extinct animals. Dr. Buckland had not found these

relics, or else had passed them by as of no importance, for he

refused to entertain the theory that man and the extinct animals

had been contemporaneous. Explorations made in France in 1827-8

had furnished such strong evidence on this point that it was

deemed established by some scholars, but being opposed to the

prevailing belief, nothing came of it.

Gailenreuth.

In 1829 Schmerling commenced his investigations in the caves of

the valley of the Meuse. For years he continued his work under

many difficulties. Sir Charles Lyell tells us he was let down day

after day to the opening of the Engis Cave by a rope tied to a

tree. Arriving there he crawled on all fours through a narrow

passage way to the enlarged chamber, where, standing in mud and

water, he superintended the investigations. He examined over

forty of those caves, and published his results in 1833. He

clearly showed that man must have been living along with various

animals now extinct in Belgium. But, as before remarked, it was

deemed sufficient answer to this careful explorer to point out

that his results were opposed to the accepted chronology, and so

they were passed by. When the time at last came, and their true

worth was recognized, Schmerling himself had passed away.

We have already seen what great results followed the exploration

of DePerthes in the river gravels. When it had been clearly

established that man and extinct animals hid coexisted in Europe,

the results of cave explorations were eagerly recalled, and

governments vied with royal societies and private individuals in

continuing the researches. The results are that a rich store of

facts has been gathered from those gloomy resorts, illustrative

of the later stages of Paleolithic art.

A word as to the formation of caves, grottoes, caverns, and rock

shelters. These vary greatly in size, some being so small as to

furnish protection to but few individuals; others, especially

caves, so large that whole tribes might have found a place of

resort within their chambers. They are found in all limestone

countries. The formation of caves is now recognized as due to

natural causes acting slowly through many years. Limestone rock

is very hard and durable, but chemistry teaches us that water

charged with carbonic acid gas will readily dissolve it.

Rain-water falling from the clouds is sure to come in contact

with masses of decaying vegetable matter, which we know is

constantly giving off quantities of this gas. Laden with this the

water sinks into the ground, and, if it comes in contact with

limestone, readily washes some of it away in solution. But beds

of limestone rock are noted for containing great fissures through

which subterranean waters penetrate far into the ground. We can

readily see how this percolating water would dissolve and wear

away the surface of the rocks along such a fissure, and in

process of time we would have the phenomenon of a stream of water

flowing under ground.

Owing to a great many causes—such, for instance, as the meeting

of another fissure—we would expect that portions of this

underground way would become enlarged to spacious halls. In some

such a way as this it is now understood that all caves have

originated.

Owing to many natural causes the river may, after a while, cease

to flow, leaving enlarged portions of its channel behind as a

succession of chambers in a cave. But water would still come

trickling in from the tops and sides, and be continuously

dripping to the floor, where it speedily evaporates. When such is

the case it leaves behind it the limestone it held in solution.

So, in process of time, if the deposition is undisturbed, there

will be formed over the floor of the cave a more or less

continuous layer of limestone matter known as stalagmite. The

same formations on the top and sides of the cave are called

stalactites. In places where the drip is continuous the

stalactite gradually assumes the shape of an immense icicle;

while the stalagmite on the floor of the cave, underneath the

drip, rises in a columnar mass to meet the descending stalactite.

A union of these is not uncommon, and, we have pillars and

columns presenting the strange, fantastic appearance on which

tourists delight to dwell in their notes of travel.

While these accumulations are in all cases very slow, still we

can not measure the time since it commenced by the rate of

present growth, because this rate varies greatly at different

times and places even in the same cave. And we must also remark

that this complete series of changes only occur in a few

localities, the majority of caves being insignificant in size.2

From what has been said as to the formation of caves, we would

expect them to occur in river valleys, and this is the case,

though in some instances there have been such immense changes in

the surface level of the country that we can now find no trace of

rivers near them. This is exactly similar to some gravel

deposits, which, as we have seen, are occasionally found where is

now no running water. The most noted caverns, however, are found

high up on the banks of existing rivers. We can not doubt that

the rivers were the cause of the caves. But having excavated

their beds below the level of the then existing caves, they

ceased to flow in them, and left them to be occupied by savage

animals and the scarcely less savage men. But at times, swollen

by floods, the river would again assert its supremacy and roll

its waters through its old channels.

These floods would not only tear up and rearrange whatever

_débris_ had already accumulated, but would introduce quantities

of sediment and animal remains. In some such a manner as is here

pointed out (though exactly how geologists are not agreed) caves

were invaded, after being long occupied by men or animals, by

floods of water. In many cases the evidence would seem to

indicate that after such a visitation by water the cave and its

water-rolled and water-arranged contents were left to silence,

visited by neither man nor beast. In such instances stalagmitic

coverings would gradually form over the confused _débris,_ and in

some places acquire a thickness of several feet. In some

instances several such floors are found one above the other,

pointing to a prolonged period of usage, and then a quiet stage,

in which the drip of falling water alone broke the silence, and

nature sealed up another chapter of cave biography beneath the

layer of stalagmite.

One of the most important caves of England is Kent’s Cavern,

before mentioned. This cave was carefully explored under the

direction of a committee appointed by the British Association,

and to show the care and thoroughness of the work we need only

state that this work occupied the greater portion of sixteen

years, and hence the results obtained may be regarded as, in a

general way, illustrative of the life of the cave dwellers. “This

cave is about a mile east of Torquay harbor, and is of a sinuous

character, running deeply into a hill of Devonian limestone,

about half a mile distant from the sea. In places it expands into

large chambers, to which various distinctive names have been

given.”3

Let us see what general results have been reached by this

committee. The investigation disclosed several different beds of

stalagmite, cave earth, and breccia. The lowest layer is a

breccia.4 The matrix is sand of a reddish color, containing many

pieces of rock known as red-grit and some pieces of quartz. This

implies the presence of running water, which at times washed in

pieces of red-grit. The surface features must have been quite

different from the present, since now this rock does not form any

part of the hill into which this cave opens.5And this change in

drainage took place before this lowest layer was completed, since

not only bears, but men, commenced to visit the cave. The

presence of bears is shown by numerous bones, and that of man by

his implements.

Spear-head—Lower Breccia, Kent’s Cavern.

We must notice that all the implements found in the breccia are

similar to those of the Drift, being rudely formed and massive.

No doubt these are the remains of Drift men, who, for some cause

or other, temporarily visited the cave, perhaps contending with

the cave bear for its possession. But a time at length arrived

when for some reason neither animals nor man visited the cave.

The slow accumulation of stalagmite went forward until in some

places it had obtained a thickness of twelve feet. Freely

admitting that we can not determine the length of time demanded

for this deposition, yet none can doubt that it requires a very

long time indeed. Says Mr. Geikie: “How many centuries rolled

past while that old pavement was slowly accreting, no one can

say; but that it represents a lapse of ages compared to which the

time embraced by all tradition and written history is but as a

few months, who that is competent to form an opinion can doubt?”

But after this long period of quiet, from some source great

torrents of water came rolling through the cave. We know this to

be so, because in places it broke up this layer of stalagmite and

washed it away, as well as large portions of the breccia below,

and after the floods had ceased, occasionally inundations still

threw down layers of mud and silt. This accumulation is known as

cave earth, and is the layer containing the numerous remains of

the Cave-men. Here the explorers were not only struck with the

large number of implements, but at once noticed that they were of

a higher form and better made. Instead of the rude and massive

implements of the Drift tribes, we have more delicate forms

chipped all around. And we also meet with those that from their

form may have been used as the heads of spears or arrows. Flakes

were also utilized for various purposes. We also find implements,

weapons, and ornaments of bone—a step in advance of Drift

culture. They had “harpoons for spearing fish, eyed needles or

bodkins for stitching skins together, awls perhaps to facilitate

the passage of the slender needle through the tough, thick hides;

pins for fastening the skins they wore, and perforated badgers’

teeth for necklaces or bracelets.”6 Nothing of this kind has yet

been shown as belonging to the men of the Drift.

Flake—Cave-earth,<BR>Kent’s Cavern and Spear-head—, Kent’s

Cavern.

The bones of a large number of animals are also found in the cave

earth. The most abundant is the hyena, and no doubt they dragged

in a great many others; but the agency of man is equally

apparent, as the bones have often been split for the extraction

of marrow. Besides bones of the hyena, we have also those of the

lion, tiger, bear, and reindeer.7

Harpoons, Pin, Awl, and Needle—Kent’s Cavern.

With these animals man, from time to time, disputed possession of

the cave. At one place on the surface of the cave earth is found

what is known as the “black band.” This is nothing more or less

than the fire-place of these old tribes. Here we find fragments

of partially consumed wood, bones showing the action of fire—in

short, every thing indicating a prolonged occupancy by man.

No one can doubt but that this deposit of cave earth itself

requires a prolonged time for its accumulation.8 But this period,

however prolonged, at length comes to an end. From some cause,

both animals and man again abandoned the cave. Another vast cycle

of years rolls away—a time expressed in thousands of years—during

which nature again spread over the entombed remains a layer of

stalagmite, in some places equal in thickness to the first

formation. Above this layer we come to a bed of mold containing

remains of the later Stone Age, of the Bronze, and even of the

Iron Age. Below the first layer of stalagmite—the completed

biography of Paleolithic times; above, the unfinished book of the

present. Such are the eloquent results obtained by the thorough

exploration of one cave. The results of all the other

explorations, in a general way, confirm these. Mr. Dawkins

explored a group of caverns in Derbyshire, England. These caverns

and fissures are situated in what is known as Cresswell Crags,

the precipitous sides of a ravine through which flows a stream of

water dividing the counties of Derby and Nottingham.

This cut represents the different strata in Robin Hood cave. It

will be seen that, at one place, the stalactite has united with

the stalagmite below. It is not necessary to go into the details

of this exploration. All the relics of man found in _d, c,_ and

the lower portions of _b,_ are the rude and massive forms

peculiar to the River Drift tribes. But the relics found in the

breccia _a,_ and the upper portion of the cave earth _b,_ denote

a sudden advance in culture. The rude tools of the lower strata

are replaced by more highly finished ones of flint.

Robin Hood Cave.

The most important discovery was that of a small fragment of rib,

with its polished surface ornamented with the incised figure of a

horse. The peculiar value of this discovery is, that it serves to

connect the Cave-men of England with those of the continent who,

as we shall afterward see, excelled in artistic work of this

kind.

In another cave of this series, in association with similar

flints, were found the following bone implements. We can only

conjecture the use of the notched bone. The pieces of reindeer

horn, terminating in a scoop, may have served as a spoon to

extract marrow.

Horse Incised on Piece of Rib.

We must not fail to notice that the more highly finished relics

of the Cave-men are found in strata overlying those of the River

Drift; and, in the case of Kent’s Cavern, these two sets of

implements are separated by a layer of stalagmite requiring a

very prolonged time for its formation. This would imply that the

Cave-men came into England long after the tribes of the River

Drift; and, judging from the relics themselves, they must have

been a distinct people. We must recall how completely the climate

and animals in England varied during the Glacial Age. We have

also seen how closely connected the River Drift tribes were with

the animals of the warm temperate regions. Coming at a later

date, totally distinct from them in culture are those

Cave-men—perhaps they may prove to be associated with the Arctic

animals. But, before speculating on this point, we must learn the

results attending the exploration of the caves of Belgium,

France, and other countries on the continent of Europe.

Bone Implements—Cresswell Crags.

In the valley of the river Meuse (Belgium), and its tributaries,

have been found a number of caves and rock-shelters. It was in

the caves of the Meuse that Schmerling made his explorations.

When the real value of his work was recognized, the Belgian

government had a thorough exploration made by M. Dupont, director

of the Royal Museum in Brussels. This gentleman scientifically

examined forty-three of these resorts. His opinions, therefore,

are deserving of great weight; but, unfortunately, they are not

accepted by all. These caves vary greatly in size—many being mere

rock-shelters. From their position, we are at once struck with

the prolonged period of time necessary to explain their

formation. They are found at very different heights along the

river’s bank. In one case two caves are so situated that the

river must have sunk its bed nearly two hundred feet between the

time of their formation.9

M. Dupont thinks the evidence very clearly points to the presence

of two distinct stages in cave life—one of which he calls the

Mammoth period, and the other, which is more recent, the

Reindeer. It is, however, known that the mammoth lived all

through the Reindeer epoch, if not to later times; so the names

bestowed on these periods do not seem very appropriate. We can

readily see, however, that, while the names might be wrong, the

two periods might be reality. In many cases, the same cave

contained remains of both stages, separated by layers of cave

earth, and it is noticed that, in such cases, those of the

Reindeer stage are invariably of a later date. In general terms,

M. Dupont finds that the implements of the Mammoth period are of

a rude make, consisting of a poor kind of flint, and poorly

finished. But, in beds of the Reindeer epoch, the flint

implements consist, principally, of well-shaped blades and

flakes—with numerous bodkins, or awls—javelins, or arrow-heads

—besides articles of bone and horn such as harpoons, and teeth of

various animals drilled as if suspended for ornaments. Their

workmanship indicates decidedly more skill than that of the

implements obtained from the lower levels. But the most

remarkable finds of the Reindeer epoch consist of portions of

reindeer horn, showing etchings or engravings which have been

traced by some sharp point, no doubt by a flint implement. One

small bit of horn has been cut or scraped so as to present the

rude outline of a human figure.

So far the evidence seems to bear out the same conclusions as do

those of the British caves, though it also shows that the men of

the Drift inhabited caves quite extensively. We must remember,

however, that the greatest wealth of cave relics belongs to the

so-called Cave-men, but that savage tribes have always resorted

to caves as a place for occasional habitation.10

It is in France that we find the greatest wealth of relics of

Cave-men. Sir John Lubbock has left us a description of the

valley of the Vezère, where these caverns occur. The Vezère is a

small tributary of the Dordogne. “The rivers of the Dordogne run

in deep valleys cut through calcareous strata: and while the

sides of the valley in chalk districts are generally sloping, in

this case, owing probably to the hardness of the rock, they are

frequently vertical. Small caves and grottoes frequently occur:

besides which, as the different strata possess unequal power of

resistance against atmospheric influence, the face of the rock

is, as it were, scooped out in many places, and thus

‘rock-shelters’ are produced. In very ancient times these caves

and rock-shelters were inhabited by men, who have left behind

them abundant evidence of their presence.

“But as civilization advanced, man, no longer content with the

natural but inconvenient abode thus offered to him, excavated

chambers for himself, and in places the whole face of the rock is

honey-combed with doors and windows, leading into suits of rooms,

often in tiers one over the other, so as to suggest the idea of a

French Petra. Down to a comparatively recent period, as, for

instance, in the troublous times of the Middle Ages, many of

these, no doubt, served as very efficient fortifications, and

even now some of them are in use as store-houses, and for other

purposes, as, for instance, at Brantome, where there is an old

chapel cut in solid rock.

“Apart from the scientific interest, it was impossible not to

enjoy the beauty of the scene which passed before our eyes, as we

dropped down the Vezère. As the river visited sometimes one side

of the valley, sometimes the other, so we had at one moment rich

meadow lands on each side, or found ourselves close to the

perpendicular and almost overhanging cliff. Here and there we

came upon some picturesque old castle, and though the trees were

not in full leaf, the rocks were, in many places, green with box

and ivy and evergreen oak, which harmonized well with the rich

yellow brown of the stone itself.”11

Thus it will be seen this valley has been a favorite resort for

people at widely different times, and amongst others, the cave

dwellers of the Paleolithic Age. As in the caves of Belgium, some

of them are at a considerable height above the stream, while

others are but little above the present flood line. Mr. Dawkins

refers us to the results of the exploration of a French scientist

in one of the grottoes of this section, which seem to be exactly

similar to the results obtained from the caves of Cresswell Crags

and Kent’s Cavern. The implements obtained from the two lower

strata are rough choppers and rude flakes of jasper and other

simple forms. Above these beds was a stratum of black earth,

underneath a sheet of stalagmite. Here were found implements of a

far higher type: those of flints, consisting of flakes, saws, and

scrapers, with finely chipped heads and arrow-heads, and awls and

arrow-heads of bone and antler.12 Now these results can only be

interpreted as were those in the English caverns. The lower and

ruder implements belong to the men of the Drift; the later and

more polished ones to the Cave-men.

Bone Implements, Dordogne Caves.

Most of the relics obtained from these caverns belong to the

Cave-men proper. However, the implements from one of them, known

as Le Moustier, are of a rude type, and may belong to those of

the Drift. But most of them are of superior make and finish.

These specimens are all from caves in this vicinity.13

We have seen that the men of the Drift were very widely scattered

over the earth. We find, however, that the Cave-men had a much

more limited range. Dr. Fraas has shown their presence in

Germany. At Schussenreid, in Bavaria, was found an open air

station of these people. It was evidently a camping-ground, one

of the few places where proofs of their presence have been

discovered outside of caves. Here we found the usual _débris,_

consisting of broken bones, charcoal, blackened hearth-stone, and

implements of flint and horn. We must stop a minute to notice a

bit of unexpected proof as to the severity of climate then

prevailing in Europe. This deposit was covered up with sand, and

on this sand were the remains of moss, sufficiently perfect to

determine the kind. We are assured that it is composed of species

now found only in Alpine regions, near or above the snow-line,

and in such northern countries as Greenland and Spitzbergen.14

Dr. Fraas also proved their presence in several caves in Suabia.

One known as the Hohlefels Cave was very rich in these relics.

They have been found in Switzerland, as at Thayengen; but are not

found south of the Alps or the Pyrenees. Men, indeed, inhabited

caves in Italy, but they did not use the implements

characteristic of the Cave-men.15 Mr. Dawkins points out that

this range corresponds very nearly to that of the northern group

of animals, thus differing widely from the men of the River

Drift. In this connection we must notice that the reindeer is the

animal whose remains are most commonly met with in the _débris_

they have left in the caves. This animal surely testifies to a

cold climate. We are thus justified in concluding that the

Cave-men are associated with the Arctic group of animals.16

We must now turn our attention to the culture of the Cave-men. We

must reflect that long ages, with great changes of climate and

life, both animal and vegetable, have rolled away since the

remains of these early races were sealed by the stalagmite

formation in caves. The relics at their best are but scanty

memorials of a people long since passed, and we can not expect,

can not hope, to recover more than a general outline. But this

will be found full of interest, for it is a picture of

Paleolithic life and times existing in Europe long ages before

the pyramids of Egypt were uplifted.

With respect to habitations, we have already seen that he took up

his abode in caves, at least where they were suitable. According

to their depth and the light penetrating them, he either occupied

the whole extent of them, or established himself in the outlet

only. About the center of the cave some slabs of stone, selected

from the hardest rock such as sandstone or slate, were bedded

down in the ground, and formed the hearth for cooking his food.

But in no country are such resorts sufficiently numerous to

shelter a large population; besides, they, are generally at some

distance from the fertile plains, where game would be most

abundant. In such cases they doubtless constructed rude huts of

boughs, skins, or other materials. Such an out-door settlement

was the station at Solutré, France, where has been found an

immense number of bones of horses, reindeers, also, though in

less abundance, those of elephants, aurochs, and great lions.17

Rock Shelter at Bruniquel.

Where no cave presented itself, these people made for themselves

convenient sheltering places under the cover of some great

overhanging rock. In various places in France such resorts have

been discovered. The name of “rock shelters” has been given to

such resorts. In such places, where we may suppose they built

rude huts, are found rich deposits of the bones of mammals,

birds, and fishes, as well implements of bone and horn.

We have frequently referred to the presence of hearths, showing

that they used fire. Like other rude races, it is probable that

they obtained fire by the friction of one piece of wood upon

another. M. Dupont found in one of the Belgium caves a piece of

iron pyrites, from which, with a flint, sparks could be struck.

Speculations have been indulged as to the probable condition of

man before he obtained a knowledge of fire. If the acquisition of

fire be regarded as one of the results of human endeavor, it must

surely be classed as one of the most valuable discoveries which

mankind has made. We do not believe, however, that we shall ever

discover relics of races or tribes of men so low in the scale as

to be ignorant of the use of fire. Even some of the flints which

M. Bourgeois would refer to the Miocene Age show evidence of its

action.18

The men of the Caves supported life by hunting. But a very small

part of their food supplies could have been drawn from the

vegetable kingdom. When the climate was so severe that Alpine

mosses grew at Schussenreid, acorns and like nuts would be about

all they could procure from that source. The animals hunted by

the Cave-men were principally reindeer, horses, bisons, and,

occasionally mammoths and woolly rhinoceros. But they were not

very choice in this matter, as they readily accepted as food any

animal they could obtain by force or cunning. Wolves and foxes

were not rejected, and in one cave large numbers of the bones of

the common water rat were obtained. We know what animals were

used as food, because we find their bones split for the purpose

of procuring the marrow they contained. This was evidently to

them a nutritious article of diet, since they were careful to

open all the bones containing it, and bones so split are

frequently the only means of detecting the former presence of man

in some bone caves.

We must not forget that at that time the shore of the Atlantic

Ocean, during a large part of the Paleolithic Age, was situated

much farther west than it is now, and so in all probability many

refuse heaps are now underneath the waves. From certain drawings

that are found in some French caves, we know they were used for

hunting both seals and whales.

We can not doubt that the capture of a whale afforded as much

enjoyment to them as it does to a tribe of Eskimos now. Bones of

birds and fishes are found in many instances. The salmon appears

to have been a favorite among fishes. Among the birds are found

some species now only living in cold countries, such as the snowy

owl, willow grouse, and flamingo. This is but another proof that

the climate of Europe was then very cold.

Whale and Seal, Incised on Bone.

The Cave-men were not afraid to attack animals greatly superior

to them in strength. In the Hohlefels Cave in Germany were found

great quantities of the broken and split bones of cave bears, an

animal very similar to the grizzly, and probably its equal in

strength. The reindeer was the main reliance of these tribes. Its

bones are found in great abundance, and it doubtless was to them

all it is to the Lapps of Europe to-day, except, of course, that

it was not domesticated.

Though fire would naturally suggest some rude method of cooking,

we can scarcely find a trace of such operations, and it has been

a matter of conjecture how they proceeded. Sir John Lubbock

thinks they boiled their food, and in the absence of pottery used

wooden or skin vessels, bringing the water to a boiling point by

means of stones heated red hot and thrown into the water. He

points out the presence of peculiarly shaped stones found in some

caves, which he thinks were used for this purpose.19 It is not

supposed they had any articles of pottery during this epoch. This

is quite an important point, because a knowledge of pottery marks

an important epoch in the culture of a people.

Cave Bear, Incised on Slate.

A people possessed of this knowledge have passed from Savagism

into the lower status of Barbarism.20 A piece of pottery is as

little liable to destruction as a piece of bone, and so, had

those people possessed pottery, there is no reason why pieces of

it should not be found in every refuse heap, and amongst the

_débris_ of all caves. But such is not the case; no fragments of

pottery have yet been found which can be referred with confidence

to the epoch of the Cave-men.21

Some speculations have been indulged in as to whether the men of

this age were cannibals or not. It need occasion no surprise if

they were, since ancient writers assert that even during

historical times this practice prevailed in Europe.22 Though not

definitely proven there are many facts difficult of explanation,

except on this supposition. However, it may well be that this,

after all, only amounted to the custom of eating parts of an

enemy killed in battle, as certain modern savages do that we

would not call cannibals.23

It is not necessary to speak at much length of the methods of

hunting. They had bows and arrows, daggers of reindeer horn,

spears tipped with flint or bone, and harpoons. Besides, they

made a formidable club of the lower jaw-bone of the cave-bear

with its canine tooth still left in its place. Fishing with nets

is not supposed to have been known, Harpooning was probably their

favorite way. M. G. DeMortillet thinks they fished as follows:

They fastened a cord to the middle of a small splinter of bone.

This was then baited, and when swallowed by the fish, was very

certain to get caught in the body.24

We know that rude tribes of to-day have many means of snaring

animals. Doubtless similar scenes were enacted on their primeval

hunting-grounds. French books contain illustrations of the men of

this period driving game over precipitous sides. They had no dogs

to assist them in the hunt, and though reindeer were around them

in great abundance, it is not supposed that they thought of

domesticating them.

Man is the only animal which seeks to protect his body from the

Summer’s heat or the cold of Winter by the use of clothing. We

are, unfortunately, not able to present many details of the dress

of man during the early Stone Age. We are, however, quite certain

that when the climate was severe enough to permit such animals as

the musk-sheep and the reindeer to inhabit South-western Europe,

man must have been provided with an abundance of warm clothing,

though doubtless rudely made and fashioned. Many reindeer horns

found in France are cut and hacked at the base in such a way as

to indicate that it was done when removing the skins. We also

know that the rudest of savage tribes are never at a loss for

some process of tanning hides and rendering them fit for use.

From the immense number and variety of scrapers found among the

cave _débris._ we are sure the preparation of clothing occupied

no inconsiderable portion of their time. We also find numerous

awls and splinters of flint and bone, which they doubtless used

in exactly the same manner as similar tools are used by the Lapps

to-day in Europe, that is, to pierce holes in the hides, through

which to pass their rude needle and thread. The needles are made

of reindeer horn, and they were not only smoothly polished, but

the eyes are of such a minute size, and withal so regularly made,

that many at first could not believe they were drilled by the use

of flint alone. This, however, has been shown to be the case by

actual experiments. The thread employed was reindeer tendons, for

bones of these animals are found cut just where they would he cut

in removing these tendons. This cut shows that they protected

their hands by means of long gloves of three or four fingers.25

Glove, Incised on Bear’s Tooth.

We have thus far been considering those arts which pertain more

directly to living. We have presented some sketches found

engraved on pieces of bone. We first noticed this among the

relics found in one of the Creswell caves in England. It was also

noticed in Belgium. It was among the Cave-men of Southern France

that this artistic trait became highly developed. Among the

reindeer hunters of the Dordogne were artists of no mean ability.

We must pause a minute and mark the bearing of this taste for

art. We have seen many reasons for supposing the men of the caves

much farther advanced in the scale of culture than those of the

Drift, but we have also seen that we can not rank them higher

than the highest grade of savages.

Sir John Lubbock thus speaks of them: “In considering the

probable condition of these ancient Cave-men, we must give them

full credit for their love of art, such as it was; while, on the

other hand, the want of metal, of polished flint implements, and

even of pottery, the ignorance of agriculture, and the apparent

absence of all domestic animals, including even the dog,

certainly imply a very low state of civilization.”26

They were certainly not as far advanced in civilization as the

next race we will describe, yet the Neolithic people had no such

skill as was possessed by the cave-men. This need not surprise

us, because “an artistic feeling is not always the offspring of

civilization, it is rather a gift of nature. It may manifest its

existence in the most barbarous ages, and may make its influence

more deeply felt in nations which are behind in respect to

general progress than in others which are more deeply advanced in

civilization.”27

Reindeer Grazing.

In regard to the objects themselves, a glance at the

illustrations show us that they are quite faithful sketches of

the animals at that time common. As might be expected, sketches

of the reindeer are numerous. This cut is regarded as the highest

example of Paleolithic art, sketched on a piece of horn and found

in Switzerland. The animal is grazing, and the grass on which it

feeds is seen below. We have on a piece of slate the outlines of

a group of reindeer, generally considered as representing a

fight, though it may mean a hunt, and that the hunter has

succeeded in killing a portion of the herd. Some, as we see, are

on the ground.

Group of Reindeers.

Man and Other Animals.

It would be exceedingly interesting could we but find well

executed sketches of the men of this period, but, unfortunately,

with one or two exceptions, no representations, however rude,

have yet been discovered of the human form. Perhaps an

explanation of this fact may be found in the well-known

reluctance of savage tribes to have any engravings taken of

themselves, and we can well imagine that if any one was known to

make drawings of human beings he would be regarded with

suspicious distrust, and it would hardly be a safe accomplishment

to possess. One very curious group represents a man, long and

lean, standing between two horses’ heads, and by the side of a

long serpent or fish, having the appearance of an eel. On the

reverse side of this piece of horn were represented the heads of

two aurochs or bisons. Mr. Dawkins thinks this also represents a

hunting sketch, and that the man is in the act of striking one of

the horses with a spear.

Fish, Incised on Bear’s Tooth and Ibex.

On, a fragment of spear-head found in France several human hands

were engraved, but having only four fingers each. On this point

Mr. Lartet assures us that some savage tribes still depict the

hand without the thumb.28 Representations of birds and reptiles

are very rare; fishes are more common. On a piece of reindeer’s

horn was found this representation of the head and chest of an

ibex. Of special interest to us is a representation of a mammoth

found engraved on a piece of mammoth tusk in one of the Dordogne

caves. We have no doubt that the artist who engraved it was

perfectly familiar with the animal itself.

Mammoth—La Madeline Cave, France.

Their artistic skill was not confined to the execution of

drawings. They frequently carved pieces of reindeer horn into

various animal forms. Our next cut shows us a dagger, the handle

of which is carved to imitate a reindeer. It will be seen how the

artist has adapted the position of the animal to the necessities

of the case. Flowers are very seldom represented; but one

implement from France has a very nice representation of some

flowering plant engraved on it.

Take it all in all, the possession of this artistic instinct is

certainly remarkable—the more so when we remember the rudeness of

his surroundings, and the few and simple means at his command for

work. “A splinter of flint was his sole graving tool; a piece of

reindeer horn, or a flake of slate or ivory, was the only plate

on which primitive man could stamp his reproduction of animated

nature.”29

Reindeer Carved on Dagger Handle.

Some speculations have been indulged in as to whether we have any

traces of a government amongst the Paleolithic people. That they

had some chief or leader is more than probable. In the caves of

France we find a number of fragments of reindeer horn. Generally

speaking, they show evidence of a good deal of care in making

them. They are carved and ornamented with sketches of various

animals, and invariably have one or more holes bored in the base.

The idea has been quite freely advanced, that these are emblems

of authority.30 And some have pointed out, that, though they are

too light for use as weapons, yet, their “frequent occurrence,

and uniformity of type, show that they possess a conventional

significance.”31 Mr. Geikie says that these conjectures “are mere

guess-work.”32 And Mr. Dawkins points out that they are very

similar in design and ornament with an implement of the Eskimos

known as an “arrow-straightener.”33

Whatever may be our conclusions in regard to these ornamented

pieces of reindeer horn, we can not doubt but that their social

instincts found expression in some sort of alliance for the

common good. This is shown by several facts: such, for instance,

as the evidence of trade or barter between localities

considerable distances apart. The inhabitants of Belgium must

have gone to what is now Southern France to procure the flint

they used. They also procured, from the same source, fossil

sea-shells, which they valued highly.34 We also notice the fact,

that certain localities appear to have been used as the place of

manufacture for certain articles, to the exclusion of others. In

other words, the primitive people appear to have learned the

great utility of a division of labor. One of the caves in Belgium

appears to have been used as a place to make flint implements.

Over twenty thousand articles of flint were found in this cave.35

In France, while in one cave the implements were all of the

spear-head type, in a neighboring cave horn was almost the only

article used in the manufacture of implements. We must not,

however, form an exalted idea of their trade—it was simply barter

in a rude state of society.36

Flowers on Reindeer’s Horn.

Ornamented Reindeer Horn—Use Unknown.

Various opinions have been held as to whether we have any trace

of a religious belief. Theoretically speaking, they had some sort

of a religion, though doubtless very vague and indistinct; for we

know of no nation as far advanced as they were destitute of it.37

It has been pointed out, that the bones of some animals, as the

horse, were very rare, and their absence explained as the result

of superstitious reasons. It has also been conjectured that some

of the perforated bones and teeth of animals found in various

deposits were amulets worn for religious purposes; and some have

gone so far as to infer, that the ornamentations on some of these

so-called amulets represent the sun, and that, consequently,

sun-worship prevailed among the Cave-men. While these various

conjectures are, of course, possible, it is equally certain they

are all “mere guess-work.”

Early explorers describe with considerable degree of confidence

the manner of burial among the Cave-men, and inferred from the

remains found buried with the bodies that they had some notion of

a life beyond the grave—and, accordingly, placed near the body

food and drink to support him on his journey, weapons wherewith

to defend himself, and his favorite implements, so that, arrived

at the land of spirits, he would be well provided for. These

result are not borne out by later investigations. The instance

mentioned most prominently, that of the burial cave at Aurignac,

France, has been shown to have no bearing on the question, as

every thing indicates that the burials were of a much later date.

We have yet a most important question before us—one that is still

engaging the attention of scientific men in Europe. That is the

question of race. Who were these early tribes? Are they in any

way connected with the men of the Drift? Have we any

representations of them now living upon the earth? On these

questions there is quite a diversity of opinion. In various caves

in France and Belgium, skulls and other bones of the human

skeleton have been found. These have been studied with care by

the best scholars in Europe; and B. Carfares has set forth the

results in his various works, in which he connects them, not only

with the men of the River Drift, but with the race of men that

inhabited Europe during the succeeding Neolithic Age, and,

indeed, with men now living in France and Belgium.

There is no question as to the correctness of these inferences

—the only one is, whether the skulls and fragmentary skeletons

are really remains of the Cave-men. This must be made perfectly

clear and unquestioned before we are to accept them. Mr. Darkens

reviews the various cases where skeletons have been found in

caves.38 He points out that, in every instance, very serious

doubts can be raised as to whether they are really remains of the

Cave-men or not.

Until these objections are met, we do not see how the opinion of

B. Carfares (above) can be accepted. But if these instances are

not accepted, then, in all other instances where there is no

doubt, the remains are in such a fragmentary condition that no

conclusion can be made from them. So as far as remains of the

human skeleton are concerned, we can form no conclusions as to

the race to which the Cave-men belonged.

We have already noted, that the Cave-men came into Europe much

later than the men of the Drift, and that their range was very

limited, corresponding, in fact, with that of the northern group

of animals. When the cold of the Glacial Age passed away, the

musk-sheep, reindeer, and other animals, were driven out of

Europe. They are found now only in high northern latitudes, such

as Greenland. Mr. Darkens thinks that there, also, are to be

found the Cave-men of the Paleolithic Age, now known as the

Eskimos. Though not accepted by all authorities, yet some of our

best scholars find much to commend in this theory.

We have undoubted proofs that, in America, the Eskimos formerly

lived much farther south.39 And Dr. Abbot thinks the Paleolithic

implements discovered in New Jersey, bearing such striking

resemblance to those of Europe, are undoubtedly their work.40

Therefore, there is no absurdity in asserting that they once

lived in Western Europe; the more so, when we reflect that the

climate, the animals—in fact, all their surroundings— must have

been similar to those of their present habitats.

When we come to examine the customs and habits of these Eskimos,

we are at once struck with their resemblance to what we have seen

was the probable state of life among the Cave-men. At Solute, for

instance, we have vast refuse heaps of bones of animals. We find

similar heaps around the rude huts of the Eskimos to-day. Captain

Parry describes one as follows: “In every direction round the

huts were lying innumerable bones of walruses and seals, together

with skulls of dogs, bears, and foxes.”41

Other points of comparison strike us when reading Sir John

Lubbock’s account of their habits and customs. For instance:

“Their food, if cooked at all, is broiled or boiled; their

vessels, being of stone or wood, can not, indeed, be put on the

fires, but heated stones are thrown in until the water becomes

hot enough and the food is cooked.” “Their food consists

principally of reindeer, musk-ox, walrus, seals, birds, and

salmon. They will, however, eat any kind of animal food. They are

very fond of fat and marrow, to get at which they pound the bones

with a stone.” “The clothes of the Eskimos are made from the

skins of the reindeer, seals, and birds, sewn together with

sinews. For needles they use the bones of either birds or

fishes.” “The Eskimos have also a great natural ability for

drawing. In many cases they have made rude maps for our officers,

which have turned out to be substantially correct. Many of their

bone implements are covered with sketches.”

Eskimo Art.

In this cut we have a bone drill on which are sketched reindeer,

geese, a braider or flat-bottomed boat, a tent around which

various articles of clothing are hung up to dry, a woman

apparently engaged in the preparation of food, and a hunting

scene.

Now, we know that savage tribes, widely separated by time and

space, will, after all, under the pressure of common necessities,

invent much the same implements and live much the same life. But

still, where every thing seems to coincide, the climate, the

animals, the mode of life proved the same, and especially when

both are seen possessed of a common artistic skill, together with

the known fact that in the Western Continent the Eskimos did

formerly live much farther south; there is surely a strong case

made out, and therefore the probabilities are that the Eskimos

are the representatives of the Cave-men of Europe.42 And yet we

must be cautious on this point; or rather we remember that the

phrase, “predecessors of the Eskimos,” does not imply that they

were in all respects like them. An examination of the rude

sketches of the Cave-men left by themselves seems to indicate

that the whole body was covered with hair. “The hunter in the

Antler from Duluth Cave has a long, pointed beard, and a high

crest of hair on the poll utterly unlike the Eskimo type. The

figures are also those of a slim and long-jointed man.”43

This completes our review of the Paleolithic people, and it only

remains to present some general conclusions. The Glacial or

Pleistocene Age is seen to have been of immense duration, and

characterized by great changes in climate. We have found that two

races of men occupied Europe during this time. The men of the

River Drift are the most ancient.

We have seen that they can be traced over wide-extended areas.

They seem to have invaded Europe, along with the great invasion

of animals from Asia, constituting the temperate group of

animals; and with those animals they probably shifted back and

forth, as the cold of the Glacial Age increased or waned. These

people seem to have completely vanished. At a later date, when

the cold of the Glacial Age was once more severe, associated with

animals now living only in high northern latitudes, came the

Cave-men, whose discussion has formed the subject of this

chapter.

It will be seen how much we owe to patient investigators. The

results are, indeed, bewildering. They make us acquainted with a

people the very existence of whom was not known a few years back.

Though the whole life of those ancient races seemed hopelessly

lost in the night of time, the gloom is irradiated by the light

of modern science, which lays before our astonished vision the

remains of arts and industries of the primitive tribes that

occupied Europe during the morning-time of human life.

The Mammoth. REFERENCES

The manuscript of this chapter was submitted to Prof. B. B.

Wright, of Overlain, for criticism.

On the formation of caves consult Geikie’s “Prehistoric

Europe,” p. 71; also Evans’s “Ancient Stone Implements,” p.

429.

Evans’s “Ancient Stone Implements,” p. 445.

Pronounced Bret’-chá, a rock composed of fragments of older

rock, united by a cement.

Geikie’s “Prehistoric Europe,” p. 92.

Pengelly, quoted by Geikie, “Prehistoric Europe,” p. 93.

Evans’s “Ancient Stone Implements,” p. 462.

Evans’s “Ancient Stone Implement,” p. 463.

Geikie’s “Prehistoric Europe,” p. 102.

Mr. Dawkins (“Early Man in Britain,” p. 203) does not consider

M. Dupont justified in dividing the remains found in the

caverns of Belgium into two epochs. He considers them to be the

remains of the same people, some tribes being, perhaps, farther

advanced than others. Mr. Dawkins is, of course, high

authority, but we think his argument could also be applied to

prove there was no real difference between the men of the River

Drift and the so-called Cave-men. This, in fact, is the opinion

of many, including Mr. Evans, who is exceptionally well

qualified to judge of these remains. We think, however, in view

of the evidence adduced by Mr. Pengelly, Mr. Geikie, Mr.

Dawkins, and others, few will venture to doubt that there is a

wide difference between the men of the River Drift and those of

the Caves.

“Prehistoric Times,” p. 330.

“Early Man in Britain,” p. 198.

French writers make four divisions of these caves, according to

the degree of finish, which the specimens show. Mr. Dawkins

does not think the difference in the implements sufficient to

justify this view. With the possible exception of Le Moustier,

as stated above, we think his view correct, which is also the

opinion of Mr. Evans. (“Ancient Stone Implements,” p. 439.)

Rau’s “Early Man in Europe,” p. 88.

Dawkins’s “Early Man in Britain,” p. 205.

Ibid., p.

It is, however, thought that the station was used as a

camping-ground by very different people, at widely different

times.

Lubbock’s “Prehistoric Times,” p. 434.

“Prehistoric Times,” p. 335.

Morgan’s “Ancient Society,” p. 12.

Lubbock’s “Prehistoric Times,” p. 338. J. C. Southall, in his

valuable work, “Recent Origin of Man,” p. 195, _et seq.,_

argues that pottery was known at this time, and cites instances

where it is stated to have been found. This is the opinion of

Figuier also. (“Primitive Man,” p. 54.) But Mr. Dawkins points

out that these pieces of pottery are clearly of a Neolithic

style, and does not think it proven that they are of

Paleolithic age. Mr. Geikie also denies that there is any proof

that they were acquainted with the potter’s art. (“Prehistoric

Europe,” p. 18.) So the highest place in the scale of

civilization we can assign these people to is that of Upper

Savageism.

Rau’s “Early Man in Europe,” p. 79;

Geikie’s “Prehistoric Europe,” p. 22.

Figuier’s “Primitive Man,” p. 90.

Dawkins’s “Early Man in Britain,” p. 210.

“Prehistoric Times,” p. 341.

Figuier’s “Primitive Man,” p. 105.

Figuier’s “Primitive Man,” p. 111.

Figuier’s “Primitive Man,” p. 105.

Figuier’s “Primitive Man,” p. 102.

Rau’s “Early Man in Europe,” p. 73.

“Prehistoric Europe,” p. 18.

Dawkins’s “Early Man in Britain,” p. 237.

Figuier’s “Primitive Man,” p. 117.

Ibid., p. 118.

Ibid., pp. 94 and 95.

This, as Sir John Lubbock points out, depends on our meaning of

the word “religion.” (“Prehistoric Times,” p. 589.)

“The principal instance are Cro-Magnon, Frontal, and Furforz,

in Belgium; Aurignac, Bruniquel, and Mentone, in France.”

“Cave-Hunting,” chap. vii.

“Contributions to N. A. Ethnology,” vol. i, p. 102; “U.S.

Geographical Survey West of the 100th Meridian,” vol. vii, p.

12; Abbott’s “Primitive Industry,” p. 517.

“Primitive Industry,” 518.

Quoted by Lubbock,”Prehistoric Times,” p. 507.

Dawkins’s “Early Man in Britain,” p. 242.

Prof. Grant Allen, _Popular Science Monthly,_ November, 1882,

p. 99.

Chapter V

ANTIQUITY OF THE PALEOLITHIC AGE.1

Interest in the Antiquity of man—Connected with the Glacial

Age—The Subject Difficult—Proofs of a Glacial Age—State of

Greenland to-day—The Terminal Moraine—Appearance of the North

Atlantic—Interglacial Age—Causes of the Glacial Age—Croll’s

Theory—Geographical causes—The two theories not Antagonistic—The

date of the Glacial Age—Probable length of the Paleolithic

Age—Time since the close of the Glacial Age—Summary of results.

As we have already remarked, geological periods give us no

insight as to the actual passage of years. To say that man lived

in the Glacial Age, and that we have some faint traces of his

presence in still earlier periods, after all conveys to our minds

only vague ideas of a far-away time. The more a geologist studies

the structure of the earth, the more impressed is he with the

magnitude of the time that must have passed since “The

Beginning.” At present, however, there are no means known of

accurately measuring the time that has passed. It is just as well

that it is so, since, were it known, the human mind would be

utterly incapable of comprehending it. But as to the antiquity of

man, it is but natural that we should seek more particularly to

solve the problem and express our answer in some term of years.

Now, we have seen that the question of the antiquity of man is

intimately connected with that of the Glacial Age. That is to

say, the relics of man as far as we know them in Europe, are

found under such circumstances that we feel confident they are

not far removed from the period of cold. For it will be found

that those conservative scholars who do not think that man

preceded the Glacial Age, or inhabited Europe during the long

course of years included in that period, do think he came into

Europe as soon as it passed away. So, in any case, if we can

determine the date of the Glacial Age, we shall have made a most

important step in advance in solving the problem of the antiquity

of man himself. So it seems to us best to go over the subject of

the Glacial Age again, and see what conclusions some of our best

thinkers have come to as to its cause, when it occurred, and

other matters in relation to it.

It is best to state frankly at the outset that this topic is one

of the great battle-grounds of science to-day, and that there are

as yet but few points well settled in regard to it. One needs but

attempt to read the literature on this subject to become quickly

impressed with the necessity of making haste slowly in forming

any conclusions. He must invoke the aid of the astronomer,

geologist, physical-geographer, and physicist. Yet we must not

suppose that questions relating to the Glacial Age are so

abstruse that they are of interest only to the scholar. On the

contrary, all ought to be interested in them. They open up one of

the most wonderful chapters in the history of the world. They

recall from the past a picture of ice-bound coasts and countries

groaning under icy loads, where now are harbors enlivened by the

commerce of the world, or ripening fields attesting the vivifying

influence of a genial sun. Let us, therefore, follow after the

leaders in thought. When we come to where they can not agree we

can at least see what both sides have to say.

Somewhat at the risk of repetition, we will try and impress on

our readers a sense of the reality and severity of the Glacial

Age. There is danger in regarding this as simply a convenient

theory that geologists have originated to explain some puzzling

facts, that it is not very well founded, and is liable to give

way any day to some more ingenious explanation. On the contrary,

this whole matter has been worked out by very careful scholars.

“There is, perhaps, no great conclusion in any science which

rests upon a surer foundation than this, and if we are to be

guided by our reason at all in deducting the unknown from the

known, the past from the present, we can not refuse our assent to

the reality of the Glacial Age of the Northern Hemisphere in all

its more important features.2 At the present day glaciers do

exist in several places on the earth. They are found in the Alps

and the mountains of Norway, and the Caucasus, in Europe. The

Himalaya mountains support immense glaciers in Asia; and in

America a few still linger in the more inaccessible heights of

the Sierra Nevada. It is from a study of these glaciers, mainly

however, those of the Alps, that geologists have been enabled to

explain the true meaning of certain formations they find in both

Europe and America, that go by the name of drift.

When in an Alpine valley we come upon a glacier, filling it from

side to side, there will be noticed upon both sides a long train

of rock, drift, and other _débris_ that have fallen down upon its

surface from the mountain sides. If two of these ice-rivers unite

to form one glacier, two of these trains will then be borne along

in the middle of the resulting glacier. As this glacier continues

down the valley, it at length reaches a point where a further

advance is rendered impossible by the increased temperature

melting the ice as fast as it advances. At this point the train

of rocks and dirt are dumped, and of course form great mounds,

called moraines. The glacier at times shrinks back on its rocky

bed and allows explorers to examine it.

In such cases they find the rocks smoothed and polished, but here

and there marked with long grooves and striæ. These points are

learned from an examination of existing glaciers. Further down

the valley, where now the glaciers never extend, are seen very

distinctly the same signs. There are the same moraines, striated

rocks, and bowlders that have evidently traveled from their home

up the valley. The only explanation possible in this case is that

once the glaciers extended to that point in the valley.

It required a person who was perfectly familiar with the behavior

of Alpine glaciers, and knew exactly what marks they left behind

in their passage, to point out the proofs of their former

presence in Northern Europe and America, where it seems almost

impossible to believe they existed. Such a man was Louis Agassiz,

the eminent naturalist. Born and educated in Switzerland, he

spent nine years in researches among the glaciers of the

mountains of his native country. He proved the former wide

extension of the glaciers of Switzerland. With these results

before them, geologists were not long in showing that there had

once been glacial ice over a large part of Europe and North

America.

The proofs in this case are almost exactly the same as those used

to show that the ancient glaciers of Switzerland were once larger

than now. But as the great glaciers of the glacial age were many

times larger than any thing we know of at the present day, there

were of course different results produced.

For instance, the water circulating under Alpine glaciers is

enabled to wash out and carry away the mass of pulverized rock

and dirt ground along underneath the ice. But when the glaciers

covered such an enormous extent of country as they did in the

Glacial Age, the water could not sweep away this detritus, and so

great beds of gravel, sand, and clay would be formed over a large

extent of country. But to go over the entire ground would require

volumes; it is sufficient to give the results.

The interior of Greenland to-day is covered by one vast sea of

ice. Explorers have traversed its surface for many miles; not a

plant, or stone, or patch of earth is to be seen. In the Winter

it is a snow-swept waste. In the Summer streams of ice-cold water

flow over its surface, penetrating here and there by crevasses to

unknown depths. This great glacier is some twelve hundred miles

long, by four hundred in width.3 Vast as it is, it is utterly

insignificant as compared with the great continental glacier that

geologists assure us once held in its grasp the larger portion of

North America.

The conclusions of some of our best scholars on this subject are

so opposed to all that we would think possible, according to the

present climate and surroundings, that they seem at first

incredible, and yet they have been worked out with such care that

there is no doubt of the substantial truth of the results.

The terminal moraine of the great glacier has been carefully

traced through several States. We now know that one vast sea of

ice covered the eastern part of North America, down to about the

thirty-ninth parallel of latitude. We have every reason to think

that the great glacier, extending many miles out in the Atlantic,

terminated in a great sea of ice, rising several hundred feet

perpendicularly above the surface of the water. Long Island marks

the southern extension of this glacier. From there its temporal

moraine has been traced west, across New Jersey and Pennsylvania,

diagonally across Ohio, crossing the river near Cincinnati, and

thence west across Indiana and Illinois. West of the Mississippi

it bears off to the north-west, and finally passes into British

America.4

All of North America, to the north and northeast of this line,

must have been covered by one vast sea of ice.5 Doubtless, as in

Greenland to-day, there was no hill or patch of earth to be seen,

simply one great field of ice. The ice was thick enough to cover

from sight Mt. Washington, in New Hampshire, and must have been

at least a mile thick over a large portion of this area,6 and

even at its southern border it must in places have been from two

hundred to two thousand feet thick.7 This, as we have seen, is a

picture very similar to what must have been presented by Europe

at this time.8

Antarctic Ice Sheet.

The Northern Atlantic Ocean must have presented a dreary aspect.

Its shores were walls of ice, from which ever and anon great

masses sailed away as icebergs. These are startling conclusions.

Yet, in the Southern Hemisphere to-day is to be seen nearly the

same state of things. It is well-known that all the lands around

the South Pole are covered by a layer of ice of enormous

thickness. Sir J. A. Ross, in attempting to reach high southern

latitudes, while yet one thousand four hundred miles from the

pole, found his further progress impeded by a perpendicular wall

of ice one hundred and eighty feet thick. He sailed along that

barrier four hundred and fifty miles, and then gave up the

attempt. Only at one point in all that distance did the ice wall

sink low enough to allow of its upper surface being seen from the

mast-head. He describes the upper surface as an immense plain

shining like frosted silver, and stretching away as far as eye

could reach into the illimitable distance.9

The foregoing makes plain to us one phase of the Glacial Age.

Though it may not be quite clear what this has to do with the

antiquity of man, yet we will see, in the sequel, that it has

considerable. As to the periods of mild climate that are thought

by some to have broken up the reign of cold, we do not feel that

we can say any thing in addition to what has been said in a

former chapter.10

We might, however, say, that the sequences of mild and cold

climate are not as well made out in America as they seem to be in

Europe; or at least our geologists are more cautious as to

accepting the evidence as sufficient. And yet such evidences are

not wanting: as in Europe, at various places, are found layers of

land surfaces with remains of animals and plants, but both above

and below such surface soil are found beds of bowlder clay. These

offer undeniable evidence that animals and plants occupied the

land during temperate inter-glacial epochs, preceded and followed

by an Arctic climate, and ice-sheets like those now covering the

interior of Greenland, and the Antarctic Continent.11

We have thus, though somewhat at length, gone over the evidence

as to the reality and severity of the Glacial Age. It was during

the continuance of such climate that Paleolithic man arrived in

Europe, though it was not perhaps until its close. We must not

lose sight of the fact that our principal object at present is to

determine, if we can, a date for either the beginning or ending

of this extraordinary season of cold, and thereby achieve an

important step in determining the antiquity of man.

A moment’s consideration will show us that a period of cold

sufficient to produce over a large portion of the Northern

Hemisphere the results we have just set forth must have a cause

that is strange and far-reaching. It can not be some local cause,

affecting but one continent, since the effect produced is

observed as well in Europe as in America.

Every year we pass through considerable changes in climate. The

four seasons of the year seem to be but an annual repetition, on

a very small scale of course, of the great changes in the climate

of the earth that culminated in the Glacial Age; though we do not

mean to say, that periods of glacial cold come and go with the

regularity of our Winter. The changes in the seasons of the year

are caused by the earth’s position in its orbit, and its annual

revolution around the sun. It may be that the cause of the

Glacial Age itself is of a similar nature; in which case it is an

astronomical problem, and we ought, by calculation, to determine,

with considerable accuracy, dates for the beginning and ending of

this epoch.

Nothing is clearer than that great fluctuations of climate have

occurred in the past. Many theories have been put forth in

explanation. It has been suggested that it was caused by loss of

heat from the earth itself. That the earth was once a ball of

incandescent matter, like the sun, and has since cooled down, is

of course admitted. More than that, this process still continues;

and the time must come when the earth, having yielded up its

internal heat, will cease to be an inhabitable globe. But the

climate of the surface of the earth is not dependent upon the

heat of the interior. This now depends “according to the

proportion of heat received either directly or indirectly from

the sun; and so it must have been during all the ages of which

any records have come down to us.”12 Some have supposed that the

sun, traveling as it does through space, carrying the earth and

the other planets with him, might, in the course of ages, pass

through portions of space either warmer or colder than that in

which it now moves. When we come to a warm region of space, a

genial climate would prevail over the earth; but, when we struck

a cold belt, eternal Winter would mantle a large part of the

globe with snow and ice. This, of course, is simply guess-work.

No less than seven distinct causes have been urged; most of them

either purely conjectural, like the last, or manifestly

incompetent to produce the great results which we have seen must

be accounted for. But, amongst these, two causes have been

advanced—the one astronomical, the other geographical; and, to

the one or the other, the majority of scholars have given their

consent.

It will be no harm to see what can be said in favor of both

theories. So, we will ask the reader’s attention, as it is our

earnest desire to make as plain as possible a question that has

so much to do with our present inquiry. In the course of our

investigations, we can not fail to catch glimpses of wonderful

changes in far away times; and can not help seeing what labor is

involved in the solution of all questions relating to the same.13

Earth’s Orbit.

The earth revolves around the sun in an orbit called an ellipse.

This is not a fixed form, but slowly varies from year to year. It

is now gradually becoming circular. It will, however, not become

an exact circle. Astronomers assure us that, after a long lapse

of time, it will commence to elongate as an ellipse again. Thus,

it will continually change from an ellipse to an approximate

circle, and back again. In scientific language, the eccentricity

of, the earth’s orbit is said to increase and decrease.

In common language we would state that the shape of the path of

the earth around the sun was sometimes much more elongated and

elliptical than at others. The line drawn through the longest

part of an ellipse is called the major axis. Now the sun does not

occupy the center of this line, but is placed to one side of it;

or, in other words, occupies one focus of the ellipse. It will

thus be seen that the earth, at one time during its yearly

journey, is considerably nearer to the sun than at others. The

point where it approaches nearest the sun is called _Perihelion,_

and the point where it reaches the greatest distance from the sun

is called its _Aphelion._ It will be readily seen that the more

elliptical its orbit becomes the greater will be the difference

between the perihelion and aphelion distance of the sun. At

present the earth is about three millions of miles nearer the sun

in perihelion than in aphelion. But we must remember the orbit of

the earth is now nearly circular. There have been times in the

past when the difference was about thirteen millions of miles. We

must not forget to add, that the change in the shape of the

earth’s orbit is not a regular increase and decrease between

well-known extremes. It is caused by the attraction of the other

planets. It has been calculated at intervals of ten thousand

years for the last million years. In this way it has been found

that “the intervals between connective turning points are very

unequal in length, and the actual maximum and minimum values of

the eccentricity are themselves variable. In this way it comes

about that some periods of high eccentricity have lasted much

longer than others, and that the orbit has been more elliptical

at some epochs of high eccentricity than at others.”14 We have

just seen that the earth is nearer the sun at one time of the

year than at another. At present the earth passes its perihelion

point in the Winter of the Northern Hemisphere, and its aphelion

point in the Summer. We will for the present suppose that it

always reaches the points at the same season of the year. Let us

see if the diminished distance from the sun in Winter has any

thing to do with the climate.

If so, this effect will be greatly magnified during a period of

high eccentricity, such as the earth has certainly passed through

in the past. We will state first, that the more elliptical the

orbit becomes, the longer Summer we have, and the shorter Winter.

Astronomically, Spring begins the 20th of March, and Fall the 22d

of September. By counting the days between the epochs it will be

found that the Spring and Summer part of the year is seven days

longer than the Fall and Winter part. But if the earth’s orbit

becomes as highly eccentrical as in the past, this difference

would be thirty-six days.15

This would give us a long Spring and Summer, but a short Fall and

Winter. This in itself would make a great difference. We must

beer in mind, however, that at such a time as we are here

considering, the earth would be ten millions of miles nearer the

sun in Winter than at present. It would certainly then receive

more heat in a given time during Winter than at present.16 Mr.

Croll estimates that whereas the difference in heat received

during a given time is now one-fifteenth,17 at the time we are

considering it would be one-fifth. Hence we see that at such a

time the Winter would not only be much shorter than now, but at

the same time would be much milder.

These are not all the results that would follow an increase of

eccentricity. The climate of Europe and North America is largely

modified by those great ocean currents—the Gulf Stream and the

Japan current. Owing to causes we will not here consider, these

currents would be greatly increased at such a time. As a result

of these combined causes, Mr. Croll estimates that during a

period of high eccentricity the difference between Winter and

Summer in the Northern Hemisphere would be practically

obliterate. The Winter would not only be short, but very mild,

and but little snow would form, while the sun of the long

Summers, though not shining as intense as at present, would not

have to melt off a great layer of snow and ice, but the ground

became quickly heated, and so warmed the air. Hence, if Mr. Croll

be correct, a period of high eccentricity would certainly produce

a climate in the Northern Hemisphere such as characterized many

of the mild interglacial epochs as long as the earth passed its

perihelion point in Winter.

We have so far only considered the Northern Hemisphere. As every

one knows, while we have Winter, the Southern Hemisphere has

Summer. So at the very time we would enjoy the mild short

Winters, the Southern Hemisphere would be doomed to experience

Winters of greatly increased length and severity. As a

consequence, immense fields of snow would be formed, which, by

pressure, would be changed to ice, and creep away as a desolating

glacier. It is quite true that the short Summer sun would shine

with increased warmth, but owing to many causes it would not

avail to free the land from snow and ice.

As Mr. Geikie points out, “An increased amount of evaporation

would certainly take place, but the moisture-laden air would be

chilled by coming into contact with the vast sheets of snow, and

hence the vapor would condense into thick fogs and cloud the sky.

In this way the sun’s rays would be, to a large extent, cut off,

and unable to reach the earth, and consequently the Winter’s snow

would not be all melted away.” Hence it follows that at the very

time the Northern Hemisphere would enjoy a mild interglacial

climate, universal Spring, so to speak, the Southern Hemisphere

would be encased in the ice and snow of an eternal Winter.

But the earth has not always reached its perihelion point during

the Winter season of the Northern Hemisphere. Owing to causes

that we need not here consider, the earth reaches its perihelion

point about twenty minutes earlier each year, so if it now passes

its perihelion in Winter of the Northern Hemisphere, in about ten

thousand years from now it will reach it in Summer, and in

twenty-one thousand, years it will again be at perihelion in

Winter. But see what important consequences follow from this. If

during a period of high eccentricity we are in the enjoyment of

short mild Winters and long pleasant Summers, in ten thousand

years this would certainly be changed. Our Summer season would

become short and heated; our Winters long and intensely cold.

Year by year it would be later in the season before the sun could

free the land from snow, and at length in deep ravines and on

hill-tops the snow would linger through the brief Summer, and the

mild interglacial age will have passed away, and again the

Northern Hemisphere will be visited by snow and ice of a truly.

Glacial Age. If, therefore, a period of high eccentricity lasts

through the many thousand years, we must expect more than one

return of glacial cold interspersed by mild interglacial

climates.

We have tried in these last few pages to give a clear statement

of what is known as Croll’s theory of the Glacial Age. There is

no question but what the earth does thus vary in its position

with regard to the sun, and beyond a doubt this must produce some

effect on the climate, and we can truthfully state that the more

the complicated question of the climate of the earth is studied,

the more grounds do scholars find for affirming that indirectly

this effect must have been very great. And yet we can not say

that this theory is accepted as a satisfactory one even by the

majority of scholars. Many of those who do not reject it think it

not proven. Therefore, before interrogating the astronomer as to

the data of the Glacial Age, according to the terms of this

theory, let us see what other causes are, adduced; then we can

more readily accept or reject the conclusions as to the antiquity

of man which this theory would necessitate us to adopt.

The only other cause to which we can assign the glacial cold,

that is considered with any favor by geologists, is geographical;

that is to say, depending on the distribution of land and water.

Glaciers depend on the amount of snow-fall. In any country where

the amount of snow-fall is so great that it is not all evaporated

or melted by the Summer’s sun, and consequently increases from

year to year, glaciers must soon appear, and these icy rivers

would ere-long, flow away to lower levels. If we suppose, with

Sir Charles Lyell, that the lands of the globe were all to be

gathered around the equator, and the waters were gathered around

the poles, it is manifest that there would be no such a thing as

extremes of temperature, and it is, perhaps, doubtful whether ice

would form, even in polar areas.18 At any rate, no glaciers could

be formed, as there would be no land on which snow could gather

in great quantities.

If, however, we reverse this picture, and conceive of the land

gathered in a compact mass around the poles, shutting out the

water, but consider the equatorial region of the earth to be

occupied by the waters of the ocean, we would manifestly have a

very different scene. From the ocean moisture-laden winds would

flow over the polar lands. The snowfall would necessarily be

great. In short, we can not doubt but what all the land of the

earth would be covered with glaciers.19

Although these last conceptions are purely hypothetical, they

will serve the good purpose of showing the great influence that

the geographical distribution of land and water have on the

climate of a country. Of one thing, however, geologists have

become more and more impressed of late years. That is, that

continents and oceans have always had the same relative position

as now; that is to say, the continents have followed a definite

plan in their development. The very first part of North America

to appear above the waters of the primal sea clearly outlined the

shape of the future continent. Mr. Dana assures us that our

continent developed with almost the regularity of a flower. Prof.

Hitchcock also points out that the surface area of the very first

period outlined the shape of the continent. “The work of later

geological periods seems to have been the filling up of the bays

and sounds between the great islands, elevating the consolidated

mass into a continental area.”20 So it is not at all probable

that the lands of the globe were ever grouped, as we have here

supposed them.

This last statement is liable, however, to leave us under a wrong

impression; for although, as a whole, continental areas have been

permanent, yet in detail they have been subject to wonderful and

repeated changes. “Every square mile of their surface has been

again and again under water, sometimes a few hundred feet

deep—sometimes, perhaps, several thousand. Lakes and inland seas

have been formed and been filled up with sediment, and been

subsequently raised into hills, or even mountains. Arms of the

sea have existed, crossing the continent in various directions,

and thus completely isolating the divided portions for varying

intervals. Seas have become changed into deserts and deserts into

seas.”21

It has been shown beyond all question that North-western Europe

owes its present mild climate to the influence of the Gulf

Stream.22 Ocean currents, then, are a most important element in

determining the climate of a country. If we would take the case

of our hypothetical polar continent again, and, instead of

presenting a continuous coast line, imagine it penetrated by long

straits and fiords, possessing numerous bays, large inland seas,

and in general allowing a free communication with the ocean, we

are very sure the effect would be widely different.