RELICS OF MAN IN THE GLACIAL PERIOD.
_In Glacial Terraces of the United States._
Although the first clear evidence of glacial man was discovered in
Europe, the problem is so much simpler on the Western Continent that
we shall find it profitable to study the American facts first. We will
therefore present a summary of them at once, and then proceed to the more
obscure problems of European archæology.
The first definite discovery of human relics clearly connected with,
glacial deposits in America, and of the same age with them, was made
by Dr. C. C. Abbott, at Trenton, N. J., in the year 1875. The city of
Trenton is built upon a delta terrace about three miles wide which
occurs at the head of tide-water on the Delaware River. This terrace
bears every mark of having been deposited by a torrential stream which
came down the valley during the closing period of the great Ice age. The
material of which the terrace consists is all water-worn. According to
the description of Professor N. S. Shaler:
[Illustration: Fig. 63.--The glaciated portion is shaded. The shading
on the Lehigh and Delaware Rivers indicates glacial terraces, which are
absent from the Schuylkill.]
"The general structure of the mass is neither that of ordinary
boulder-clay nor of stratified gravels, such as are formed by the
complete rearrangement by water of the elements of simple drift-deposits.
It is made up of boulders, pebbles, and sand, varying in size from masses
containing one hundred cubic feet or more to the finest sand of the
ordinary sea-beaches. There is little trace of true clay in the deposit;
there is rarely enough to give the least trace of cementation to the
masses. The various elements are rather confusedly arranged; the large
boulders not being grouped on any particular level, and their major
axes not always distinctly coinciding with the horizon. All the pebbles
and boulders, so far as observed, are smooth and water-worn, a careful
search having failed to show evidence of distinct glacial scratching
or polishing on their surfaces. The type of pebble is the subovate or
discoidal, and though many depart from this form, yet nearly all observed
by me had been worn so as to show that their shape had been determined by
running water. The materials comprising the deposit are very varied, but
all I observed could apparently with reason be supposed to have come from
the extensive valley of the river near which they lie, except perhaps the
fragments of some rather rare hypogene rocks."
[Illustration: Fig. 64.--Palæolith found by Abbott in New Jersey,
slightly reduced.]
A conclusive proof of the relation of this Trenton delta terrace to the
Glacial period is found in the fact that the gravel deposit is continuous
with terraces extending up the trough of the valley of the Delaware to
the glaciated area and beyond. As, however, the descent of the river-bed
is rapid (about four feet to the mile) from the glacial border down to
tide-water, the terrace is not remarkably high, being only about fifteen
or twenty feet above the present flood-plain. But it is continuous,
and similar in composition with the great enlargement in the delta at
Trenton. Without doubt, therefore, the deposit represents the overwash
gravel of the Glacial period.
Fortunately for science, Dr. C. C. Abbott, whose tastes for archæological
investigations were early developed, had his residence upon the border
of this glacial delta terrace at Trenton, and as early as 1875 began
to find rough-stone implements of a peculiar type in the talus of
the bank where the river was undermining the terrace. In turning his
attention to the numerous fresh exposures of gravel made by railroad and
other excavations during the following year, he found several of the
implements in undisturbed strata, some of which were sixteen feet below
the surface. Since that time he has continued to make discoveries at
various intervals. In 1888 he had found four hundred implements of the
palæolithic type at Trenton, sixty of which had been taken from recorded
depths in the gravel, two hundred and fifty from the talus at the bluff
facing the river, and the remainder from the surface, or derived from
collectors who did not record the positions or circumstances under which
they were found.
[Illustration: Fig. 65.--Section across the Delaware River at Trenton.
New Jersey: _a_, _a_, Philadelphia red gravel and brick-clay (McGee's
Columbia deposit); _b_. _b_, Trenton gravel, in which the implements are
found: _c_, present flood-plain of the Delaware River (after Lewis).
(From Abbott's Primitive Industry.)]
The material from which the implements at Trenton are made is
argillite--that is, a clay slate which has been so metamorphosed as to
be susceptible of fracture, almost like flint. It is, however, by no
means capable of being worked into such delicate forms as flint is. But
as it is the only material in the vicinity capable of being chipped,
prehistoric men of that vicinity were compelled to make a virtue of
necessity and use the inferior material. Of all the implements found by
Dr. Abbott in the gravel, only one was flint; while upon the surface
innumerable arrow-heads of flint have been found. The transition, also,
in the type of implements is as sudden as that in the kind of material
of which they are made. Below the superficial deposit of black soil,
extending down to the depth of about one foot, the modern Indian flint
implements entirely disappear, and implements of palæolithic type only
are found.
[Illustration: Fig. 66.--Section of the Trenton gravel in which the
implements described in the text are found. The shelf on which the man
stands is made in process of excavation. The gravel is the same above and
below (photograph by Abbott).]
[Illustration: Fig. 67.--Face view of argillite implement, found by Dr.
C. C. Abbott, in 1876, at Trenton, New Jersey, in gravel, three feet
from face of bluff, and twenty-two feet from the surface (No. 10,985)
(Putnam).]
In the year 1882, after I had traced the glacial boundary westward from
the Delaware River, across the States of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana,
I was struck with the similarity between the terrace at Trenton and
numerous terraces which I had attributed to the Glacial age in Ohio and
the other States. It adds much to the interest of subsequent discoveries
to note that in 1884, in my report to the Western Reserve Historical
Society upon the glacial boundary of Ohio, I wrote as follows:
[Illustration: Fig. 68.--Argillite implement found by Dr. C. C Abbott,
March, 1879, at A. K. Rowan's farm, Trenton, New Jersey, in gravel
sixteen feet from surface: a, face view; b, side view (No. 11,286)
(Putnam).]
"The gravel in which they [Dr. Abbott's implements] are found is glacial
gravel deposited upon the banks of the Delaware when, during the last
stages of the Glacial period, the river was swollen with vast floods of
water from the melting ice. Man was on this continent at that period
when the climate and ice of Greenland extended to the mouth of New York
Harbor. The probability is, that if he was in New Jersey at that time, he
was also upon the banks of the Ohio, and the extensive terrace and gravel
deposits in the southern part of our State should be closely scanned
by archæologists. When observers become familiar with the rude form of
these palæolithic implements, they will doubtless find them in abundance.
But whether we find them or not in this State [Ohio], if you admit, as
I am compelled to do, the genuineness of those found by Dr. Abbott, our
investigation into the glacial phenomena of Ohio must have an important
archæological significance, for they bear upon the question of the
chronology of the Glacial period, and so upon that of man's appearance in
New Jersey."
[Illustration: Fig. 69.--Chipped pebble of black chert, found by Dr. C.
L. Metz. October, 1885, at Madisonville, Ohio, in gravel eight feet from
surface under clay: _a_, face view; _b_, side view.]
The expectation of finding evidence of preglacial man in Ohio was
justified soon after this (in 1885), when Dr. C L. Metz, while
co-co-operating with Professor F. W. Putnam, of the Peabody Museum,
Cambridge, Mass., in field work, discovered a flint implement of
palæolithic type in undisturbed strata of the glacial terrace of the
Little Miami River, near his residence at Madisonville, Ohio. In 1887
Dr. Metz found another implement in the terrace of the same river, at
Loveland, about twenty-five miles farther up the stream. The implement
at Madisonville occurred eight feet below the surface, and about a mile
back from the edge of the terrace; while that at Loveland was found in a
coarser deposit, about a quarter of a mile back from the present stream,
and thirty feet below the surface. Mastodon-bones also were discovered in
close proximity to the implement at Loveland.
[Illustration: Fig. 70.]
Interest in these investigations was still further increased by the
report of Mr. Hilborne T. Cresson, of Philadelphia, that in 1886, with
my map of the glaciated region in hand, he had found an implement of
palæolithic type in undisturbed strata of the glacial terrace bordering
the East Branch of White River, near the glacial boundary at Medora,
Jackson County, Ind. The terrace was about fifty feet above the
flood-plain of the river.
Later still, in October, 1889, Mr. W. C. Mills, of Newcomerstown,
Tuscarawas County, Ohio, found in that town a finely shaped flint
implement sixteen feet below the surface of the terrace of glacial
gravel which lines the margin of the Tuscarawas Valley.[CT] Mr. Mills
was not aware of the importance of this discovery until meeting with
me some months later, when he described the situation to me, and soon
after sent the implement for examination. In company with Judge C.
C. Baldwin, President of the Western Reserve Historical Society, and
several others, a visit was made to Mr. Mills, and we carefully examined
the gravel-pit in which the implement occurred, and collected evidence
which was abundant to corroborate all his statements. The implement
in question is made from a peculiar flint which is found in the Lower
Mercer limestone, of which there are outcrops a few miles distant, and
it resembles in so many ways the typical implements found by Boucher de
Perthes, at Abbeville, that, except for the difference in the material
from which it is made, it would be impossible to distinguish it from
them. The similarity of pattern is too minute to have originated except
from imitation.
[Footnote CT: For typical section of a glacial terrace in Ohio, see p.
227.]
[Illustration: Fig. 71.--The smaller is the palæolith from Newcomerstown,
the larger from Amiens (face view), reduced one half in diameter.]
In 1877, a year after the discoveries by Dr. Abbott in New Jersey, some
rude quartz implements were discovered by Professor N. H. Winchell in
the glacial terraces of the upper Mississippi, in the vicinity of Little
Falls, Morrison County, Minn. This locality was afterwards more fully
explored by Miss Franc E. Babbitt, who succeeded in finding so large a
number of the implements as to set at rest all question concerning their
human origin. According to Mr. Warren Upham, the glacial flood-plain
of the Mississippi is here about three miles wide, with an elevation
of from twenty-five to thirty feet above the river. It is in a stream
near the bottom of this glacial terrace that the most of Miss Babbitt's
discoveries were made, and Mr. Upham has pretty clearly shown that the
gravel of the terrace overlying them was mostly deposited while the
ice-front was still lingering about sixty miles farther north, in the
vicinity of Itasca Lake.[CU]
[Footnote CU: For a general map, see p. 66; also p. 225.]
[Illustration: Fig. 72.--Edge view of the preceding.]
[Illustration: Fig. 73.--Section across the Mississippi Valley at Little
Falls, Minnesota, showing the stratum in which chipped quartz fragments
were found by Miss F. E. Babbitt, as described in the text (Upham).]
Up to this time the above are all the instances in which the relics
of man are directly and indubitably connected with deposits of this
particular period east of the Rocky Mountains. Probably it is incorrect
to speak of these as preglacial, for the portion of the period at which
the deposits incorporating human relics were made is well on towards the
close of the great Ice age, since these terraces were, in some cases, and
may have been in all cases, deposited after the ice-front had withdrawn
nearly, if not quite, to the water-shed of the St Lawrence basin. It may
be difficult to demonstrate this with reference to the gravel deposits at
Trenton, Madisonville, and Medora, but it is evident at a glance in the
case of Newcomerstown and Little Falls.
That the implement-bearing gravel of Trenton, N. J., belongs to the
later stages of the Glacial period is evident from its relation to what
Professor H. Carvill Lewis called "the Philadelphia red gravel and
brick-clay," but which, from its large development in the District of
Columbia at Washington, is called by Mr. McGee the "Columbia deposit."
The city of Philadelphia is built upon this formation in the Delaware
Valley, and the brick for its houses is obtained from it; the cellar
of each house ordinarily furnishing clay enough for its brick walls.
This clay is of course a deposit in comparatively still water, which
would imply deposition during a period of land subsidence. But that it
was ice-laden water which flooded the banks is shown by the frequent
occurrence of large blocks of stone in the deposits, such as could have
been transported only in connection with floating ice. The boulders in
the Columbia formation clearly belong to the individual river valleys in
which they are found, and doubtless are to be connected with the flooded
condition of those valleys when, by means of a northerly subsidence, the
gradient of the streams was considerably less than now.
[Illustration: Fig. 74.--Quartz implement, found by Miss F. E. Babbitt,
1878, at Little Falls, Minnesota, in modified drift, fifteen feet below
surface: _a_, face view; _b_, profile view. The black represented on the
cut is the matrix of the quartz vein (No. 31,323) (Putnam).]
There is some difference of opinion in respect to the extent of
this subsidence, and, indeed, respecting the height attained by the
Philadelphia brick-clay, or McGee's Columbia deposit. Professor Lewis
(whose residence was at Philadelphia, and who had devoted much time to
field observations) insisted that the deposit could not be found higher
than from 180 to 200 feet above the immediate flood-plain of the river
valleys where they occur. But, without entering upon this disputed
question, it is sufficient to consider the bearing of the facts that are
accepted by all--namely, that towards the close of the Glacial period
there was a marked subsidence of the land on the eastern coast of North
America, increasing towards the north.
Fully to comprehend the situation, we need to bring before the mind some
of the indirect effects of the Glacial period in this region. The most
important of these was the necessary projection of subglacial conditions
over a considerable belt of territory to the south of that actually
reached by glacial ice; so that, while there are no clear indications of
the existence of local glaciers in the Appalachian Mountains south of the
central part of Pennsylvania, there are many indications of increased
snow-fall upon the mountains, connected with prolonged winters and with a
great increase of spring floods and ice-gorges upon the annual breaking
up of winter.
These facts have been stated in detail by Mr. McGee,[CV] from whose
report it appears that, on the Potomac at Washington, the surface of
the Columbia deposit is 150 feet above tide, and that the deposit itself
contains many boulders, some of which are as much as two or three feet in
diameter. These are mingled with the gravel in such a way as to show that
they must have been brought down by floating ice from the head-waters of
the Potomac when the winters were much more severe than now. That this
deposit is properly the work of the river is shown by the entire absence
of marine shells.
[Footnote CV: Seventh Annual Report of the United States Geological
Survey for 1885 and 1886, pp. 537-646.]
According to Mr. McGee, also, there is a gradual decrease in the height
of these delta terraces of the Columbia period as they recede from the
glacial boundary--that at the mouth of the Susquehanna being 245 feet,
that of the Potomac 140 feet, that on the Rappahannock 125, that on the
James 100, and that on the Roanoke 75; while the size of the transported
boulders along the streams also gradually diminishes in the same order.
During the Columbia period the Susquehanna River transported boulders
fifty times the size now transported, while the Potomac transported them
only up to twenty times, the Rappahannock only ten times, the James
only five, and the Roanoke only two or three times the size of those
now transported. This progressive diminution, both in the extent of the
deposit and in the coarseness of the material deposited by these rivers
at about the time of the maximum portion of the Glacial period, is what
would naturally be expected under the conditions supposed to exist in
connection with the great Ice age, and is an important confirmation of
the glacial theory.
That the period of subsidence and more intense glacial conditions during
which the Columbia deposits took place, preceded, by a long interval, the
deposition of the gravel terraces at Trenton, N. J., and the analogous
deposits in the Mississippi Valley where palæolithic implements have been
found, is evident enough. The Trenton gravel was deposited in a recess in
the Columbia deposit which had been previously worn out by the stream.
Indeed, in every place where opportunity offers for direct observation
the Trenton gravel is seen to be distinctly subsequent to the other. It
was not _buried by_ the Philadelphia red gravel and brick-clay, but to a
limited degree overlies and _buries_ it.
The data for measuring the absolute length of time between these two
stages of the Glacial period are very indefinite. Mr. McGee, however,
supposes that since the Columbia period a sufficient time has elapsed
for the falls of the Susquehanna to recede more than twenty miles and
for those of the Potomac eighteen miles, and this through a rock which
is exceedingly obdurate. But, in channels opening, as these do, freely
outward, it is difficult to tell in what epochs the erosion has been
principally performed, since there are no buried channels, as in the
glaciated area, enabling us to determine whether or not much of the
eroding work of the river may have been accomplished in preglacial times.
The lapse of time which, upon the least calculation, separates the
Columbia epoch from the Trenton, gives unusual importance to any
discovery of palæolithic implements which may be made in the earlier
deposits. We are bound, therefore, to consider with special caution
the reported discovery of an implement in these deposits at Claymont,
Delaware. The discovery was made by Dr. Hilborne T. Cresson, on July 13,
1887, during the progress of an extensive excavation in constructing the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, nineteen miles south of Philadelphia. The
implement was from eight to nine feet below the surface. As there is so
much chance for error of judgment respecting the undisturbed condition
of the strata, and as there was so little opportunity for Dr. Cresson to
verify his conclusion, we may well wait for the cumulative support of
other discoveries before building a theory upon it; still, it will be
profitable to consider the situation.
[Illustration: Fig. 75.--Argillite implement, found by H. T. Cresson,
1887, in Baltimore and Ohio Railroad cut, one mile from Claymont,
Delaware, in Columbia gravel, eight to nine feet below the overlying clay
bed: _a_, face view; _b_, side view (No. 45,726) (Putnam).]
Both Mr. McGee and myself have visited the locality with Dr. Cresson, and
there can be no doubt that the implement occurred underneath the Columbia
gravel. The line of demarcation is here very sharp between that gravel
and the decomposed strata of underlying gneiss rock, which appears in
our illustration as a light band in the middle of the section exposed.
Some large boulders which could have been moved only in connection with
floating ice are found in the overlying deposit near by. This excavation
is about one mile and a half west of the Delaware River, and about 150
feet above it, being nearly at the uppermost limit of the Columbia
deposit in that vicinity.
[Illustration: Fig. 76.--General section of Baltimore and Ohio cut,
near Claymont, Delaware, where Mr. Cresson found palæolithic implements
figured in the text (from photograph by Cresson).]
The age of these deposits in which implements have been found at
Claymont and at Trenton will be referred to again when we come to the
specific discussion of the date of the Glacial period. It is sufficient
here to bring before our minds clearly, first, the fact that this at
Claymont is connected with the river floods accompanying the ice at its
time of maximum extension, and when there was a gradually increasing
or differential depression of the country to an unknown extent to the
northward.
Two radically different theories are presented to account for the
deposits variously known as the Columbia gravel and the Philadelphia
brick-clay. Mr. McGee, in the monograph above referred to, supposes them
to have been deposited during a period of a general subsidence of the
coast-line; so that they took place at about tide-level. Mr. Upham, on
the other hand, supposes them to have been deposited during the period
of general elevation to whose influence he mainly attributes the Glacial
period itself. In his view much of the shallow sea-bottom adjoining
the present shore off from Delaware and Chesapeake Bays was then a
land-surface, and the Hudson, the Delaware, and the Susquehanna Rivers,
coming down from the still higher elevations of the north, flowed through
extensive plains so related to the northern areas of elevation that
deposition was occurring in their valleys, owing in part to the flooded
condition of the streams, in part to the differential elevation, and in
part to the superabundance of silt and other _débris_ furnished by the
melting ice-sheet in the head-waters of these streams.
The deposits of Trenton gravel occurred much later, at a time when the
ice had melted far back towards the head-waters of the Delaware, and
after the land had nearly resumed its present relations of level, if
indeed it had not risen northward to a still greater relative height.
As would be expected from the climatic conditions accompanying the
Glacial epoch, man's companions in the animal world were very different
during the period when the high-level river gravels of America were
forming from those with which he is now associated. From the remains
actually discovered, either in these gravels or in close proximity to
them, we infer that, while the mastodon was the most frequent of the
extinct quadrupeds with which man then had to contend in that region, he
must have been familiar also with the walrus, the Greenland reindeer, the
caribou, the bison, the moose, and the musk ox.
_In the Glacial Terraces of Europe._
The existence of glacial man in Europe was first determined in connection
with the high-level river gravels already described in the valley of the
Somme, situated in Picardy in the northern part of France. Here in 1841
Boucher de Perthes began to discover rudely fashioned stone implements
in undisturbed strata of the gravel terraces, whose connection with
the Glacial period we have already made clear. But for nearly twenty
years his discoveries were ignored by scientific men, although he made
persistent efforts to get the facts before them, and published a full
account of them with illustrations as early as 1847. Some suggested fraud
on the part of the workmen; others without examination declared that the
gravel must have been disturbed; while others, still, denied altogether
the artificial character of the implements.
[Illustration: Fig. 77.--Section across valley of the Somme: 1, peat,
twenty to thirty feet thick, resting on gravel, _a_; 2, lower-level
gravels, with elephant-bones and flint implements, covered with
river-loam twenty to forty feet thick; 3, upper-level gravels, with
similar fossils covered with loam, in all, thirty feet thick; 4,
upland-loam, five to six feet thick; 5, Eocene-Tertiary.]
At length, Dr. Regillout, an eminent physician residing at Amiens,
about forty miles higher up the Somme than Abbeville, visited Boucher
de Perthes, and, upon seeing the similarity between the gravel terraces
at Abbeville and Amiens, returned home to look for similar implements
in the high-level gravel-pits at St. Acheul, a suburb of Amiens. Almost
immediately he discovered flint implements there of the same pattern with
those at Abbeville, and in undisturbed strata of the gravel terrace,
where it rested on the original chalk formation, at a height of 90 feet
above the river. In the course of four years, Dr. Regillout found several
hundred of these implements, and in 1854 published an illustrated report
upon the discoveries.
Still the scientific world remained incredulous until the years 1858 and
1859, when Dr. Falconer, Mr. Prestwich, Mr. John Evans, Mr. Flower, Sir
Charles Lyell, of England, and MM. Pouchet and Gaudry, of France, visited
Abbeville and Amiens, and succeeded in making similar discoveries for
themselves. Additional discoveries at St. Acheul have continued up to
the present time whenever excavations have gone on at the gravel-pits.
Mr. Prestwich estimates that there is an implement to every cubic metre
of gravel, and says that he himself has brought away at different times
more than two hundred specimens, and that the total number found in this
one locality can hardly be under four thousand. "The gravel-beds are on
the brow of a hill 97 feet above the river Somme," and besides the relics
of man contain numerous fluviatile and land shells together with "teeth
and bones of the mammoth, rhinoceros, horse, reindeer, and red deer, but
not of the hippopotamus,"[CW] bones of the latter animal being found here
only in the gravels of the lower terraces, where they are less than
thirty feet above the river, and mark a considerably later stage in the
erosion of the valley. While many of the implements found at Amiens seem
to have been somewhat worn and rolled, "others are as sharp and fresh
as when first made.... The bedding of the gravel is extremely irregular
and contorted, as though it had been pushed about by a force acting from
above; and this, together with the occurrence of blocks of Tertiary
sandstone of considerable size, leads to the inference that both are due
to the action of river-ice. In the Seine Valley blocks of still larger
size, and transported from greater distances, are found in gravels of the
same age."
[Footnote CW: Prestwich's Geology, vol. ii, p. 481.]
"Flint implements are found under similar conditions in many of the
river-valleys of other parts of France, especially in the neighbourhood
of Paris; of Mons in Belgium; in Spain, in the neighbourhood of
Madrid, in Portugal, in Italy, and in Greece; but they have not been
discovered in the drift-beds of Denmark, Sweden, or Russia, nor is there
any well-authenticated instance of the occurrence of palæoliths in
Germany."[CX]
[Footnote CX: Prestwich's Geology, vol. ii, pp. 481, 482.]
When once the fact had been established that man was in northern France
at the time of the deposition of the high-level gravels of the Somme and
the Seine, renewed attention was directed to terraces of similar age in
southern England. One of these is that upon which the city of London is
built, and which, according to Lyell's description, "extends from above
Maidenhead through the metropolis to the sea, a distance from west to
east of fifty miles, having a width varying from two to nine miles. Its
thickness ranges commonly from five to fifteen feet."[CY]
[Footnote CY: Antiquity of Man, pp. 154, 155.]
For a long time geologists had been familiar with the fact that these
terraces of the Thames contain the remains of numerous extinct animals,
among which are included the mammoth and a species of rhinoceros.
Upon directing special attention to the subject, it was found that, at
various intervals, the remains of man, also, had been reported from the
same deposits. As long ago as 1715 Mr. Conyers discovered a palæolithic
implement, in connection with the skeleton of an elephant, at Black
Mary's, near Gray's Inn Lane, London. This implement is preserved in the
British Museum, and closely resembles typical specimens from the gravel
at Amiens. Other implements of similar character have been found in
the valley of the Wey near Guilford, also in the valley of the Darent,
near Whitstable in Kent, and between Heme Bay and the Reculvers. While
the exact position of these implements in the gravel had not been so
positively noted as in the case of those found at Amiens and Abbeville,
there can be little doubt that man, in company with the extinct animals
mentioned, inhabited the valley of the Thames at a period when its annual
floods spread over the whole terrace-plain upon which the main part of
London is built.
In the valley of the Ouse, however, near Bedford, the discovery of
palæolithic implements in the gravel terraces connected with the
Glacial period and in intimate association with bones of the elephant,
rhinoceros, hippopotamus, and other extinct animals, has been as fully
established as in the valley of the Somme. The discoveries here were
first made in the year 1860, by Mr. James Wyatt, in a gravel-pit at
Biddenham, two miles northwest of Bedford. Two flint implements were
thrown out by workmen in one day from undisturbed strata thirteen feet
below the surface, and numerous other specimens have since been found in
a similar situation.
The valley of the Ouse is bordered on either side by sections of a
superficial blanket of glacial drift containing many transported boulders
of considerable size. The valley is here about two miles wide, and ninety
feet deep. The gravel deposit, however, in which the implements were
found, is only about thirty feet above the present level of the river,
and hence represents the middle period of the work of the river in
erosion.
Another locality in England in which similar discoveries have been made,
is at Hoxne, about five miles from Diss, in Suffolk County. Like that
in the valley of the Thames, however, the implements were found a long
time before the significance of the discovery was recognized. Mr. John
Frere reported the discovery to the Society of Antiquaries in 1801,
and gave some of the implements both to the society and to the British
Museum, in whose collections they are still preserved. The implements are
of the true palæolithic type, and existed in such abundance, and were
so free from signs of wear, that the conclusion seemed probable that a
manufactory of them had been uncovered. As many as five or six to the
square yard are said to have been found. Indeed, their numbers were so
great that the workmen "had emptied baskets of them into the ruts of the
adjoining road before becoming aware of their value."
The deposit in which they are found is situated in the valley of Gold
Brook, a tributary of the Waveney. The implements occurred about twelve
feet below the surface, in fresh-water deposits, filling a hollow eroded
in the glacial deposit covering that part of England. This, therefore, is
clearly either of post-glacial or of late glacial age.
Still another locality in which similar palæolithic implements were found
in undisturbed gravel of this same age in eastern England is Icklingham,
in the valley of the Lark, where the situation is quite similar to that
already described at Bedford, on the Ouse.
The last place we will stop to mention in England which was visited
by palæolithic man, during or soon after the Glacial epoch, is to be
found in the vicinity of Southampton. At this time the Isle of Wight
was joined to the mainland, and not improbably England itself to the
Continent. The river, then flowing through the depression of the Solent
and the Southampton Water, occupied a much higher level than now, leaving
terraces along the shore at various places, in which the tools of
palæolithic man have been discovered.
Though these are the best authenticated discoveries connecting man with
the Glacial period in England, they are by no means the only probable
cases. Almost every valley of southern England furnishes evidence of a
similar but less demonstrative character.
_In Cave Deposits._
The discovery of the remains of man in the high-level river-gravels
deposited near the close of the Glacial period led to a revision of the
evidence which had from time to time been reported connecting the remains
of man with those of various extinct animals in cave deposits both in
England and upon the Continent.
_The British Isles._
As early as 1826, Rev. J. MacEnery, a Roman Catholic priest residing
near Torquay, in Devonshire, England, had made some most remarkable
discoveries in a cavern at Kent's Hole, near his home; but, owing to his
early death, and to the incredulity of that generation of scientific
men, his story was neither credited nor published till 1859. About this
time, a new cave having been discovered not far away, at Brixham, the
best qualified members of the Royal Society (Lyell, Phillips, Lubbock,
Evans, Vivian, Pengelly, Busk, Dawkins, and Sanford) were deputed to see
that it was carefully explored. Mr. Pengelly, who had had twenty years'
experience in similar explorations, directed and superintended the work.
Every portion of the contents was examined with minutest care. Kent's
Hole is "180 to 190 feet above the level of mean tide, and about 70 feet
above the bottom of the valley immediately adjacent."[CZ] In one chamber
the excavation was about sixty feet square. The contents were arranged in
the following order:
[Footnote CZ: Dawkins's Cave-Hunting, p. 325.]
[Illustration: Fig. 78.--Mouth of Kent's Hole.]
1. A surface of dark earth a few inches thick, containing Roman pottery,
iron and bronze spear-heads, together with polished stone weapons. There
were, too, in this stratum bones of cows, goats, and horses, mingled with
large quantities of charcoal.
2. Below this was a stalagmite floor from one to three feet thick, formed
by the dripping of lime-water from the roof.
3. Under this crust of stalagmite was a compact deposit of red earth,
from two to thirteen feet thick.[DA] Flint implements of various kinds
and charcoal were also found at different depths; also an awl, or
piercer; a needle with the eye large enough to admit small pack-thread;
and three harpoon-heads made out of bone and deer's horn.
[Footnote DA: Dawkins's Cave-Hunting, p. 326; Lyell's Antiquity of Man,
p. 101.]
4. Flint implements were also obtained in a conglomerate (breccia) still
below this. The fossil bones in this cave belonged to the same species of
animals as those discovered in a cave near Wells.
The Brixham cave occurs near the small village of that name, not far from
Torquay. The entrance to it is about ninety-five feet above high water.
Its deposits, in descending order, are: 1. Stalagmitic floor from six to
twelve or fifteen inches in thickness. 2. A thin breccia of limestone
fragments cemented together by carbonate of lime. This had accumulated
about the mouth, so as to fill up the entrance. 3. A layer of blackish
earth about one foot in thickness 4. A deposit of from two to four feet
thick, consisting of clayey loam, mingled with fragments of limestone,
from small bits up to rocks weighing a ton. Bounded pebbles of other
material were also occasionally met with. 5. Shingle consisting of
rounded pebbles largely of foreign material.
All these strata, except the third, contained fossils of some kind, but
the fourth was by far the richest repository. Among the bones found are
those of the mammoth, the woolly rhinoceros, the horse, the ox, the
reindeer, the cave-lion, the cave-hyena, and the cave-bear. Associated
with these remains a number of worked flints was found. In one place
the bones of an entire leg of a cave-bear occurred in such a position as
to show that they must have been bound together by the ligaments when
they were buried. Immediately below these bones a flint implement was
found.[DB]
[Footnote DB: See Pengelly's Reports to the Devonshire Association, 1867.]
The hyena's den, at Wookey Hole, near Wells, in Somerset, was carefully
explored by Professor Boyd Dawkins, who stood by and examined every
shovelful of material as it was thrown out.
This cave alone yielded 35 specimens of palæolithic art, 467 jaws and
teeth of the cave-hyena, 15 of the cave lion, 27 of the cave-bear, 11 of
the grizzly bear, 11 of the brown bear, 7 of the wolf, 8 of the fox, 30
of the mammoth, 233 of the woolly rhinoceros, 401 of the horse, 16 of the
wild ox, 30 of the bison, 35 of the Irish elk, and 30 of the reindeer
(jaws and teeth only).
In Derbyshire numerous caves were explored by Professor Dawkins at Cress
well Crags, which, in addition to flint implements and the remains of
the animals occurring in the Brixham cave, yielded the bones of the
machairodus, an extinct species of tiger or lion which lived during the
Tertiary period.
The Victoria cave, near Settle, in west Yorkshire, is the only other one
in England which we need to mention. In this there were no remains found
which could be positively identified as human, but the animal remains
in the lower strata of the cave deposit were so different from those in
the upper bed as to indicate the great lapse of time which separated the
two. This cave is 1,450 feet above the sea-level, and there were found in
the upper strata of the floor, down to a depth of from two to ten feet,
many remains of existing animals. Then, for a distance of twelve feet,
there occurred a clay deposit, containing no organic remains whatever,
but some well-scratched boulders. Below this was a third stratum of earth
mingled with limestone fragments, at the base of which were numerous
remains of the mammoth, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, bison, hyena, etc.
One bone occurred which was by some supposed to be human, but by others
to have belonged to a bear. This lower stratum is, without much doubt,
preglacial, and the thickness of the deposit intervening between it and
the upper fossiliferous bed is taken by some to indicate the great lapse
of time separating the period of the mammoth and rhinoceros in England
from the modern age. The scratched boulders in the middle stratum of
laminated clay, would indicate certainly that the material found its way
into the cave during the Glacial epoch, when ice filled the whole valley
of the Ribble, which flows past the foot of the hill, and whose bed is
900 feet below the mouth of the cave.
In North Wales the Vale of Clwyd contains numerous caves which were
occupied by hyenas in preglacial times and with their bones are
associated those of the mammoth, the rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, the
cave-lion, the cave-bear, and various other animals. Flint implements
also were found in the cave at Cae Gwyn, near the village of Tremeirchon,
on the eastern side of the valley, opposite Cefn, and about four miles
distant. We have already given an illustration of the Cefn cave (see
page 148). It will be observed that this valley of the Clwyd opens to
the north, and has a pretty rapid descent to the sea from the Welsh
mountains, and was in position to be obstructed by the Irish Sea glacier,
so as to have been occupied at times by one of the characteristic
marginal lakes of the Glacial period. It is evident also that the
northern ice prevailed over the Welsh ice for a considerable portion
of the lower part of the valley; for northern drift is the superficial
deposit upon the hills on the sides of the valley up to a height of over
500 feet. From the investigations of Mr. C. E. De Rance, F. G. S.,[DC]
it is equally clear also that the northern drift, which until lately
sealed up the entrance of the cave, was subsequent to its occupation by
man, and this was the opinion formed by Sir Archibald Geikie, Director
General of the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom, as the result of
special investigations which he made of the matter.[DD]
[Footnote DC: Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society for 1888,
pp. 1-20.]
[Footnote DD: See De Ranee, as above, p. 17; and article by H. Hicks,
in Quarterly Journal of Geological Society, vol. xlii, p. 3; Geological
Magazine, May, 1885, p. 510.]
From the caves in the Vale of Clwyd as many as 400 teeth of rhinoceros,
500 of horse, 180 of hyena, and 15 of mammoth have been taken. A section
of the cave deposits in the cave at Cae Gwyn is as follows:
"Below the soil for about eight feet a tolerably stiff boulder-clay,
containing many ice-scratched boulders and narrow bands and pockets of
sand. Below this about seven feet of gravel and sand, with here and
there bands of red clay, having also many ice-scratched boulders. The
next deposit was a laminated brown clay, and under this was found the
bone-earth, a brown, sandy clay with small pebbles and with angular
fragments of limestone, stalagmites, and stalactites. During the
excavations it became clear that the bones had been greatly disturbed by
water action; that the stalagmite floor, in parts more than a foot in
thickness, and massive stalactites, had also been broken and thrown about
in all positions; and that these had been covered afterwards by clays and
sand containing foreign pebbles. This seemed to prove that the caverns,
now 400 feet above ordnance datum, must have been submerged subsequently
to their occupation by the animals and by man. In Dr. Hicks's opinion,
the contents of the cavern must have been disturbed by marine action
during the great submergence in mid-glacial times, and afterwards
covered by marine sands and by an upper boulder-clay, identical in
character with that found at many points in the Vale of Clwyd. The
paleontological evidence suggests that the deposits in question are not
preglacial, but may be equivalent to the Pleistocene deposits of our
river-valleys."[DE]
[Footnote DE: H. B. Woodward's Geology of England and Wales, pp. 543, 544]
If the views of Professor Lewis and Mr. Kendall are correct concerning
the unity of the Glacial period in England, the shelly and sandy deposits
connected with these Clwydian caves at an elevation of 400 feet or more
would be explained in connection with the marginal lakes which must
have occupied the valley during both the advance and the retreat of
the ice-front; the shells having been carried up from the sea-bottom
by the ice-movement, after the manner supposed in the case of those at
Macclesfield and Moel Tryfaen. If, therefore, the statements concerning
the discovery of flint implements in this Cae Gwyn cave can be relied
upon, this is the most direct evidence yet obtained in Europe of man's
occupation of the island during the continuance of the Glacial period.
In all these caves it is to be noted that there is a sharp line of
demarcation between the strata containing palæolithic implements and
those containing only the remains of modern animals. Palæolithic
implements are confined to the lower strata, which in some of the caves
are separated from the upper by a continuous bed of stalagmite, to which
reference will be made when discussing the chronology of the Glacial
period. The remains of extinct animals also are confined to the lower
beds.
The caves which we have been considering in England are all in limestone
strata, and have been formed by streams of water which have enlarged some
natural fissures both by mechanical action in wearing away the rocks, and
by chemical action in dissolving them. Through the lowering of the main
line of drainage, caverns with a dry floor are at length left, offering
shelter and protection both to man and beast. Oftentimes, but not always,
some idea of the age of these caverns may be obtained by observing the
depth to which the main channel of drainage to which they were tributary
has been lowered since their formation. But to this subject also we will
return when we come specifically to discuss the chronological question.
_The Continent._
Systematic explorations in the caves of Belgium were begun in 1833 by
Dr. Schmerling, in the valley of the Meuse, near his residence in Liége.
The Meuse is here bordered by limestone precipices 200 or more feet in
height. Opening out from these rocky walls are the entrances to the
numerous caverns which have rendered the region so famous. To get access
to the most important of these, Dr. Schmerling had to let himself down
over a precipice by a rope tied to a tree, and then to creep along on
all-fours through intricate channels to reach the larger chambers which
it was his object to explore. In the cave at Engis, on the left bank of
the Meuse, about eight miles above Liége, he found a human skull deeply
buried in breccia in company with many bones of the extinct animals
previously stated to have been associated with man during the Glacial
period. This so-called "Engis skull" was by no means apelike in its
character, but closely resembled that of the average Caucasian man. But
this established the association upon the Continent of man with some of
the extinct animals of the Glacial period.
[Illustration: Fig. 79.--Engis skull, reduced (after Lyell.)]
The vicinity of Liége has also furnished us another cavern whose
contents are of the highest importance, ranking indeed as perhaps the
most significant single discovery yet made. The cave referred to is
on the property of the Count of Beauffort, in the commune of Spy, in
the province of Namur in Belgium. For the facts relating to it we are
indebted to Messrs: Lohest and Fraipont, the former Professor of Geology
and the latter of Anatomy in the University of Liége. The exploration
of the cave was made in 1886, and the full report with illustrations
published in the following year in Archives de Biologie.[DF] The
significance of this discovery is enhanced by the light it sheds upon and
the confirmation it brings to the famous Neanderthal skull and others of
similar character, which for a long time had been subjects of vigorous
discussion. Before describing it, therefore, we will give a brief account
of the previous discoveries.
[Footnote DF: See pp. 587, 757.]
The famous Neanderthal skull was brought to light in 1857 by workmen in a
limestone-quarry, near Düsseldorf, in the valley of the Neander, a small
tributary to the Rhine. By these workmen a cavern was opened upon the
southern side of the winding ravine, about sixty feet above the stream
and one hundred feet below the top of the cliff. The skull attracted much
attention from its supposed possession of many apelike characteristics;
indeed, it was represented by some to be a real intermediate link between
man and the anthropoid apes. The accompanying cut enables one to compare
the outline of the Neanderthal skull with that of a chimpanzee on the
one hand and of the highly developed European on the other. The apelike
peculiarities of this skull appear in its vertical depression, in the
enormous thickness of the bony ridges just above the eyes, and in the
gradual slope of the back part of the head, together with some other
characteristics which can only be described in technical language; so
that it was pronounced by the highest authorities the most apelike of
human crania which had yet been discovered. Unfortunately, the jaw was
not found. The capacity of the skull, however, was seventy-five cubic
inches, which is far above that of the highest of the apes, being indeed
equal to the average capacity of Polynesian and Hottentot skulls.[DG]
Huxley well remarks that "so large a mass of brain as this would alone
suggest that the pithecoid tendencies indicated by this skull did not
extend deep into the organization."
[Footnote DG: Huxley's Man's Place in Nature, p. 181.]
[Illustration: Fig. 80.--Comparison of forms of skulls: _a_, European;
_b_, the Neanderthal man; c, a chimpanzee (after Lyell).]
[Illustration: Fig. 81.--Skull of the Man of Spy. (From photograph.)]
Upon extending inquiries, it was found that the Neanderthal type of
skull is one which still has representatives in all nations; so that it
is unsafe to infer that the individual was a representative of all the
individuals living in his time. The skull of Bruce, the celebrated Scotch
hero, was a close reproduction of the Neanderthal type; while, according
to Quatrefages,[DH] the skull of the Bishop of Toul in the fourth century
"even exaggerates some of the most striking features of the Neanderthal
cranium. The forehead is still more receding, the vault more depressed,
and the head so long that the cephalic index is 69-41." The discovery of
Messrs. Fraipont and Lohest adds much to our definite knowledge of the
Neanderthal type of man, since the Belgic specimens are far more complete
than any others heretofore found, there being in their collection two
skulls, together with the jawbones and most of the other parts of the
frame. In this case also there is no suspicion that the deposits had been
disturbed, so as to admit any intrusion of human relics into the company
of relics of an earlier age. According to M, Lohest, there were three
distinct ossiferous beds, separated by layers of stalagmite. All the
ossiferous beds contained the remains of the mammoth, but in the upper
stratum they were few, and probably intrusive. The implements found in
this were also of a more modern type. In the second stratum from the top
numerous hearths were found with burnt wood and ashes, together with the
bones of the rhinoceros, the horse, the mammoth, the cave-bear, and the
cave-hyena, all of which were abundant, while there were also specimens
of the Irish elk, the reindeer, the bison, the cave-lion, and several
other species. In this layer also there were numerous implements of
ivory, together with ornaments and some faint indications of carving upon
the rib of a mammoth, besides a few fragments of pottery.
[Footnote DH: Human Species, p. 310,]
It was in the third, or lowest, of these beds that the skeletons
were found. Here they were associated with abundant remains of the
rhinoceros, the horse, the bison, the mastodon, the cave-hyena, and a
few other extinct species. Flint implements also, of the "Mousterien"
pattern (which, according to the opinion of the French archæologists, is
characteristic of middle palæolithic times), were abundant Neither of the
skeletons was complete, but they were sufficiently so to give an adequate
idea of the type to which they belong, and one of the skulls is nearly
perfect. According to M. Fraipont, "one of these skulls is apparently
that of an old woman, the other that of a middle-aged man. They are both
very thick; the former is clearly dolichocephalic (long-headed, index
70), the other less so. Both have very prominent eyebrows and large
orbits, with low, retreating foreheads, excessively so in the woman. The
lower jaws are heavy. The older has almost no projecting chin. The teeth
are large, and the last molar is as large as the others. These points
are characteristic of an inferior and the oldest-known race. The bones
indicate, like those of the Neanderthal and Naulette specimens, small,
square-shouldered individuals." They were "powerfully built, with strong,
curiously curved thigh-bones, the lower ends of which are so fashioned
that they must have walked with a bend at the knees."[DI]
[Footnote DI: Huxley, Nineteenth Century, vol. xxviii (November, 1890),
p. 774.]
Other crania from various Quaternary deposits in Europe seem to warrant
the inference that this type of man was the prevalent one during the
early part of the Palæolithic age. As long ago as 1700 a skull of
this type was exhumed in Canstadt, a village in the neighbourhood
of Stuttgart, in Würtemberg. This was found in coexistence with the
extinct animals whose bones we have described as so often appearing in
the high-level river-gravel of the Glacial age. But the importance of
the discovery at Canstadt was not appreciated until about the middle
of the present century. From the priority of the discovery, and of the
discussion among German anthropologists concerning it, it has been
thought proper, however, by some to give the name of this village to the
race and call it the "Canstadt race." But, whatever name prevails, it
is important in our reading to keep in mind that the man of Canstadt,
the man of Neanderthal, and the man of Spy are identical in type, and
probably in age. Similar discoveries have been made in various other
places. Among these are a lower jaw of the same type discovered in 1865
by M. Dupont, at Naulette, in the valley of the Lesse, in Belgium, and
associated with the remains of extinct animals; a jawbone found in a
grotto at Arcy; a fragment of a skull found in 1865 by Faudel, in the
loess of Eguisheim, near Colmar; a skull at Olmo, discovered in 1863, in
a compact clayey deposit forty-five feet below the surface; and a skull
discovered in 1884 at Marcilly.
M. Dupont has brought to light much additional testimony to glacial man
from other caves in different parts of Belgium. In all he has explored as
many as sixty. Three of these, in the valley of the Montaigle, situated
about one hundred feet above the river, contained both remains of man
and many bones of the mammoth and other associated animals, which had
evidently been brought in for food.
In the hilly parts of Germany, also, and in Hungary, and even in the
Ural Mountains in Russia, and in one of the provinces of Siberia, the
remains of the rhinoceros, and most of the other animals associated with
man in glacial times, have been found in the cave deposits which have
been examined. Though it can not be directly proved that these animals
were associated with man in any of these places, still it is interesting
to see how wide-spread the animals were in northern Europe and Asia
during the Glacial period.
Some northern animals, also, spread at this time into southern
Europe--remains of the reindeer having been discovered on the south slope
of the Pyrenees, but the remains of the mammoth, the woolly rhinoceros,
and the musk ox, have not been found so far south.
African species of the elephant, however, seem at one time to have had
free range throughout Spain, and the hippopotamus roamed in vast herds
over the valleys of Sicily, while several species of pygmy elephants seem
to be peculiar to the island of Malta.
In the case of all the cave deposits referred to (with possibly the
exception of those of Victoria, England, and Cae Gwyn, Wales), the
evidence of man's existence during the Glacial period is inferential,
and consists largely in the fact that he was associated with various
extinct animals which did not long survive that period, or with animals
that have since retired from Europe to their natural habitat in
mountain-heights or high latitudes. The men whose remains are found in
the high-level river-drift, and in the caverns described, were evidently
not in possession of domestic animals, as their bones are conspicuous for
their absence in all these places. The horse, which would seem to be an
exception, was doubtless used for food, and not for service.
If we were writing upon the general subject of the antiquity and
development of the human race, we should speak here in detail of several
other caves and rock shelters in France and southern Europe, where
remains of man belonging to an earlier period have been found. We should
mention the rock shelter of Cro-Magnon in the valley of Vezère, as well
as that of Mentone, where entire human skeletons were found. But it is
doubtful if these and other remains from caves which might be mentioned
belong in any proper sense to the Glacial period. The same remarks should
be made also with reference to the lake-dwellings in Switzerland, of
which so much has been written in late years. All these belong to a much
later age than the river-drift man of whom we are speaking, and of whom
we have such abundant evidence both in Europe and in America.
[Illustration: Fig. 82.--Tooth of Machairodus neogæus, × 1/6 (drawn from a
cast).]
[Illustration: Fig. 83.--Perfect tooth of an Elephas, found in Stanislaus
County, California, 1/8 natural size.]
_Extinct Animals associated with Man during the Glacial Period._
This is the proper place in which to speak more fully of the extinct
animals which accompanied man in his earliest occupation of Europe and
America, and whose remains are so abundant in the river-drift gravel and
in the caves of England, in connection with the relics of man. Among
these animals are
The Lion, which is now confined, to Africa and the warmer portions of
Asia. But in glacial times a large species of this genus ranged over
Europe from Sicily to central England.
The saber-toothed Tiger, with tusks ten inches long: (Machairodus
latidens), is now extinct. This species was in existence during the
latter part of the Tertiary period, but continued on until after man's
appearance in the Glacial period. The presence of this animal would seem
to indicate a warm climate.
The Leopard (_Felis pardus_) is now confined to Africa and southern Asia,
and the larger islands adjoining; but during man's occupation of Europe
in the Glacial epoch he was evidently haunted at every step by this
animal; for his bones are found as far north in England as palæolithic
man is known to have ranged.
The Hyena. Two species of this animal are found in the bone-caves of
Europe. During the Glacial epoch they ranged as far up as northern
England, but they are now limited to Africa and southwestern Asia.
[Illustration: Fig. 84.--Skull of _Hyena spelæa_, × 1/4.]
The Elephant is represented in the Preglacial and Glacial epochs by
several species, some of which ranged as far north as Siberia. The
African elephant is not now found north of the Pyrenees and the Alps.
But a species of dwarf elephant, but four or five feet in height,
has already been referred to as having occupied Malta and Sicily; and
still another species has been found in Malta, whose average height
was less than three feet. An extinct species (Elephas antiquus), whose
remains are found in the river-drift and in the lower strata of sediment
in many caverns as far north as Yorkshire, England, was of unusual
size, and during the Glacial period was found on both sides of the
Mediterranean. But the species most frequently met with in palæolithic
times was the mammoth (_Elephas primigenius_). This animal, now extinct,
accompanied man in nearly every portion both of Europe and North America,
and lingered far down into post-glacial times before becoming extinct.
This animal was nearly twice the weight of the modern elephant, and one
third taller. Occasionally his tusks were more than twelve feet long,
and curved upward in a circle. It is the carcasses of this animal which
have been found in the frozen soil of Siberia and Alaska. It had a thick
covering of long, black hair, with a dense matting of reddish wool at the
roots. During the Glacial period these animals must have roamed in vast
herds over the plains of northern France and southern England, and the
northern half of North America.
[Illustration: Fig. 85.--Celebrated skeleton of mammoth, in St.
Petersburg museum.]
[Illustration: Fig. 86.--Molar tooth of mammoth (_Elephas primigenius_):
_a_, grinding surface; _b_, side view.]
The Hippopotamus is at present a familiar animal in the larger rivers
of Africa, but is not now found in Europe. During the Glacial period,
however, he ranged as far north as Yorkshire, England, and his remains
were found in close association with those of man, both in Europe and on
the Pacific coast in America. Twenty tons of their bones have been taken
from a single cave in Sicily.[DJ]
[Footnote DJ: Prestwich's Geology, vol. ii, p. 508.]
[Illustration: Fig. 87.--Tooth of _Mastodon Americanus_.]
The mammoth and the rhinoceros we know to have been adapted to cold
climates by the possession of long hair and thick fur, but the
hippopotamus by its love for water would seem to be precluded from the
possession of this protective covering. It is suggested, however, by
Sir William Dawson, that he may have been adapted to arctic climates by
a fatty covering, as the walrus is at the present time. A difficulty in
accounting for many of the remains of the hippopotamus in some of the
English caverns is that they are so far away from present or possible
water-courses. But it would seem that due credit has not been ordinarily
given to the migratory instincts of the animal. In southern Africa they
are known to "travel speedily for miles over land from one pool of a
dried-up river to another; but it is by water that their powers of
locomotion are surpassingly great, not only in rivers, but in the sea....
The geologist, therefore, may freely speculate on the time when herds
of hippopotami issued from North African rivers, such as the Nile, and
swam northward in summer along the coasts of the Mediterranean, or even
occasionally visited islands near the shore. Here and there they may have
landed to graze or browse, tarrying awhile, and afterwards continuing
their course northward. Others may have swum in a few summer days from
rivers in the south of Spain or France to the Somme, Thames, or Severn,
making timely retreat to the south before the snow and ice set in."[DK]
[Footnote DK: Lyell, Antiquity of Man, p. 180,]
The Mastodon (_Mastodon Americanus_), (Fig. 88), "is probably the largest
land mammal known, unless we except the Dinotherium. It was twelve to
thirteen feet high, and, including the tusks, twenty-four to twenty-five
feet long. It differed from the elephant chiefly in the character of its
teeth. The difference is seen in Figs. 86 and 87. The elephant's tooth
given above (Fig. 86) is sixteen inches long, and the grinding surface
eight inches by four."
[Illustration: Fig. 88.--_Mastodon Americanus_ (after Owen).]
The mastodon, together with the mammoth, made their appearance about
the middle of the Miocene epoch. At the close of the Tertiary period
the mastodon became extinct on the Eastern Continent, but continued in
North America to be a companion of man well on toward the close of the
Glacial period. Many perfect skeletons have been found in the deposits
of this period in North America. "One magnificent specimen was found in
a marsh near Newburg, New York, with its legs bent under the body, and
the head thrown up, evidently in the very position in which it mired. The
teeth were still filled with the half-chewed remnants of its food, which
consisted of twigs of spruce, fir, and other trees; and within the ribs,
in the place where the stomach had been, a large quantity of similar
material was found."[DL]
[Footnote DL: Le Conte's Geology (edition of 1891), p. 582.]
The Rhinoceros is now confined to Africa and southern Asia; but the
remains of four species have been found in America, Europe, and northern
Asia, in deposits of the Glacial period. In company with that of the
mammoth, already spoken of, a carcass of the woolly rhinoceros was found
in 1771 in the frozen soil of northern Siberia. The bones of other
species have been found as far north as Yorkshire, England. In the valley
of the Somme there was found "the whole hind limb of a rhinoceros, the
bones of which were still in their true relative position. They must
have been joined together by ligaments and even surrounded by muscles
at the time of their interment." An entire skeleton was found near by.
The gravel terrace in which these occurred is about forty feet above the
floor of the valley, and must have been formed subsequent to some of the
strata which contained the remains of human art. In America the bones are
found in the gold-bearing gravels of California, in connection with human
remains.
[Illustration: Fig. 89.--Skeleton of _Rhinoceros tichorhinus_.]
[Illustration: Fig. 90.--Skull of cave-bear (_Ursus spelæus_),]
The Bear was represented in Europe in palæolithic times by three species,
of which only one exists there at the present time. But during the
Glacial period the grizzly bear, now confined to the western part of
America, and the extinct cave-bear were companions, or enemies as the
case may be, of man throughout Europe. The cave-bear was of large size,
and his bones occur almost everywhere in the lower strata of sediment in
the caves of England.
The Great Irish Elk, or deer, is now extinct, though it is supposed by
some to have lingered until historic times. Its remains are found widely
distributed over middle Europe in deposits of palæolithic age.
[Illustration: Fig. 91.--Skeleton of the Irish elk (_Cervus megaceros_).]
The Horse was also, as we have seen, a very constant associate of man
in middle Europe during the Palæolithic age, but probably not as a
domesticated animal. The evidence is pretty conclusive that he was
prized chiefly for food. About some of the caves in France such immense
quantities of their bones are found that they can be accounted for best
as refuse-heaps into which the useless bones had been thrown after their
feasts, after the manner of the disposal of shells of shell-fish. In
America the horses associated with man were probably of a species now
extinct. The skull of one (_Equus excelsus_) recently found in Texas, in
Pleistocene deposits, associated with human implements, is, according
to Cope, intermediate in character between the horse and quagga.[DM]
The frontal bone was crushed in in a manner to suggest that it had been
knocked in the head with a stone hammer, such as was found in the same
bed. Possibly, therefore, man's love of horse-flesh may have been an
important element in securing the extinction of the species in America.
[Footnote DM: American Naturalist, vol. xxv (October, 1891), p. 912.]
Besides these animals there were associated with man at this time the
Musk Sheep and the Reindeer, both now confined to the regions of the far
north, but during the Glacial period ranging into southern France, and
mingling their bones with those both of man and of the southern species
already enumerated.
[Illustration: Fig. 92.--Musk-sheep (_Ovibos moschatius_).]
The Wolverine, the Arctic Fox, the Marmot, the Lemming--all now confined
to colder regions--at that time mingled on the plains of central Europe
with the species mentioned as belonging now to Africa and southern Asia.
The Ibex, also, and the Snowy Vole and Chamois descended to the plains
from their mountain-heights, and joined in the strange companionship of
animals from the north and from the south.
Besides these extremes there were associated with man during the Glacial
period numerous representatives of the temperate group of existing
animals, such as the bison, the horse, the stag, the beaver, the hare,
the rabbit, the otter, the weasel, the wild-cat, the fox, the wolf, the
wild boar, and the brown bear.
[Illustration: Fig. 93.--Reindeer.]
To account for this strange intermingling of arctic and torrid species
of animals, especially in Europe, during man's occupancy of the region
in glacial times, various theories have been resorted to, but none of
them can be said to be altogether satisfactory. One hypothesis is that
the bones of these diverse animals became mingled by reason of the great
range of the annual migration of the species. The reindeer, for example,
still performs extensive annual migrations. In summer it ventures far out
upon the _tundras_ of North America and Siberia to feed upon the abundant
vegetation that springs up like magic under the influence of the long
days of sunshine; while, as winter approaches, it returns to the forests
of the interior. Or in other places this animal and his associates,
like birds of passage, move northward in summer to escape the heat, and
southward in the winter to escape the extreme cold. Many of the other
animals also are more or less migratory in their habits.
Thus it is thought that during the Glacial period, when man occupied
northern France and southern England, the reindeer, the musk sheep, the
arctic fox, and perhaps the hippopotamus and some other animals, annually
vibrated between northern England and southern France, a slight elevation
of the region furnishing a land passage from England to the continent;
while the chamois and other Alpine species vibrated as regularly between
the valleys in winter and the mountain-heights in summer. The habits of
these species are such that it is not difficult to see how in their case
this migration could have taken place.
Professor Boyd Dawkins attempts to reduce the difficulty by supposing
that the Glacial epoch was marked by the occurrence of minor periods of
climatic variation, during which, in comparatively short periods, the
isothermal lines vibrated from north to south, and _vice versa_. In this
view the southern species gradually crowded upon the northern during
the periods of climatic amelioration, until they reached their limit in
central England, and then in turn, as the climate became more rigorous,
slowly retreated before the pressure of their northern competitors.
Meanwhile the hyena sallied forth from his various caves, over this
region, at one time of the year to feed upon the reindeer, and at another
time of the year upon the flesh of the hippopotamus, in both cases
dragging their bones with him to his sheltered retreat in the limestone
caverns[DN] which he shared at intervals with palæolithic man.
[Footnote DN: Early Man in Britain, p. 114.]
The theory of Mr. James Geikie is that the period, while one of great
precipitation, was characterised by a climate of comparatively even
temperature, in which there was not so great a difference as now between
the winters and the summers, the winters not being so cold and the
summers not so hot as at present. This is substantially the condition of
things in southern Alaska at the present time, where extensive glaciers
come down to the sea-level, even though the thermometer at Sitka rarely
goes below zero (Fahrenheit). It is, therefore, easy to conceive that if
there were extensive plains bordering the Alaskan archipelago, so as to
furnish ranging grounds for more southern species, the animals of the
north and the animals of the south might partially occupy the same belt
of territory, and their bones become mingled in the same river deposits.
In order to clear the way for either of these hypotheses to account
for the mingling of arctic and torrid species characteristic of the
period under consideration in Europe, we must probably suppose such an
elevation of the region to the south as to afford land connection between
Europe and Africa. This would be furnished by only a moderate amount of
elevation across the Strait of Gibraltar and from the south of Italy to
the opposite shore in Africa; and there are many indications, in the
distribution of species, of the existence in late geological times of
such connection.
It should also be observed that the present capacities and habits of
species are not a certain criterion of their past habits and capacities.
As already remarked, both the rhinoceros and the mammoth of glacial
times were probably furnished with a woolly protection, which enabled
them to endure more cold than their present descendants could do, while
the elephant is even now known to be able to endure the rigors of the
climate at great elevations upon the Himalaya Mountains. We can easily
imagine these species to have been adjusted to quite different climatic
conditions from those which now seem necessary to their existence. In
the case of the hippopotamus, also, it is quite possible, as already
suggested, that it is more inclined to migration than is generally
supposed.
Geikie's theory of the prevalence of an equable climate during a portion
of the Glacial period in Europe is thought to be further sustained
by the character of the vegetation which then covered the region, as
well as by the remains of the mollusks which occupied the waters. Then
"temperate and southern species like the ash, the poplar, the sycamore,
the fig-tree, the Judas-tree, the laurel, etc., overspread all the low
ground of France, as far north at least as Paris.... It was under such
conditions," continues Geikie, "that the elephants, rhinoceroses, and
hippopotamuses, and the vast herds of temperate cervine and bovine
species ranged over Europe, from the shores of the Mediterranean up to
the latitude of Yorkshire, and probably even farther north still; and
from the borders of Asia to the Western Ocean. Despite the presence of
numerous fierce carnivora--lions, hyenas, tigers, and others--Europe at
that time, with its shady forests, its laurel-margined streams, its broad
and deep-flowing rivers, a country in every way suited to the needs of a
race of hunters and fishers--must have been no unpleasant habitation for
palæolithic man.
"This, however, is only one side of the picture. There was a time when
the climate of Pleistocene Europe presented the strongest contrast to
those genial conditions--a time when the dwarf birch of the Scottish
Highlands, and the arctic willow, with their northern congeners, grew
upon the low grounds of middle Europe. Arctic animals, such as the musk
sheep and the reindeer, lived then, all the year round, in the south of
France; the mammoth ranged into Spain and Italy; the glutton descended to
the shores of the Mediterranean; the marmot came down to the low grounds
at the foot of the Apennines; and the lagomys inhabited the low-lying
maritime districts of Corsica and Sardinia. The land and fresh-water
shells of many Pleistocene deposits tell a similar tale; boreal, high
alpine, and hyperborean forms are characteristic of these accumulations
in central Europe; even in the southern regions of our continent the
shells testify to a former colder and wetter climate."[DO]
[Footnote DO: Prehistoric Europe, p. 67.]
In Mr. Geikie's view these facts indicate two Glacial periods, with an
intervening epoch of mild climate. In the opinion of others they are
readily explainable by the coming on and departure of a single Ice age,
with its various minor episodes.
_Earliest Remains of Man on the Pacific Coast of North America._
Most interesting evidence concerning the antiquity of man in America,
and his relation to the Glacial period, has come from the Pacific coast.
During the height of the mining activity in California, from 1850 to
1860, numerous reports were rife that human remains had been discovered
in the gold-bearing gravel upon the flanks of the Sierra Nevada
Mountains. These reports did not attract much scientific attention until
they came to relate to the gravel deposits found deeply buried beneath
a flow of lava locally known as the Sonora or Tuolumne Table Mountain.
This lava issued from a vent near the summit of the mountain-range, and
flowed down the valley of the Stanislaus River for a distance of fifty or
sixty miles, burying everything in the valley beneath it, and compelling
the river to seek another channel. The thickness of the lava averages
about one hundred feet, and so long a time has elapsed since the eruption
that the softer strata on either side of the valley down which it flowed
have been worn away to such an extent that the lava now rises nearly
everywhere above the general level, and has become a striking feature in
the landscape, stretching for many miles as a flat-topped ridge about
half a mile in width, and presenting upon the sides a perpendicular face
of solid basalt for a considerable distance near the lower end of the
flow.
[Illustration: Fig. 94.--Section across Table Mountain, Tuolumne County,
California: _L_, lava; _G_, gravel; _S_, slate; _R_, old river-bed; _R'_,
present river-bed.]
[Illustration: Fig. 95.--Calaveras Skull. (From Whitney.)]
It was under this mountain of lava that the numerous implements and
remains of man occurred which were reported to Professor J. D. Whitney
when he was conducting the geological survey of California between 1860
and 1870. The implements consisted of stone mortars and pestles, suitable
for use in grinding acorns and other coarse articles of food. There were,
however, some rude articles of ornament. In one of the mining shafts
penetrating the gravel underneath Table Mountain, near Sonora, there was
reported to have been discovered, in 1857, a human jawbone, one portion
of which was sent by responsible parties to the Boston Society of Natural
History, and another part to the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences, in
whose collections the fragments can now be seen.
Interest reached a still higher pitch when, in 1860, an entire human
skull with some other human bones was reported to have been discovered
under this same lava deposit, a few miles from Sonora, at Altaville, in
Calaveras County, and hence known as the "Calaveras skull." Persistent
efforts were made soon after to discredit the genuineness of this
discovery. Bret Harte showered upon it the shafts of his ridicule, and
various other persons gave currency to the story that the whole report
originated in a joke played by the miners upon unsuspecting geologists.
These attacks were so successful that many conservative archæologists and
men of science have refused to accept the skull as genuine.
Recent events, however, have brought such additional evidence[DP] to the
support of this discovery that it would seem unreasonable any longer to
refuse to credit the testimony. At the meeting of the Geological Society
of America, at Washington, in January, 1891, Mr. George P. Becker, of
the United States Geological Survey, who for some years has had charge
of investigations relating to the gold-bearing gravels of the Pacific
coast, presented the affidavit of Mr. J. H. Neale, a well-known mining
engineer of unquestionable character, stating that he had taken a stone
mortar and pestle, together with some spear-heads (which through Mr.
Becker he presented to the Society), from undisturbed strata of gravel
underneath the lava of Table Mountain, near Rawhide Gulch, a few miles
from Sonora. At the same meeting Mr. Becker presented a pestle which
Mr. Clarence King, the first director of the United States Geological
Survey, took with his own hands out of undisturbed gravel under this same
lava deposit, near Tuttletown, a mile or two from the preceding locality
mentioned.
[Footnote DP: See Bulletin Geological Society of America, 1891, pp.
189-200.]
I was so fortunate, also, as to be able to report to the Society at the
same meeting the discovery, in 1887, of a small stone mortar by Mr. C.
McTarnahan, the assistant surveyor of Tuolumne County. This mortar was
found by Mr. McTarnahan in the Empire mine, which penetrates the gravel
underneath Table Mountain, about three miles from Sonora, and not far
from the other localities above mentioned. The place where the mortar was
found is about one hundred and seventy-five feet in from the edge of the
superincumbent lava, which is here about one hundred feet in thickness.
At my request, this mortar was presented by its owner, Mrs. M. J. Darwin,
to the Western Reserve Historical Society of Cleveland, Ohio, in whose
collection it can now be seen.
These three independent instances, each of them authenticated by the best
of evidence, have such cumulative force that probably few men of science
will longer stand out against it.
Associated with these discoveries, there is to be mentioned another,
which was brought to my notice by Mr. Charles Francis Adams in October,
1889.[DQ] This was a miniature clay image of a female form, about one
inch and a half in length, and beautifully formed, which was found, in
August, 1889, by Mr. M. A. Kurtz, while boring an artesian well at Nampa,
Ada County, Idaho. The strata passed through included, near the surface,
fifteen feet of lava. Underneath this, alternating beds of clay and
quicksand occurred to a depth of three hundred and twenty feet, where
there appeared indications of a former surface soil lying just above the
bed-rock, from which the clay image was brought up in the sand-pump.
[Footnote DQ: See Proceedings Boston Society Natural History, January,
1890, and February, 1891.]
[Illustration: Fig. 96.--Three views of Nampa image drawn to scale. The
middle one is from a photograph.]
I devoted the summer of 1890 to a careful study of the lava deposits both
in Idaho and in California, with a view to learning their significance
with reference to these discoveries. The main facts brought to light by
this investigation are that in the Snake River Valley, Idaho, there are
not far from twelve thousand square miles of territory covered with a
continuous stratum of basaltic lava, extending nearly across the entire
diameter of the State from east to west. Nampa, where the miniature
image was discovered, is within five miles of the western limit of this
lava-flow, and where it had greatly thinned out. The relative age of the
lava is shown by its relation to Tertiary beds of shale and sandstone,
containing numerous fossils of late Pliocene species. These are overlaid
in this vicinity by the lava, thus determining its post-Tertiary
character. Examination with reference to the more precise determination
of age reveals channels of erosion formed since the lava-flow took
place, which, when studied sufficiently, will probably lead to valuable
approximate results. At present I can only say that the amount of
erosion since the lava eruptions of western Idaho is not excessive, and
very likely may be brought within a period of from ten thousand to twenty
thousand years. The enormous erosion in the cañon of the Snake River,
near Shoshone Falls, in central Idaho, is doubtless of a much earlier
date than that in the Boise River, near Nampa.
[Illustration: Fig. 97.--Map showing Pocatello, Nampa, and the valley of
Snake River.]
The disturbances created in this part of the valley by the bursting of
the barriers between the glacial Lake Bonneville and the Snake River,
already described (see above, page 233), have not been worked out. There
can be no doubt, however, that interesting results will come to light
in connection with the problem; for Pocatello, the point at which the
_débâcle_ reached the Snake River plain, is about 2,000 feet higher than
Nampa, and 350 miles distant, and the water must have poured into the
valley faster than the river in its upper portion could have discharged
it. By just what channels the mighty current worked down to the lower
levels on the western borders of the State it would be most interesting
as well as instructive to know.
A study of the situation in Tuolumne and Calaveras Counties, California,
reveals a state of things closely resembling, in important respects,
that in western Idaho. At first sight the impression is made that an
immense lapse of time must have occurred since the volcanic eruption
which furnished the lava of Table Mountain. The Stanislaus River flows
in a channel of erosion a thousand feet or more lower than the ancient
channel filled by lava, and in two or three places cuts directly across
it. An immense amount of time, also, would seem to be required to permit
the smaller local streams to have worn away so much of the sides of the
ancient valley as to allow the lava deposit now so continuously to rise
above the general surface. Still, the question of absolute time cannot
be considered separately without much further study. It is by no means
certain that, when the lava-stream poured down the mountain, it always
followed the lowest depressions; but at certain points it may have been
dammed up in its course by its own accumulations so as to be turned off
into what was then an ancient abandoned channel.
[Illustration: Fig. 98.--Section along the line, north and south:
_r' r'_, old river-beds; _r r_, present river-beds; _L_, lava;
_sl_, slate.]
The forms of animal and vegetable life with which the remains of man
under Table Mountain are associated, are, indeed, to a considerable
extent, species now extinct in California, and some of them no longer
exist anywhere in the world. But a suggestion of Professor Prestwich,
in England, made with reference to the extinct forms of life associated
with human remains in the glacial deposits in Europe, is revived by
Mr. Becker, of the Geological Survey, with reference to the California
discoveries; his inference being, not that man is so extremely ancient
in California, but that many of these plants and animals have continued
to a more recent date than has ordinarily been supposed.
The connection of these lava-flows on the Pacific coast with the Glacial
period is unquestionably close. For some reason which we do not fully
understand, the vast accumulation of ice in North America during the
Glacial period is correlated with enormous eruptions of lava west of the
Rocky Mountains, and, in connection with these events, there took place
on the Pacific coast an almost entire change in the plants and animals
occupying the region. Mr. Warren Upham is of the opinion that on the
Pacific coast they lingered much later than in the region east of the
Rocky Mountains. Indeed, it is pretty certain that not many centuries
have elapsed since the glacial phenomena of the Sierra Nevada Mountains
were much more pronounced than they are at the present time, and it is
equally certain that there have been vast eruptions of lava in California
within three hundred years.
From these data, therefore, Mr. Becker has real foundation for his
suggestion that perhaps in the Glacial period California was a kind of
health resort for Pliocene animals, as it is at the present time for man;
or, at any rate, that the later date of the accumulations permitted the
animals to survive there much longer than in the region east of the Rocky
Mountains.
Further discussion of the preceding facts will profitably be deferred
until, in the next two chapters, the questions of the cause and date of
the Glacial period have been considered.