Mastodon; but it had tusks in the lower jaws as well as the upper,
four in all, and the lower tusks dropped out when the animal grew old.
The whole skeleton of one of these is also put up in the Museum, which
you ought to go and see.[16] Mastodons’ bones have been discovered in
England and other parts of Europe, and in North and South America and
India, so that they were spread pretty well all over the world. They
had very curious pointed teeth rather like a lot of fir cones piled
together, not flat grinders like those of the mammoth and all living
elephants, and perhaps they fed upon fruits and nuts, and boughs, as
I do not think they could have managed well to chew grass and leaves
with such pointed teeth. The teeth in their old dead jaws are still
beautifully white and look like china. Both the mammoth and the
mastodon had long trunks of course, and they must have been grand
looking creatures marching about in the English forests. We should be
very much startled if we were to meet one of them now in an English
wood: but there is no chance of that, they have all passed away, and
the only relations they have living are the elephants of Africa and
Asia.
During this Tertiary period, or at least the early part of it, besides
the mammoth and mastodon, the hippopotamus and rhinoceros were
plentiful about the Thames. Those same Ilford marshes in Essex have
been a complete storehouse of the remains of these animals. The bones
of a hundred different mammoths and eighty rhinoceroses have been dug
up lately from the damp, black soil, as well as many belonging to the
hippopotamus, and we can have no doubt that all the swamps along the
north side of the river were inhabited by large herds of these huge
beasts, or so many of their skeletons could not have been collected in
one place. It is very likely they were overtaken in a flood of the
river and drowned, and their bodies sank down in the mud of the river
bank: but anyhow, there they are to tell us that they lived and died
almost within sight of the Tower of London, if it had been built then,
as of course it was not.
[Illustration: VIII.
_Gigantic Irish Stag_ (_Cervus Megaceros_).]
Long long ago too, before there was a single brick where London stands,
and when the few human beings who were living were obliged to hide
themselves in caves, great lions might have been heard roaring at night
in the forests of the Thames Valley. The bones of this lion have been
found in many different parts of England, and a terrible fellow he
must have been, for some of his canine teeth (the long sharp teeth in
cats and dogs) were more than six inches long. Indeed they were like
small swords, and this is why he has been called the “sabre-toothed”
lion. There were also bears, like the great grisly bear of America, and
leopards, hyenas, and wolves, and besides two kinds of ox far larger
than those we have now. But one of the handsomest animals was the great
Irish stag. When standing upright the top of his horns would be as
high as two tall men. He was indeed a fine fellow with his immense
spreading antlers. The deer in our parks would look dwarfs beside him.
He inhabited both England and Ireland: but, being found more often in
Ireland, he has got the name of the _Irish_ stag. As many as thirty of
the skeletons of these stags have been found together under a bog in
Ireland, and in some of the bones the marrow is still preserved, and
they burn well. Fences have been made of these bones in Ireland, and
when the people of a small village in the county of Antrim heard of the
battle of Waterloo they made a great bonfire of the bones and horns
of the Irish stag to rejoice over the victory. I dare say these stags
were hunted by wolves, and perhaps driven on to the ice of ancient
lakes, where they broke through and got drowned, for so many of their
skeletons are found together. I could not pass this magnificent stag by
without giving you a picture of him.[17] He was a much nobler looking
animal than the reindeer, which lived along with him at the time in
England, and from his appearance I should say he was a swift runner and
great fighter. Some antlers have been found locked together, just as
these stags died in mortal combat, and I never see Sir Edwin Landseer’s
beautiful picture of two red-deer stags fighting without thinking what
a grand sight it would have been to see two of these great Irish stags
rushing at each other with their powerful horns.
Not one of those animals is living now, and none of them is mentioned
in any history or tradition whatever, and though there is no doubt that
men living in Europe saw the mammoth alive (as you will find in the
next chapter), they knew of no kind of writing in which to tell us of
them; these fossils are the only records left, but they speak plainly
enough of the time when England and the whole of Europe were inhabited
by these races of huge animals.
[Illustration: IX.
_The Megatherium._]
Now I must carry you away to South America, where there are more
wonders. If I were to tell you of all the singular monsters people
have found in the beds of the rivers there it would make a book of
itself. You know what large rivers there are in that country, and how
they run for thousands of miles through almost flat plains called
“Pampas.” Well, these rivers have often changed their beds by cutting
new channels in the soft soil. The old dry beds of the rivers are
the burying-places of some most curious animals, but I have not room
to tell you about more than one of them at present. He is called the
_Megatherium_, which means “great beast.” His size and strength were
enormous. The largest hippopotamus looks small by his side. His leg
bones are bigger than your body. He was more like the sloth than any
other living animal, but he could not climb. He stood on those huge,
broad hind feet, with his strong tail as a sort of third leg, and tore
down the branches of the trees to feed on, or even rooted them up to
get at the leaves. Standing by his skeleton in the British Museum[18]
one feels quite a shrimp, and he looks strong enough to walk away
comfortably with an elephant on his back.
Another immense animal inhabited South America at the time, which
geologists have called _Dinotherium_, or “dreadful beast.”[19] He was a
relation of the mastodon, but his tusks were very curious. Instead of
being in the upper jaw and turned upwards they stuck out from the lower
jaw and curved downwards, giving him a very odd appearance. He most
probably had a trunk like the mammoth or mastodon, but perhaps not so
long. All these of course were vegetable feeders.
The Tertiary period is so remarkable for the numbers of animals more
or less related to elephants and spread all over the world, that we
might almost call it the “elephant age,” as the oolite has been named
the “reptile age.” These elephantine animals abounded in Europe, Asia,
and North and South America, and though none of this kind have yet been
found in Australia and Africa, I cannot help thinking they will be
discovered in Africa at all events, for there is no doubt that Africa
and Europe were once joined.
Australia you know possesses that animal so unlike all others that when
we first see it we are quite astonished—the kangaroo. The bones of a
huge fossil kangaroo have been found in Australia which must have stood
fourteen or fifteen feet high I should think when on its hind legs, or
more than twice as large as any living now.[20] Then there were giant
birds in New Zealand (something like the ostrich) called _dinornis_ or
“dreadful bird.” These fellows had no wings, and they must have been
very much taller than the ostrich or emu. To look at their leg bones
you would think they were the bones of oxen instead of birds, they are
so immensely thick and strong. I do not think any of these are living
now, because they have been sought for carefully, and none of the
natives even can say that they have seen one. But their skeletons are
common in the surface earth, and their bones, cracked to get the marrow
out of them, are often dug out of the heaps of refuse collected about
ancient cooking places. So that they were used for food, and perhaps
they have not been extinct—that is to say, died out—more than a few
hundred years; and this is more likely because feathers are sometimes
attached to the remains, and undecayed sinews on the feet. A human
skeleton has been found in a grave in New Zealand, too, with the egg
of one between its arms, and little piles of pebbles are often seen
among their bones, where the stomach would be, which the bird swallowed
to digest its food, just as many birds do now. The natives called
it the Moa, and they have some traditions about it, and, all things
considered, it is probably one of the most recent fossil animals, and
that is the reason why I have left it to the last.[21]
Now I dare say you will wish to know when the animals living now took
the place of those I have described, and which have all passed away.
This cannot be told with certainty, but you will see in the “Human
Part” that Men were living when the mammoth, mastodon, and some other
extinct animals, inhabited the Earth, and that the reindeer, ox, bear,
wolf, hyena, &c., have survived to the present day.
Throughout these immense periods of time there are gaps which we cannot
yet fill up. No one can yet say, for instance, when the last of the
mammoths disappeared, and the first of their near relations, the Indian
and African elephants, took their place. These are the missing parts
of “the puzzle of life” which you may perhaps one of these days find
when you come to study the subject, and when you have learned all that
is known at present. But you may be sure of this, that throughout all
time there has been _progress_, the lower forms of animal life have
been followed by more perfect forms as the Earth grew older. It is true
the lower forms of life have not all died out. These imperfect animals
have run through all the ages—the chalk builder of the Cretaceous age
lives in the ocean now—and there are many other simple animals which
lived in Old Red Sandstone times, and are not extinct yet, but wherever
a superior kind of animal has passed away another more perfect has
taken its place. This will be seen at once if we compare the “Reptile
Age” with the Tertiary. The great ichthyosaurus, plesiosaurus, and
pterodactyl are gone, but now we have the more perfect crocodiles
and birds. The mammoth is gone, but we have the elephant. There are
no giant mosses or towering tree ferns, but our forest trees are more
perfect and more varied. The plants which formed the coal forests and
once clothed the Earth with beauty have dwindled away to the lowly
forms which we must stoop to examine in swamps, and these humble plants
are all the surviving relatives of their once noble family. The lordly
oaks and elms, stronger, and even more lovely in the sweet drapery of
their foliage, and much better fitted for our use, have succeeded all
those soft-stemmed plants which grew so fast and were the best possible
kind for forming coal.
When you are able to study what is called comparative anatomy you will
see how wonderful the _plan_ of creation is, and how beautifully it
has been worked out by its great Designer. You will see in the bones
of the reptiles of the oolite rocks a prophecy as it were of the birds
and animals which were to come. What could be more prophetic of animals
with the power of perfect flight than the leather-winged pterodactyl,
half lizard and half bird? In some of these animals you will see bones
only half formed, and useless to that creature, which were brought to
perfection in later times, and became the most important part of the
body.
It is very difficult for me to make all this plain to you, but if you
are really interested in it you will go to a museum where the fossils
are collected, and then I am very much mistaken if you do not find a
new and strange world opened to you.
FOOTNOTES:
[7] Numerous specimens in Case No. 7, Room V.
[8] Specimens of fossil fishes from various rocks in Wall-case No. 1,
Room II.
[9] See examples in the large Wall-cases in Rooms I., II., and III.,
North Gallery.
[10] So called because the mountain chain of the Jura Alps was raised
during this period.
[11] Several specimens in Room III., and in Table-case No. 16, Room IV.
[12] Wall-case No. 11 in Room III., several specimens, imperfect.
[13] From the Latin word “creta,” meaning chalk.
[14] Ammonites in the Table-cases in Rooms V. and VI. For enlarged
models of foraminifera, see Case No. 15 in Room V.
[15] Room VI., North Gallery.
[16] In the same room.
[17] Complete specimens of male and female in the middle of Room V.
[18] Room VI.
[19] Head and tusks in Wall-case No. 2, Room VI.
[20] Skull in Wall-case No. 1, Room VI.
[21] Several specimens in Wall-case No. 11, Room III.
_THE HUMAN PART._
The history of the human race is of course even more interesting than
that of the plants and animals which lived so long before man and
prepared the way for him, because man is the “crown of creation.”
When first placed on this Earth he must have been but little superior
to the animals in his outward life, though he had very different powers
within him. He could gather the fruits of the Earth like them, and
perhaps used some of the smaller creatures as food, but he could do
little more. He scarcely knew that he possessed the faculties which
would in time make him lord of the Earth and the creatures inhabiting
it. By slow and painful experience he was to gather those stores of
knowledge that were to enable him to overcome difficulties, to provide
him with shelter from the weather and protection from dangerous
animals, give increasing comfort and power, and set him so far above
all other created things. He found plants and animals for his use, and
the dwellings in caves and holes ready made by Nature. He could neither
build houses nor make weapons. The first weapon he ever used probably
was a stone, which he could throw at small animals. Then he would find
out that long, sharp-pointed sticks could be thrown like spears, and
he also found that a long pliant piece of wood when bent would fly
back, and in this he would see a means of throwing smaller pointed
sticks like arrows, and I dare say the discovery of the way of making
a bow with a string of twisted animal skin was a great invention, and
it certainly would be a very valuable one. Many generations must have
passed away before he got even as far as this. It is very easy for us,
who see bows and arrows from our childhood, to understand their use at
once: but the first human inhabitants of the world had to find them out
for themselves. They began with _no_ knowledge at all. The beasts of
the field and the fruits of the Earth were given them, but they could
MAKE nothing. They had not even the natural covering of hair, or wool,
or feathers, which animals and birds have, and they must first have
clothed themselves with skins of these. The wants of their daily life
were so great that they had no time to think of anything else, but
when it became easier to satisfy these bodily wants their minds turned
to other things. They must have seen that when the seeds and fruits
of plants fall upon the ground they grow and produce the same kind of
plant, but they did not at first think of gathering a great number of
these seeds and sowing them in one place and making a garden. They
could wander about and gather all they needed as they became ripe, for
there were few people then. Their life was like that of the lilies of
the field, they “toiled not neither did they spin,” as Christ says of
the flowers, but when they began to increase in number something more
was wanted. People began to feel something within them which we call
“intellect,” and this must be satisfied. It was not enough to live as
if they were no nobler than the animals. Something stirred in their
minds which told them they must not stand still.
The Creator has made both us and the wood and stone and metals, and
has given to us the power to make other things out of them. Thus we
are nearer to Him in power than any of the animals who cannot change
the rough materials into other forms. We admire the simple and really
beautiful nest of the bird, but we feel that our power is greater
when we consider our splendid buildings and steam-engines, our ships,
and our many conquests over difficulties. But if we did not use these
greater powers of mind and hand well, we should find them grow weaker
and weaker until we might almost lose them.
You may easily suppose that there was a time when men could not write,
and there were no books of any kind, nor any other means of exchanging
thoughts except through spoken language. The earliest histories about
the human race always speak of men who lived before those histories
were written. We have nothing about the earliest men written by
_themselves_. It is always someone else who writes of them, referring
to their deeds, and to events which happened long before.
The art of writing has grown up gradually and very slowly, for when the
inhabitants of the Earth became numerous they felt the need of some
way of expressing themselves to those at a distance from them, and for
making a record of things that happened and might be forgotten. Some
of the earliest means of writing were by pictures, like the picture
writings of Mexico[22] found by the Spanish conquerors, and something
of the same kind is even now used by the Chinese and Japanese. Their
writing is made up partly of pictures and partly of queer signs which
stand for the names of things, as you know if you have ever seen
one of their books. One of the oldest forms of writing known is the
hieroglyphic, which is said to have been first used by the Egyptians
about 2,100 years before Christ, and another is the arrow-shaped
writing of the Assyrians. These were cut on stone and metal tablets,
and most of them are the histories of their kings. But there are some
writings on stone in India which are thought to be older still. The
Egyptians made great progress in writing afterwards when _papyrus_
was invented.[23] This is a kind of paper made from a reed which grows
abundantly in the river Nile, and many of these papyrus writings are
preserved in the British Museum, as well as the writings on stone of
the Egyptians and Assyrians, and learned men have spelled out a great
deal of the history of these nations from them, though the language is
quite different from any spoken or written now.
Picture writing was most likely one of the earliest inventions in this
way: but it was so troublesome that signs were used to express the same
things as the picture. For instance, suppose a history of a king was to
be written. The word “king” would be shown by something he always wore,
such as his crown, and this sign would become more simple until at last
it might not be anything like a crown; but it would be remembered that
the sign stood for a king all the same. The first letter of the Hebrew
alphabet, _aleph_, means an ox, and the letter is something like the
shape of the head of that animal with its horns; and another letter,
called _shin_, which in Hebrew means a tooth, is actually very like a
tooth with three points. In many languages these signs have become so
altered that they do not now resemble the things they at first stood
for; but the first steps in the invention of written language were
certainly made by signs representing the thing of which the person
wished to give an idea. But you will learn all about these ancient
writings from other books.
The men whose lives I am going to describe lived long before any of
these writings were invented. They _spoke_ a language of course, though
there is nothing left to show that they knew of any kind of writing,
and they are called Pre-historic men because they lived before there
were any histories either written by themselves or about them. But they
could draw a little, as we know from the pictures of animals, birds,
and fishes scratched upon pieces of slate, and bone, and stone found in
their graves. Perhaps these pictures were memorials of their great or
wise men, or showed that they were clever hunters, or fishermen.
They knew the use of fire. Half burnt bones and wood and ashes are
plentiful in the caves where they lived. They had none of the means we
possess for kindling fire, and there are only two ways by which they
could have got it. They might have rubbed two pieces of very dry wood
together until the heat lighted them, as many savages do at the present
time; or they might have struck sparks from flint upon rotten wood and
blown the spark into a flame. We may be sure that when once a fire was
lighted they would take care it did not go out, and if they wanted to
travel they would carry with them a piece of smouldering wood to light
the fire again. I do not suppose that these pre-historic men were any
more civilized than the savages of Australia and other countries, and
I have often thought when looking at these savages that they live in
almost exactly the same way as the earliest inhabitants of Europe did.
They have the same shaped weapons and tools made of stone, and these
are fixed to the handles in the same way. They have the same kinds of
needles and fish-hooks made of bone, and they sew skins together with
threads made from the sinews of animals. Thus we see men living now
in many parts of the world who are quite as uncivilized as the old
inhabitants of Europe, who lived perhaps thousands of years before the
Egyptians and Assyrians.
These very ancient men knew nothing about metals. All their tools were
made of flint, or bone, or stone, and they were of the rough shape you
see in the pictures on the next page, and it is for this reason that
this has been called the _Stone Age_. These were chipped out with great
trouble and labour, and most of them were not even polished. With these
they had to kill animals for food, to cut down trees, and fight against
their enemies. The skeleton of a mastodon was found in the state of
Missouri in America about thirty-five years ago with numbers of these
flint arrow-heads underneath and near it. Perhaps it had been shot at
with arrows, and when it died the flint points fell out of its decaying
flesh. But it is not likely that these pre-historic men could have
killed many such large animals, unless they caught them in pits covered
over with branches of trees and earth, into which they might fall,
as elephants are sometimes caught in Africa.
[Illustration: X.
1. _Flint Arrow-head._
2. _Stone Axe in handle._
3. _Flint Knife._
4. _Bone Harpoon._
5. _Bone Needles._
6. _Sceptre made of Horn._
7. _Marrow Spoon._]
Nothing shows us so well the immense time which must have passed since
the men of the stone age lived as that these flint weapons and tools
are found nearly all over the world, in Northern Europe, including
our own country, in Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Palestine, Africa,
Japan, America, &c.; and yet none of the present inhabitants of these
countries have any history or tradition of the time when they were
used. Metals are now used instead, and there is no record of the time
when flint only was known. We are quite certain however that the stone
age men lived at the same period as the great animals of the Tertiary
age, the mammoth, the mastodon, the woolly rhinoceros, the Irish stag,
the cave bear, and others you have read of in former chapters, because
flint and stone weapons are found in the same beds of earth with these
animals.[24]
Suppose one of the present Indian or African elephants with his rider
were to fall into a river and they were to sink to the bottom and be
covered with mud, and suppose his rider had in his pocket some of our
sovereigns. If that elephant should be accidentally dug up thousands of
years to come, when most likely all elephants will have died off the
earth, people would know for certain, from the date and figure of the
Queen on the money, that elephants were used by the English in this
reign, even if all our books and monuments had perished, and a new
people inhabited the Earth. Something of the same kind has happened to
prove to us that the stone-age men saw the mammoth alive. In one of
their graves there is a slice of a mammoth’s great back tooth with a
beautiful picture of the animal, with his bristly hair, scratched on
the ivory, and there are also many of the flint and stone weapons which
show that the skeleton in the grave was that of a primeval man. This
little picture tells its tale more faithfully than any history. It is
all the more certain to tell it truly because it was never _meant_ to
tell one. When that man was buried with this sign that he was a mighty
hunter of the mammoth, or an artist, no one could imagine that he would
ever be dug up to show us, who come so long afterwards, that he saw the
mammoth roaming through the forests of the far away past. There can be
no doubt that it is a very good drawing of the mammoth with its long
turned-up tusks, like those in the picture at the beginning of the book.