and arrangement with Avebury or Carnak, but are in some respects
even more remarkable. One of these at Newark, Ohio, covers an area
of several miles, with its connected groups of circles, octagons,
squares, ellipses, and avenues on a grand scale, and formed by
embankments from twenty to thirty feet in height. Other similar
works occur in different parts of Ohio; and by accurate survey it
is found, not only that the circles are true, though some of them
are one-third of a mile in diameter, but that other figures are
truly square, each side being over 1,000 feet long; and, what is
still more important, the dimensions of some of these geometrical
figures in different parts of the country and seventy miles apart,
are identical. Now this proves the use, by the builders of these
works, of some standard measures of length; while the accuracy
of the squares, circles, and, in a less degree, of the octagonal
figures, shows a considerable knowledge of rudimentary geometry
and some means of measuring angles. The difficulty of drawing such
figures on a large scale is much greater than any one would imagine
who has not tried it; and the accuracy of these is far beyond what
is necessary to satisfy the eye. We must therefore impute to the
builders the wish to make these figures as accurate as possible;
and this wish is a greater proof of habitual skill and intellectual
advancement than even the ability to draw such figures. If, then,
we take into account this ability and this love of geometric truth,
and further consider the dense population and civil organisation
implied by the construction of such extensive systematic works, we
must allow that these ancient people had reached the earlier stages
of a civilisation of which no traces existed among the savage tribes
who alone occupied the country when first visited by Europeans.
The animal mounds are of comparatively less importance for our
present purpose, as they imply a somewhat lower grade of advancement;
but the sepulchral and sacrificial mounds exist in vast numbers, and
their partial exploration has yielded a quantity of articles and
works of art which throw some further light on the peculiarities of
this mysterious people. Most of these mounds contain a large concave
hearth or basin of burnt clay, of perfectly symmetrical form, on
which are found deposited more or less abundant relics, all bearing
traces of the action of fire. We are therefore only acquainted with
such articles as are practically fire-proof, or have accidentally
escaped combustion. These consist of bone and copper implements and
ornaments, discs, and tubes; pearl, shell, and silver beads, more or
less injured by the fire; ornaments cut in mica; ornamental pottery;
and numbers of elaborate carvings in stone, mostly forming pipes for
smoking.[60] The metallic articles are all formed by hammering,
but the execution is very good; plates of mica are found cut into
scrolls and circles; the pottery, of which very few remains have been
found, is far superior to that of any of the Indian tribes, since
Dr. Wilson is of opinion that it must have been formed on a wheel,
as it is often of uniform thickness throughout (sometimes not more
than one-sixth of an inch), polished, and ornamented with scrolls
and figures of birds and flowers in delicate relief. But the most
instructive objects are the sculptured stone pipes, representing not
only various easily recognizable animals, but also human heads, so
well executed that they appear to be portraits. Among the animals,
not only are such native forms as the panther, bear, otter, wolf,
beaver, raccoon, heron, crow, turtle, frog, rattlesnake, and many
others well represented, but also the manatee, which perhaps then
ascended the Mississippi as it now does the Amazon, and the toucan,
which could hardly have been obtained nearer than Mexico. The
sculptured heads are especially remarkable, because they present to
us the features of an intellectual and civilised people. The nose
in some is perfectly straight, and neither prominent nor dilated;
the mouth is small, and the lips thin; the chin and upper lip are
short, contrasting with the ponderous jaw of the modern Indian,
while the cheek-bones present no marked prominence. Other examples
have the nose somewhat projecting at the apex in a manner quite
unlike the features of any American indigenes; and although there
are some which show a much coarser face, it is very difficult to
see in any of them that close resemblance to the Indian type which
these sculptures have been said to exhibit. The few authentic crania
from the mounds present corresponding features, being far more
symmetrical and better developed in the frontal region than those
of any American tribes, although somewhat resembling them in the
occipital outline;[61] while one was described by its discoverer (Mr.
W. Marshall Anderson) as a “beautiful skull, worthy of a Greek.”
[60] Woven cloth, apparently of flax or hemp, as well as gauges
supposed to have been used to regulate the thickness of the thread,
have also been found in several of the mounds of Ohio. (Foster’s
_Prehistoric Races of the United States_, 1873, pp. 225-229.)
[61] Wilson’s _Prehistoric Man_, 3rd edit. vol. ii. pp. 123-130.
The antiquity of this remarkable race may perhaps not be very great
as compared with the prehistoric man of Europe, although the opinion
of some writers on the subject seems affected by that “parsimony
of time” on which the late Sir Charles Lyell so often dilated. The
mounds are all overgrown with dense forest, and one of the large
trees was estimated to be 800 years old, while other observers
consider the forest growth to indicate an age of at least 1,000
years. But it is well known that it requires several generations of
trees to pass away before the growth on a deserted clearing comes
to correspond with that of the surrounding virgin forest, while
this forest, once established, may go on growing for an unknown
number of thousands of years. The 800 or 1,000 years estimate from
the growth of existing vegetation is a minimum which has no bearing
whatever on the actual age of these mounds; and we might almost as
well attempt to determine the time of the glacial epoch from the
age of the pines or oaks which now grow on the moraines.
The important thing for us, however, is that when North America was
first settled by Europeans, the Indian tribes inhabiting it had no
knowledge or tradition of any preceding race of higher civilisation
than themselves. Yet we find that such a race existed; that they
must have been populous and have lived under some established
government; while there are signs that they practised agriculture
largely, as, indeed, they must have done to have supported a
population capable of executing such gigantic works in such vast
profusion; for it is stated that the mounds and earthworks of
various kinds in the state of Ohio alone, amount to between eleven
and twelve thousand. In their habits, customs, religion, and
arts, they differed strikingly from all the Indian tribes; while
their love of art and of geometric forms, and their capacity for
executing the latter upon so gigantic a scale, render it probable
that they were a really civilised people, although the form their
civilisation took may have been very different from that of later
peoples, subject to very different influences and the inheritors of
a longer series of ancestral civilisations. We have here, at all
events, a striking example of the transition, over an extensive
country, from comparative civilisation to comparative barbarism, the
former leaving no tradition and hardly any trace of its influence
on the latter.
As Mr. Mott well remarks:--Nothing can be more striking than the fact
that Easter Island and North America both give the same testimony
as to the origin of the savage life found in them, although in all
circumstances and surroundings the two cases are so different. If
no stone monuments had been constructed in Easter Island, or mounds
containing a few relics saved from fire, in the United States, we
might never have suspected the existence of these ancient peoples.
He argues, therefore, that it is very easy for the records of an
ancient nation’s life entirely to perish or to be hidden from
observation. Even the arts of Nineveh and Babylon were unknown only
a generation ago, and we have only just discovered the facts about
the mound-builders of North America.
But other parts of the American continent exhibit parallel phenomena.
Recent investigations show that in Mexico, Central America, and
Peru the existing race of Indians has been preceded by a distinct
and more civilised race. This is proved by the sculptures of the
ruined cities of Central America, by the more ancient terra-cottas
and paintings of Mexico, and by the oldest portrait-pottery of
Peru. All alike show markedly non-Indian features, while they
often closely resemble modern European types. Ancient crania, too,
have been found in all these countries, presenting very different
characters from those of any of the existing indigenous races of
America.[62]
[62] Wilson’s _Prehistoric Man_, 3rd edit. vol. ii. pp. 125, 144.
_The Great Pyramid._--There is one other striking example of a
higher being succeeded by a lower degree of knowledge, which is in
danger of being forgotten because it has been made the foundation of
theories which seem wild and fantastic, and are probably in great
part erroneous. I allude to the Great Pyramid of Egypt, whose form,
dimensions, structure, and uses have recently been the subject of
elaborate works by Prof. Piazzi Smyth. Now the admitted facts about
the pyramid are so interesting and so apposite to the subject we
are considering, that I beg to recall them to your attention. Most
of you are aware that this pyramid has been carefully explored and
measured by successive Egyptologists, and that the dimensions have
lately become capable of more accurate determination, owing to the
discovery of some of the original casing-stones, and the clearing
away of the earth from the corners of the foundation showing the
sockets in which the corner-stones fitted. Prof. Smyth devoted
many months of work with the best instruments, in order to fix the
dimensions and angles of all accessible parts of the structure;
and he has carefully determined these by a comparison of his own
and all previous measures, the best of which agree pretty closely
with each other. The results arrived at are:--
1. That the pyramid is truly square, the sides being equal and the
angles right angles.
2. That the four sockets on which the four first stones of the
corners rested, are truly on the same level.
3. That the directions of the sides are accurately to the four
cardinal points.
4. That the vertical height of the pyramid bears the same proportion
to its circumference at the base, as the radius of a circle does
to its circumference.
Now all these measures, angles, and levels are accurate, not as an
ordinary surveyor or builder could make them, but to such a degree
as requires the very best modern instruments and all the refinements
of geodetical science to discover any error at all. In addition to
this we have the wonderful perfection of the workmanship in the
interior of the pyramid, the passages and chambers being lined with
huge blocks of stones fitted with the utmost accuracy, while every
part of the building exhibits the highest structural science.
In all these respects this largest pyramid surpasses every other in
Egypt. Yet it is universally admitted to be the oldest, and also
the oldest historical building in the world.
Now these admitted facts about the Great Pyramid are surely
remarkable, and worthy of the deepest consideration. They are
facts which, in the pregnant words of the late Sir John Herschel,
“according to received theories ought not to happen,” and which, he
tells us, should therefore be kept ever present to our minds, since
“they belong to the class of facts which serve as the clue to new
discoveries.” According to modern theories, the higher civilisation
is ever a growth and an outcome from a preceding lower state; and
it is inferred that this progress is visible to us throughout all
history and in all material records of human intellect. But here
we have a building which marks the very dawn of history, which is
the oldest authentic monument of man’s genius and skill, and which,
instead of being far inferior, is very much superior to all which
followed it. Great men are the products of their age and country,
and the designer and constructors of this wonderful monument could
never have arisen among an unintellectual and half-barbarous people.
So perfect a work implies many preceding less perfect works which
have disappeared. It marks the culminating point of an ancient
civilisation, of the early stages of which we have no trace or
record whatever.
The three cases to which I have now adverted (and there are many
others) seem to require for their satisfactory interpretation a
somewhat different view of human progress from that which is now
generally accepted. Taken in connection with the great intellectual
power of the ancient Greeks--which Mr. Galton believes to have
been far above that of the average of any modern nation--and the
elevation, at once intellectual and moral, displayed in the writings
of Confucius, Zoroaster, and the Vedas, they point to the conclusion
that, while in material progress there has been a tolerably steady
advance, man’s intellectual and moral development reached almost its
highest level in a very remote past. The lower, the more animal,
but often the more energetic types have, however, always been far
the more numerous; hence such established societies as have here
and there arisen under the guidance of higher minds have always
been liable to be swept away by the incursions of barbarians.
Thus in almost every part of the globe there may have been a long
succession of partial civilisations, each in turn succeeded by a
period of barbarism; and this view seems supported by the occurrence
of degraded types of skull along with such “as might have belonged
to a philosopher,” at a time when the mammoth and the reindeer
inhabited southern France.
Nor need we fear that there is not time enough for the rise and decay
of so many successive civilisations as this view would imply; for
the opinion is now gaining ground among geologists that palæolithic
man was really preglacial, and that the great gap (marked alike by
a change of physical conditions and of animal life) which in Europe
always separates him from his neolithic successor, was caused by
the coming on and passing away of the great ice age.
If the views now advanced are correct, many, perhaps most, of our
existing savages are the successors of higher races; and their
arts, often showing a wonderful similarity in distant continents,
may have been derived from a common source among more civilised
peoples.
_Conclusion._--I must now conclude this very imperfect sketch of a
few of the offshoots from the great tree of Biological study. It
will, perhaps, be thought by some that my remarks have tended to
the depreciation of our science, by hinting at imperfections in
our knowledge and errors in our theories where more enthusiastic
students see nothing but established truths. But I trust that I
may have conveyed to many of my hearers a different impression. I
have endeavoured to show that, even in what are usually considered
the more trivial and superficial characters presented by natural
objects, a whole field of new inquiry is opened up to us by the
study of distribution and local conditions. And as regards man, I
have endeavoured to fix your attention on a class of facts which
indicate that the course of his development has been far less direct
and simple than has hitherto been supposed; and that, instead of
resembling a single tide with its advancing and receding ripples, it
must rather be compared to the progress from neap to spring tides,
both the rise and the depression being comparatively greater as
the waters of true civilisation slowly advance towards the highest
level they can reach.
And if we are thus led to believe that our present knowledge of
nature is somewhat less complete than we have been accustomed to
consider it, this is only what we might expect; for however great
may have been the intellectual triumphs of the nineteenth century, we
can hardly think so highly of its achievements as to imagine that,
in somewhat less than twenty years, we have passed from complete
ignorance to almost perfect knowledge on two such vast and complex
subjects as the Origin of Species and the Antiquity of Man.
VIII.
THE DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS AS INDICATING GEOGRAPHICAL CHANGES.[63]
Old Opinions on Continental Changes--Theory of Oceanic
Islands--Present and Past Distribution of Land and Sea--Zoological
Regions--The Palæarctic Region--The Ethiopian Region--The Oriental
Region--Past Changes of the Great Eastern Continent--Regions
of the New World--Past History of the American Continents--The
Australian Region--Summary and Conclusion.
[63] This is one of the Lectures on Scientific Geography delivered
before the Royal Geographical Society, but the introductory
portion has been rewritten. The original Lecture appeared in the
_Proceedings_ of the Society for September, 1877, under the title:
“On the Comparative Antiquity of Continents, as indicated by the
Distribution of Living and Extinct Animals.”
There is a curious old book entitled _Restitution of Decayed
Intelligence in Antiquities Concerning the Most Noble and Renowned
English Nation_, written in 1605, by R. Verstegen. The fourth chapter
treats “Of the Isles of Albion, and how it is showed to have been
continent or firm land with Gallia, now named France, since the
Flood of Noe;” and after referring to several ancient writers who
had held this opinion but without giving any reasons for it, the
author proceeds to argue the point, referring to the narrowness
of the straits, their extreme shallowness, the similarity of the
opposite coasts both in height and character, the meaning of the word
“cliff” as being that which is cleft asunder, and other matters;
after which comes this quaint and interesting passage:--
“Another reason there is that this separation hath been made since
the flood, which is also very considerable, and that is the patriarch
Noe, having had with him in the Ark all sorts of beasts, these then,
after the flood, being put forth of the ark to increase and multiply,
did afterward in time disperse themselves over all parts of the
continent or main land; but long after it could not be before the
ravenous wolf had made his kind nature known to man, and therefore
no man unless he were mad, would ever transport of that race out
of the continent into the isles, no more than men will ever carry
foxes (though they be less damageable) out of our continent into the
Isle of _Wight_. But our Isle, as is aforesaid, continuing since
the flood fastened by nature unto the Great Continent, those wicked
beasts did of themselves pass over. And if any should object that
England hath no wolves on it they may be answered that Scotland,
being therewith conjoined, hath very many, and so England itself
sometime also had, until such time as King _Edgar_ took order for
the destroying of these throughout the whole realm.”
The preservation of foxes for sporting purposes was evidently quite
out of the range of thought at this not very distant epoch, and our
author, in consequence, made a little mistake as to what men “ever”
would do in the case of these noxious animals; but his general
argument is sound, and it becomes much strengthened when we take
into consideration the smaller vermin, such as stoats, weasels,
moles, hedgehogs, fieldmice, vipers, toads, and newts, which would
certainly not _all_ have been brought over by uncivilised man, even
if any one of them might have been. But there is another reason why
they were not so brought over. For on that supposition we should
discover remains of fewer and fewer species as we go back into past
times till at last when we reached the time of the first occupation
of the country by man we should find none at all. But the actual
facts are the very reverse of this. For the further we go back the
more species of noxious and dangerous animals we discover, till in
the time of the palæolithic (or oldest) prehistoric men, we find
remains not only of almost every animal now living, but of many
others still less likely to have been introduced by man’s agency.
Such are the mammoths, rhinoceroses, lions, horses, bears, gluttons,
and many others; and it is equally impossible that these could
all have swum across an arm of the sea, which although only about
twenty miles wide in its narrowest past, is yet so influenced by
strong tides and currents that it becomes as effective a barrier
as many straits of double the width.
Owing, however, to the want of all definite ideas as to the mode
by which the earth became stocked with animals and plants, the
existence of identical species in countries separated by arms of
the sea attracted very little attention till quite recent times. It
is probable that Mr. Darwin was really the first person to see the
full importance of the principle, for in his _Naturalist’s Voyage
Round the World_, he remarks, that “the South American character
of the West Indian mammals seems to indicate that this archipelago
was formerly united to the southern continent.” Some years later,
in 1845, Mr. George Windsor Earl called special attention to the
subject by pointing out that the great Malay Archipelago may be
divided in two portions, all the islands in the western half
being united to each other and to the continent of Asia by a very
shallow sea, and all having very similar productions, while many
large animals, such as the elephant, rhinoceros, wild cattle, and
tigers, range over most of them. We then come to a profoundly deep
sea, and the islands of the eastern half of the archipelago are
either surrounded by a deep sea or are connected by a shallow sea
to Australia; and in this half the productions resemble those of
Australia, marsupials being found in all the islands while the
large quadrupeds of Asia are almost wholly unknown.
_Theory of Oceanic Islands._--In 1859 the _Origin of Species_ was
published, and in the thirteenth chapter of this celebrated work
Mr. Darwin put forth his views on oceanic islands or such as are
situated far away from any continent and are surrounded by deep
oceans. It had been up to this time believed that in most cases
these islands were fragments of ancient continents; as an example of
which we may refer to the Azores, Madeira, and the other Atlantic
islands, which were thought to support the notion of an Atlantic or
western extension of the European continent. In order to ascertain
what was the condition of these islands when first discovered, Mr.
Darwin searched through all the oldest voyages, and found that
in none of them was a single native mammal known to exist, while
in almost all of them frogs and toads were also absent. All the
Atlantic isles from the Azores to St. Helena; Mauritius, Bourbon,
and the other isles of the Indian Ocean; and the Pacific islands,
east of the Fijis, as far as the Galapagos and Juan Fernandez are
thus deficient. They all of them, however, possess birds, and most
of them bats; and whenever small mammalia, such as goats, pigs,
rabbits, and mice have been introduced they have run wild and
often increased enormously, proving that the only reason why such
animals were not originally found there was the impossibility of
them crossing the sea; while such as could fly over--birds, bats,
and insects--existed in greater or less abundance. If, on the other
hand, they had once formed part of the continent, it is impossible
to believe that some of the smaller mammalia, as well as frogs,
would not have continued to exist in the islands to the present
day.