SECRETS OF EARTH AND SEA
[Illustration: DIMETRODON GIGAS, AN EXTINCT LIZARD, SEVEN FEET LONG]
SECRETS OF EARTH
AND SEA
BY
SIR RAY LANKESTER
K.C.B., F.R.S.
WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS
NEW YORK
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1920
PREFACE
The present volume is, like its predecessors, "Science from an Easy
Chair" (Series I and Series II) and "Diversions of a Naturalist"—mainly
a revision and reprint–with considerable additions–of articles
published in daily or weekly journals. The first chapter appeared
originally in "The Field." The Chapters VI, XX, XXI, and XXII were
published in the "Illustrated London News," under the title "About a
Number of Things." The rest are some of the articles which, as "Science
from an Easy Chair," I contributed, during seven years, to the "Daily
Telegraph." That, to me very happy, conjunction was, like so many other
happy things, necessarily interrupted by the Great War.
One result of that terrible cataclysm is that not a few thoughtful
writers have been led to deny the existence of what they call
"Progress," meaning by that word the development of mankind from a
less to a more complete attainment of moral and physical well-being.
The question raised is obscured by the arbitrary use of the word
"progress," since by it any movement from point to point–whether
advantageous and desirable or the reverse–is described, as, for
instance, in the familiar titles given by Bunyan to his book "The
Pilgrim's Progress" and by Hogarth to his pictures "The Rake's
Progress." Those who to-day despair of man's future limit their
outlook on the past to the conventional history of some three or four
thousand years. The only solid ground upon which we can base the
supposition that mankind has moved from a less to a more complete
attainment of moral and physical well-being and will continue to do so,
exists in the ascertained facts of the past history of living things
on this Earth, and of man since his earliest emergence from among the
man-like apes made known to us by his stone-implements and fossilized
bones. That there has been a development from lower, simpler structure
to higher, more complex, more efficient structure is demonstrable,
and so is the proposition that there has been in the human race a
continuous development in the direction of increased adaptation to the
conditions of social life and an increased control by man of those
natural agencies which he can either favour when conducive to his
prosperity, or on the other hand can arrest when inimical to it. "The
continuous weakening of selfishness and the continuous strengthening
of sympathy" (to adopt the words of the American philosopher, Fiske)
are, in spite of numerous lapses and outbursts of savagery, patent
features of the long history of mankind. We have no reason to doubt
their continuation, whilst at the same time we must be prepared for
and accept, without desponding, the ups and the downs, the disasters
as well as the triumphs, which inevitably characterize the natural
process of evolution. One thing, above all others, we as conscious,
reasoning beings can do which must tend to the further development and
security of human well-being: we can ascertain ever more and more of
the truth, or in other words, "that which is." We can discover the
actual conditions of natural law, under which we exist and promote the
knowledge of that truth among our fellows. To do that which is right,
we must know that which is true. To act rightly, we must know truly.
We possess, a vast heritage of knowledge handed on to us in tradition
and in writings from our father-man in the past. But there are yet
immense fields of knowledge to be explored and yet a greater task to
be accomplished in spreading the knowledge which we possess, and in
persuading all men that it is their right and their duty to acquire it
and to enjoy the power and the pleasure which it gives. All must also
help, directly or indirectly, in the making of new knowledge. Whilst
mankind is still so backward in knowledge and the worship of wisdom, it
is idle to indulge in despair of the future. A chief way to increased
welfare is still open and untrodden.
These are big speculations and problems with which to preface a small
book. But I am content to offer the small book as a contribution,
however restricted, to the spread of a desire for further knowledge of
the things about which it tells–a possible incitement to serious study
of some one or other among them.
E. RAY LANKESTER
_June 2nd, 1920_
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
I. THE EARLIEST PICTURE IN THE WORLD 1
II. PORTRAITS OF MAMMOTHS BY MEN WHO SAW THEM 26
III. THE ART OF PREHISTORIC MEN 35
IV. VESUVIUS IN ERUPTION 55
V. BLUE WATER 74
VI. THE BIGGEST BEAST 84
VII. WHAT IS MEANT BY "A SPECIES"? 92
VIII. MORE ABOUT SPECIES 100
IX. SPECIES IN THE MAKING 108
X. SOME SPECIFIC CHARACTERS 118
XI. HYBRIDS 131
XII. THE CROSS-BREEDING OF RACES 139
XIII. WHEEL ANIMALCULES 157
XIV. MORE ABOUT WHEEL ANIMALCULES 165
XV. SUSPENDED ANIMATION 173
XVI. MORE ABOUT SUSPENDED ANIMATION 182
XVII. THE SWASTIKA 191
XVIII. THE ORIGIN OF THE SWASTIKA 200
XIX. THE TOMOYE AND THE SWASTIKA 209
XX. COAL 217
XXI. BORING FOR OIL 223
XXII. THE STORY OF LIME-JUICE AND SCURVY 229
INDEX 239
EXPLANATION OF THE FRONTISPIECE
This plate shows the restoration of the extinct lizard, Dimetrodon
gigas (Cope), lately made by Mr. Charles W. Gilmore of the United
States National Museum, by whose kind permission it is here reproduced
from the Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum, vol. 56, 1919. It is
based upon the study of a very fine skeleton and some hundred bones of
allied species, collected by Mr. Sternberg from "the Permian formation"
exposed in the vicinity of Seymour, Texas, U.S.A. It is selected for
illustration here because its most striking feature–the high dorsal
fin-like crest along the middle of the back formed by the elongation
of the neural spines of the vertebræ–is a puzzle to the conscientious
Darwinian. Professor Case says of it: "The elongate spines were
useless, so far as I can imagine, and I have been puzzling over them
for several years. It is impossible to conceive of them as useful
either for defence or concealment, or in any other way than as a great
burden to the creatures (terrestrial non-aquatic animals) that bore
them. They must have been a nuisance in getting through the vegetation,
and a great drain upon the creature's vitality, both to develop them
and keep them in repair." The reader is referred to pp. 127, 128,
where a brief discussion of such exuberant growths will be found. The
excessive growth of the median fins in the fish Pteraclis allied to the
Dolphin which displays changing floods of surface colour as it dies–and
in the Australian Blenny called Patæcus–both figured on p. 130–should
be compared with that of the strange crest of the grotesque Dimetrodon.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
DIMETRODON _Frontispiece_
FIGS. PAGE
1, 2. ENGRAVED CYLINDER OF RED-DEER'S ANTLER, FROM THE AZILIAN
(ELAPHO-TARANDIAN) HORIZON OF THE CAVERN OF LORTET 1
3. _A._ PERFORATED HARPOON OF THE AZILIAN OR RED-DEER PERIOD.
_B._ AND _C._ IMPERFORATE HARPOONS OR LANCE HEADS 3
4. ROLLED IMPRESSION OR "DEVELOPMENT" OF THE ENGRAVING ON THE
LORTET ANTLER 12
5. RESTORATION (OR COMPLETION) OF THE ENGRAVING ON THE LORTET
ANTLER 13
6. FRAGMENT OF A ROUGHLY-PAINTED VASE OF THE DIPYLON AGE
(_CIRCA_ 800 B.C.) FROM TIRYNS 23
7. ENGRAVING OF A MAMMOTH DRAWN UPON A PIECE OF MAMMOTH IVORY 26
8. OUTLINE ENGRAVINGS OF MAMMOTHS ON THE WALL OF THE CAVERN
KNOWN AS THE "FONT DE GAUME," NEAR EYZIES (DORDOGNE) 32
9. SIMILAR ENGRAVINGS FROM THE NEIGHBOURING CAVE OF COMBARELLES 32
10. _A_, SIMILAR ENGRAVING FROM THE CAVE OF COMBARELLES. _B_,
MAMMOTH ENCLOSED BY PLANK-LIKE STRUCTURE–SUPPOSED TO BE
EITHER A CAGE OR A TRAP 33
11. HORSE (WALL ENGRAVING), CAVE OF MARSOULAS, HAUTE GARONNE 43
12. HORSE (WALL ENGRAVING) OUTLINE IN BLACK, CAVE OF NIAUX
(ARIÈGE) 43
13. HORSES: _A_, WALL ENGRAVING (CAVE OF HORNOS DE LA PÉNA).
_B_, WALL ENGRAVING FROM CAVERN OF COMBARELLES. _C_,
ENGRAVED ON REINDEER ANTLER (MAS D'AZIL) 43
14. DRAWING (OF THE ACTUAL SIZE OF THE ORIGINAL) OF A FLAT
CARVING IN SHOULDER-BONE OF A HORSE'S HEAD, SHOWING
TWISTED ROPE-BRIDLE AND TRAPPINGS 45
15. DRAWING (OF THE ACTUAL SIZE OF THE ORIGINAL) OF A FULLY
ROUNDED CARVING IN REINDEER'S ANTLER OF THE HEAD OF A
NEIGHING HORSE 45
16. REINDEER (ENGRAVING ON SCHIST) 46
17. RHINOCEROS IN RED OUTLINE 46
18. BISON FROM THE ROOF OF THE CAVERN OF ALTAMIRA 48
19. BISON: WALL ENGRAVINGS 48
20. BEAR: ENGRAVED ON STALAGMITE, FROM THE CAVE OF TEYJAT NEAR
EYZIES 48
21. BEAR: ENGRAVED ON STONE, MASSOL (ARIÈGE) 48
22. WOLF: ENGRAVED ON WALL OF THE CAVE OF COMBARELLES 48
23. WALL ENGRAVING OF A CAVE LION (COMBARELLES) 48
24. GOOSE: SMALL ENGRAVING ON REINDEER ANTLER 49
25. FEMALE FIGURE CARVED IN OOLITIC LIMESTONE FROM WILLENDORF,
NEAR KREMS, LOWER AUSTRIA (1908) 50
26. DRAWING (OF THE ACTUAL SIZE OF THE ORIGINAL) OF AN IVORY
CARVING (FULLY ROUNDED) OF A FEMALE HEAD 51
27. SEATED FIGURE OF A WOMAN HOLDING A BOVINE HORN IN THE RIGHT
HAND 51
28. MALE FIGURE REPRESENTED IN THE ACT OF DRAWING A BOW OR
THROWING A SPEAR 51
29. A PIECE OF MAMMOTH IVORY CARVED WITH SPIRALS AND SCROLLS FROM
THE CAVE OF ARUDY (HAUTES PYRÉNÉES) 54
30. VESUVIUS AS IT APPEARED BEFORE THE ERUPTION OF AUGUST 24, A.D.
79 57
31. FIVE SUCCESSIVE STAGES IN THE CHANGE OF FORM OF VESUVIUS
(FROM PHILLIPS' "VESUVIUS," 1869) 61
32. THE UPPER-ARM BONE OR HUMERUS OF THE GREAT REPTILE
(GIGANTOSAURUS) OF TENDAGOROO 88
THE GIGANTIC REPTILE DIPLODOCUS ON LAND 91
33. THE RUDIMENTARY GILL-PLUME OF A CRAYFISH FROM THAT PART OF
THE BODY-WALL TO WHICH THE FIRST PAIR OF JAW-LEGS
(MAXILLIPEDES) IS ARTICULATED 122
STRANGELY-SHAPED FISHES 130
34. DIAGRAM OF _ROTIFER VULGARIS_–THE COMMON WHEEL ANIMALCULE–ONE
HUNDRED AND TWENTY TIMES AS LONG AS THE CREATURE ITSELF 158
35. THE ROTIFER _PEDALION MIRUM_–SEEN FROM THE RIGHT SIDE,
MAGNIFIED 180 DIAMETERS 161
36. THE ROTIFER _PEDALION MIRUM_–SEEN FROM THE VENTRAL SURFACE 161
37. THE ROTIFER _NOTEUS QUADRICORNIS_–TO SHOW ITS CURIOUS
FOUR-HORNED CARAPACE 163
THE LARVAL OR YOUNG FORM OF CRUSTACEA KNOWN AS "THE NAUPLIUS" 164
37 (_bis_). THREE TUBE-BUILDING WHEEL ANIMACULES 169
YOUNG STAGES OF GROWTH OR VELIGER LARVÆ OF MARINE SNAILS 181
38. THE SWASTIKA IN ITS SIMPLEST RECTANGULAR FORM 191
39. THREE SIMPLE VARIETIES OF THE SWASTIKA 192
40. FOOTPRINT OF THE BUDDHA 192
41. VASE FROM CYPRUS (MYKENÆAN AGE, _CIRCA_ 1200 B.C.); PAINTED
WITH LOTUS, BIRD AND FOUR SWASTIKAS 194
42. TERRA-COTTA SPINDLE-WHORL MARKED WITH SWASTIKAS 194
43. ORNAMENT FROM AN ARCHAIC (PRE-HELLENIC) BŒOTIAN VASE, SHOWING
SEVERAL SWASTIKAS, GREEK CROSSES AND TWO SERPENTS 195
43 (_bis_). SWASTIKAS IN BRONZE REPOUSSÉ 195
44. SILVER-PLATED BRONZE HORSE GEAR FROM SCANDINAVIA, SHOWING TWO
SWASTIKAS, AND BELOW A COMPLEX ELABORATION OF A SWASTIKA 195
45. ANGLO-SAXON URN FROM SHROPHAM, NORFOLK, ORNAMENTED BY TWENTY
SMALL HAND-MADE SWASTIKAS STAMPED INTO THE CLAY 195
46. PIECE OF A CEREMONIAL BEAD-WORKED GARTER, SHOWING STAR AND
TWO SWASTIKAS 197
47. A STONE SLAB FROM THE ANCIENT CITY OF MAYAPAN (YUCATAN,
CENTRAL AMERICA), ON WHICH (RIGHT SIDE) A CURVILINEAR
SWASTIKA IS CARVED 198
48. DIAGRAM TO SHOW THE DERIVATION OF THE SWASTIKA FROM A GREEK
CROSS ENCLOSED BY A CIRCLE 199
49. THE GREEK KEY PATTERN IN _A_ RECTANGULAR, AND _B_ CURVILINEAR
OR "CURRENT" FORM 202
50. DIAGRAMS OF THE "TRISKELION" 203
51. FOUR STAGES IN THE SIMPLIFICATION OF A DECORATIVE DESIGN–THE
ALLIGATOR 205
52. SIMPLIFICATION (GRAMMATIZING) OF DECORATIVE DESIGN 206
53. SPINDLE-WHORL FROM TROY (FOURTH CITY), WITH THREE SWASTIKAS 206
54. THE "TOMOYE"–THE JAPANESE BADGE OF TRIUMPH 209
55. SYMBOLS OF THE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE USED BY THE ANCIENT
CHINESE PHILOSOPHER CHU-HSI 209
56. DIAGRAMS TO SHOW THE POSSIBLE DERIVATION OF THE SWASTIKA FROM
THE INSCRIPTION OF TWO S-LIKE LINES (OR "OGEES") WITHIN
A CIRCLE SO AS TO DIVIDE THE CIRCLE INTO FOUR BENT CONES 209
57. TERRA-COTTA CONE WITH A SEVEN-ARMED SUN-LIKE FIGURE 211
58. SCALLOPED SHELL DISK, FROM A MOUND NEAR NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE,
SHOWING IN THE CENTRE A TETRASKELION WITH FOUR CURVED
ARMS 211
59. AN ALTAR-STONE OF PREHISTORIC AGE 213
60. DIAGRAMS OF ARBELI 214
SECRETS OF EARTH AND SEA
CHAPTER I
THE EARLIEST PICTURE IN THE WORLD
In Figs. 1 and 2 on the next page a cylindrical piece of the antler of
a red deer is represented of half the natural size. On it are carved
by in-sunk lines certain representations of animals. It was found in
the cavern of Lortet, near Lourdes, in the department of the Hautes
Pyrénées, in the south of France, together with many other remains of
prehistoric man. This cavern was excavated and all its contents of
human origin carefully preserved by M. Edouard Piette in 1873 and the
following years. Drawings of this and other remarkable carved pieces
of bone and antler, many in the form of harpoon heads, and of small
chipped flint implements, all found in this cave, were published by
him.[1] He excavated also several other caverns with great care, and
his collections were bequeathed by him on his death to the great Museum
of National Archæology at St. Germain, near Paris, where I have had the
advantage of studying them.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.
FIG. 2.
FIGS. 1 AND 2.–Engraved cylinder of red-deer's antler, from the Azilian
(Elapho-Tarandian) horizon of the cavern of Lortet. Drawn of a little
more than half the actual size of the specimen.]
The age assigned to this carving is that called by Piette
"Elapho-Tarandian." At this period the reindeer (Tarandus), which
previously abounded, is giving place to the red deer (Elaphus). The
layer in which this carving was found belongs to the latest of the
Palæolithic cave deposits, and was followed by a warmer period, in
which the red deer and the modern fauna entirely replaced the old
fauna of the Glacial period. The deposits in Pyrenean caves of the
Elapho-Tarandian age are characterized by an abundance of large flat
harpoons serrated on both sides. In this latest horizon of the Reindeer
period the art of engraving in outline on bone and stone had attained
the highest pitch of excellence which it reached in the prehistoric
race of South-West Europe.
[Illustration: FIG. 3.–_A._ Perforated harpoon of the Azilian or
Red-Deer period, made from antler of red deer, found in quantity in the
upper layers of deposit in the cavern of the Mas d'Azil (Arriège). _B_
and _C_. Imperforate harpoons or lance heads made from reindeer antler
of the Magdalenian period (Reindeer epoch). _B_ from Bruniquel Cave
(Tarn-et-Garonne). _C_ from a cavern in the Hautes Pyrénées. Same size
as the objects.]
A very natural tendency among those who hear from time to time
something of what is being discovered about primitive man is to confuse
all the periods and races of prehistoric man together, and so picture
to themselves one ideal "primitive man." My friend Mr. Rudyard Kipling
does this, although it would be no further from a true conception
were he to blend his ancient Britons, his Phenicians, his Romans,
his Saxons, his Normans, and a few Hindoos into one imaginary man
and represent him as taking a coloured photograph of the Druids of
Stonehenge on a piece of Egyptian papyrus. Here is Mr. Kipling's vision
of primitive man:
Once on a glittering icefield, ages and ages ago,
Ung, a maker of pictures, fashioned an image of snow.
Later he pictured an aurochs, later he pictured a bear–
Pictured the sabre-tooth tiger dragging a man to his lair–
Pictured the mountainous mammoth, hairy, abhorrent, alone–
Out of the love that he bore them, scribing them clearly on bone,
Straight on the glittering icefield, by the caves of the lost Dordogne,
Ung, a maker of pictures, fell to his scribing on bone.
The fact is that several prehistoric races have succeeded one another
in Western Europe during the immensely long period–amounting to
hundreds of thousands of years–during which man existed before the dawn
of history. The "lost" or "prehistoric Dordogne" was like the present
historic Dordogne in regard to the fact that many races and dynasties
successively held possession of it and left their work in its soil and
caves.
Passing back through the historic age of iron and the sub-historic
age of bronze, we come to a time, about four thousand years ago, when
there were no men in the west of Europe who made use of metals at all,
although, for a thousand or two years earlier, men were using bronze
and copper in the East. European races immediately before the first
use of metals made beautiful implements of stone (chiefly flint), and
finished them by grinding and polishing them. These men are spoken of
as Neolithic men, or men of the Neolithic period. They had herds and
cultivated crops, and they built after a fashion rough houses in wood
and tombs and temples with great slabs of stone. They made pottery
and woven cloth. The animals and plants of Europe were the same in
those late prehistoric times as they are to-day. The Lake dwellings
of Switzerland belong to this epoch and yield us their remains
as evidence. The men had very nearly the same set of domesticated
animals as we have to-day, but they had no skill in carving outlines
of animals. Their only decorative work consisted of parallel lines,
straight or in zigzags or in circles, graven on the great stone slabs
which they erected.
We can trace them back to some seven thousand years B.C. and then comes
a huge gap–we do not know how many thousand years–in our evidence as
to what was going on in this part of the world. We find convincing
proof that before this interval the climate was much colder than it is
to-day, and that the land surface of Europe was in many respects very
different from what it became later. Britain was continuous with the
Continent. There were in that remote period human tribes spread over
the less frigid valleys of Europe. They had no fields, no herds; they
fed on the roasted flesh of the animals they chased and on the fish
they speared, and on wild fruits and roots. They dwelt chiefly, if not
wholly, in caves, probably also in skin tents, but they did not build
either in wood or in stone. The age which we thus reach is called the
Palæolithic, or "ancient" Stone age, because men made use of stone,
which they chipped into shape, but, unlike the Neolithic people, never
polished it. We find enormous numbers of these rough or Palæolithic
stone implements both in caves and in the gravels deposited in the
ancient beds of rivers. They are so abundant as to prove the existence
of a very considerable human population in the remote ages when they
were fashioned and used. The changes which have taken place and the
time involved since some of these Palæolithic implements were made and
used may be guessed at (but cannot be definitely calculated) from the
fact that the beds of the rivers which formed the gravel terraces in
which they are found in England were, in many cases, from one to six
hundred feet above the level of the present rivers. The land surface
has risen and the rivers have simultaneously excavated deep and wide
valleys leaving terraces of gravel high up on their sides. These show
where the rivers once flowed. The vastness of the excavation of the
valley from the level of the old river bed 600 ft. up on the sloping
hill-side to its present low-lying bed in the floor of the valley–gives
us some measure of the time which has elapsed in the process.
No one can tell, at present, the limit in the past of Palæolithic man.
The period of time over which his existence extended, as indicated
by the trimmed flints undoubtedly made by human workmanship, is a
matter of hundreds of thousands of years. In Western Europe races came
and went, succeeded one another and disappeared, either migrating or
absorbed or more rarely destroyed by the later invaders. Naturally
enough, in the later deposits of rivers and in the higher layers of
earth and limestone cake which fill many caves to the depth of 30 or 40
ft. we find the remains of man's workmanship more abundantly than in
the older deposits.
We can broadly distinguish in the Palæolithic epoch three (perhaps
four) periods, separated by the occurrence of great extensions of the
northern or arctic ice cap of such a volume as to cover North Europe
and North America, and the simultaneous extension of the glaciers of
the mountains of Europe. This period of the alternating extension
and retreat of the great northern glaciers is known as the Glacial
period, or Ice Age. The _latest_ Palæolithic men are subsequent to
it–that is, post-Glacial. We can distinguish several successive ages
of these post-Glacial Palæolithic men, altogether distinct from and
anterior to the Neolithic men. In the earlier of these ages many of
the great animals of the Glacial period–now extinct or withdrawn to
other regions–still survived in Europe. The mammoth survived, but
was fast dying out in the south and centre of France, and we find
its outline scratched on ivory and on bone by the early post-Glacial
men. The lion still survived in Europe, also the hyena, the bear and
the rhinoceros. The reindeer seems to have been especially abundant,
and to have been associated with the men of this period. The horse
was very abundant, and was largely eaten by the earlier post-Glacial
people. From the first these men show extraordinary artistic skill, and
have left in their caves many carvings on ivory, bone and stone. In
the oldest deposits of the post-Glacial age the carvings are complete
all-round sculptures of small size or carvings in low relief, all
of rough primitive workmanship. Larger life-size sculptures in rock
are also found. In later deposits we find better sculpture and also
engraving on flat pieces of bone and ivory, and also on stone. This
art persisted, and attained its greatest perfection in the latest
deposits of all in which the work of Palæolithic man is found. The
reindeer persisted through this post-Glacial period (hence often called
"the reindeer period") until the gradual increase of temperature and
change of herbage and forest led to its migration northwards and to the
relative abundance of the red deer. It is to this latest period–the
Elapho-Tarandian of Piette–that the engraved antler figured here (Figs.
1 and 2) belongs.
At an earlier stage of the post-Glacial period men hunted the bison and
other large game in the north of Spain and made coloured drawings of
them on the roofs and walls of their caves, drawings which have been
copied and preserved: whilst the mammoth, the rhinoceros, the cave
lion and bear still inhabited south central France and are pictured on
the walls of caves in that region–as described in Chapter II. Later we
lose all trace of Palæolithic man and his wonderful artistic skill. He
seems either to have migrated or to have been absorbed in the immigrant
Neolithic race–a race singularly devoid of any tendency to artistic
sculpture or engraving.
The skeletons and skulls of the men of the Reindeer period, or
post-Glacial Palæolithic men, have been discovered here and there.
They indicate a fine, tall people with well-shaped skulls and jaws,
comparable to the nobler modern races. It is convenient to call them
Cromagnards, since good skulls of the race have been described from
Cromagnon, in France. There is evidence (from skulls) that another
race (the negroid so called "Aurignacians") preceded and coexisted to
some extent in Western Europe with them, but we have, at present, no
evidence as to whence or how the Neolithic race or the Cromagnard race
or any of their predecessors came upon the scene!
When we go farther back and reach the actual Glacial period we find
a very different state of things. The men who then existed in the
caverns are called the Neander men. They were a short, bandy-legged,
long-armed, low-browed people, great workers of flints. They had
the use of fire, and contended with hyenas and bears and lions for
the occupation of their caverns. In their day–the day of European
glaciation–the mammoth was in full occupation of the pine forests on
the edge of the glaciers. But the Neander men made no sculptures, or
carving, or engravings. The gap between them and the Cromagnon men
is much greater than that between an Australian black fellow and an
average Englishman; indeed, the difference is properly expressed by
regarding the Neander man as a distinct species–Homo neanderthalensis.
Passing again farther back over an immense period of time, we find
Europe warm again; the glaciers have (for a time) gone or retreated
far up the mountains but are found in extension again at a still
earlier date. An inter-Glacial set of animals is now found living in a
comparatively warm climate in Western Europe. Another elephant (Elephas
antiquus) is there (not the mammoth), and another rhinoceros (not
the woolly rhinoceros of the later Glacial period); the hippopotamus
flourished then in Europe and swam in the Thames and Severn, and there
too, at last is the sabre-toothed tiger, which did not exist at all at
a later period! Now was the time when a man, if he could, might have
"scribed" the image of a sabre-toothed tiger on a piece of bone, but,
so far as we know, he did not and could not. This was ages before other
succeeding men walked "on glittering ice fields," and they, in turn,
were ages earlier than the artistic Cromagnards of the Reindeer period.
The presence of men in the warm inter-Glacial times in Europe is proved
by the association of rough but undisputed flint implements with the
inter-Glacial animals and by the discovery of a most interesting human
jaw (chinless, like that of the Neander men) in what is held to be a
præ-Glacial deposit at Heidelberg. We have very little knowledge of
Glacial and præ-Glacial man except well characterized flint implements
and two skeletons, some detached limb bones, four or five jaws, and
as many skulls.[2] But of post-Glacial Palæolithic man we know the
skeletons of the Cromagnard race, their sepulture, their decorative
necklaces, and their bone and ivory carvings and engravings, and
the coloured rock paintings and other work of earlier races (the
Aurignacians, and others) belonging to successive epochs or eras,
which have been discovered in caves in France, Spain, Belgium, and
Austria. It was long after them that the Neolithic people appeared.
The preceding remarks will have made it clear that the engraved antler
here figured was carved by a man who was not really at all primitive,
although he lived probably between twenty and fifty thousand years ago.
It will also have been made clear that hundreds of such engravings,
more or less fragmentary, are known. Some are very skilful works
of art, others of a much inferior quality. Many, however, show an
astonishing familiarity with the animal drawn and a sureness of drawing
which is not surpassed by the work of modern artists (see Chapter III).
The interest of the particular engraved antler which I am describing
is that it is the only carving of its age as yet discovered which is
more than a drawing or sculpture of a single animal. It is a "picture"
in the sense of being a composition. It is not, it is true, painted–it
is engraved; but being a composition it is entitled to be called "the
earliest picture in the world." Let me describe it a little more fully
with the help of the illustrations.
The engraving has been made on a long cylindrical piece of the red
deer's antler. It can hardly be considered as decorative, since the
figures of the animals do not show as such on the cylindrical surface
(Figs. 1 and 2). Pieces of antler, bone, and ivory carved with
spiral scrolls and circles which are really decorative and effective
as decoration are found in these caves (Fig. 29). But often such
pieces as the present are met with. It has been discovered by French
archæologists that the true intent of such engravings may be rendered
evident by rolling the cylinder on a plastic substance (soft wax or
similar material), when the drawing is "printed off" or "developed"
as it is termed. A great number of such line engravings have been
thus printed off or developed, and plaster casts made from the flat
impressions are preserved in the museum of St. Germain, the engraved
lines being rendered obvious by letting them fill with printing ink.
They often give us in this way a "printed" drawing of remarkable
accuracy and artistic quality. The rolled-off print of our specimen is
shown in Fig. 4. The cylinder has been damaged by time, but the print
shows, more or less completely, a vigorous outline drawing of three red
deer, with six salmon-like fish placed in a decorative way above them
and between their legs. Two lozenge-shaped outlines (above the larger
stag) are held by good authorities to be the signature of the artist.
The group of deer is represented in movement. The largest stag is on
the right; his hindquarters are broken away by injury to the cylinder.
He is commencing to advance, and turns his head backwards to see what
is the thing which has alarmed him and his companions; at the same time
his mouth is open, and he is "blowing." The second stag is a younger
and smaller animal, and is retreating more rapidly. The cylinder is
damaged so that, although all the four legs of this second stag are
preserved, the head and neck are gone, though the points of the antlers
are preserved. The same damage has removed all but the hind legs of the
still younger animal who heads the group. The beauty of the drawing of
these hind legs and the extraordinary impression of graceful, rapid
movement given by their hanging pose, side by side, is not surpassed,
even if it be equalled, by the work of any modern draughtsman. It is
clear that the youngest and smallest member of the group is, as is
natural, the most timid, and that he has sprung off with a sudden bound
on the occurrence of the alarm from the rear, which is setting the
whole group into motion with increasing velocity as we pass from right
to left.
[Illustration: FIG. 4.–Rolled impression or "development" of the
engraving on the Lortet antler.]
[Illustration: FIG. 5.–Restoration (or completion) of the engraving on
the Lortet antler, as now (1919) suggested by the writer (E. R. L.).]
The "printed-off," or "unrolled," or "developed" picture given in Fig.
3 is an exact reproduction of a copy of the cast made and preserved
in the Museum of National Antiquities at St. Germain, for which
I am indebted to my friend M. Salomon Reinach, the distinguished
archæologist who is the director of that museum. It is reproduced
here, a little larger than half the size of the original, as are the
representations of the carved cylinder itself (Figs. 1 and 2). In Fig.
4 we have my attempt to restore the damaged portions of the design and
to present it as it was when the Palæolithic man completed it some
20,000 years ago.
I will return to the question of the correctness of this restoration,
but before doing so I wish to mention some extremely interesting
points as to the probable use of the cylinder of stag's antler and
the purpose of the carving around its axis. In the first place, this
and a few other of the pieces of carving of the post-Glacial period
were certainly the work of highly gifted and practised artists. It is
obvious that this work is far superior both in conception and execution
to the more or less clever, often grotesque, carvings and paintings
made by modern savages or simple pastoral folk. There is no reason to
suppose that the Cromagnards, or men of the post-Glacial or Reindeer
period of West Europe, differed from modern races in being universally
gifted with artistic capacity. This engraving of three stags is almost
certainly the work of a man who belonged to a family or guild of
picture-makers who had cultivated such work for centuries and handed
it on from master to apprentice. This design is probably one which
had been perfected by many succeeding observers and draughtsmen. Its
sureness of line and vivacity of movement are not the outcome of the
sudden inspiration of an untutored savage, but are the result of the
growth, cultivation, and development of artistic perception and the
power of artistic execution in successive generations.
It seems in the highest degree improbable, if not impossible, that so
excellent a drawing as this should have been cut on the cylindrical
piece of antler by an engraver who never saw the flat or rolled-off
impress of his design. One is driven to the conclusion that he must,
as he worked on the bone, have taken an impress of the growing picture
from time to time, using probably animal fat and charcoal as an "ink"
and printing on to a piece of prepared skin or on to a birch-bark
cloth. How otherwise could he have made his engraving so truly that
when, ages afterwards, we print it off the cylinder, we are astonished
and delighted by its perfection of design and execution? If this be
once admitted–namely, that the artist tested and checked his work by
printing it off as he proceeded with it–we gain what appears to me
to be the probable solution of the question which has been largely
debated, "For what were these carved cylinders or rods used?" Those
which are simple cylindrical rods, such as the present one, must be
distinguished from others which have one or more circular holes bored
in them and others which are curiously bent at an angle. Such specimens
are often carved with small unimportant ornament, not requiring
development or printing. They as well as the present class have been
spoken of as "wands of authority" and "sceptres"; some are considered
to be arrow straighteners; others have been supposed to be "divining
rods" or "rods of witchcraft"; whilst one of those discovered by M.
Piette (others similar to it are known) has been regarded as a "lance
thrower" or "propulsor" (such as modern primitive races use), having
a notch at one end upon which the lance to be thrown is made to rest.
The latest suggestion as to these notch-and-hook-bearing rods, is that
they are large crochet hooks used in making nets. It has also been
suggested that some of these carved rods were used as "fasteners" of
the skins used as clothing.
I venture to suggest that the elaborately carved cylinder which we are
considering and others bearing similar carvings, which only show up
when a printing of them is taken, were used by the men who made them
for this very same "printing" as an end in itself. The picture could be
thus impressed on skins, birch bark, and other material. This race was
thoroughly familiar with the use of paint formed by mixing grease with
charcoal (to produce black), red ochre (to produce red), yellow ochre
(to produce yellow), and some preparation of limestone or chalk (to
produce white). Coloured pictures representing animals of the chase,
coloured with red, yellow, white, and black and outlined by engraving,
have been discovered on the rock walls of the caves used by them. Such
pictures are found of relatively early as well as of late date within
the post-Glacial Palæolithic period (see Chapter III). The rock picture
of a single animal is usually from two to five feet long. People who
could make those coloured designs and who could draw and compose so
admirably as the author of the "Three Red Deer" would have desired to
"roll off" and to possess printings of their favourite representations
of animal life, whilst we must admit that their skill and ingenuity was
assuredly equal to the task of so printing them. If this carving of the
"Three Red Deer" were never printed it could not have been executed in
the first place, nor seen and admired when completed. If even only half
a dozen or a dozen impressions were taken from it for ornamenting the
skins or other material used by a chief, or a wizard, or a woman, its
production becomes intelligible. It is true that there is nothing known
as to the use of such printing from a cylinder among existing primitive
people, but it is known in very early times (4500 B.C.), since
cylindrical seals were used by the Babylonians. Elaborately grooved
blocks used for printing on cloth are known from Fiji and Samoa, and
the mere practice of printing on to a flat surface is common enough
among savage races in regard to the human hand, impressions or prints
of which obtained by the use of a greasy pigment are found upon rocks
or stones. Sometimes prints of the hand or fingers are taken in clay.
We must not, however, forget that the primary purpose of savage and
primitive mankind in making images or engravings of animals is that
of influencing the animals by witchcraft or magic, as has been urged
by Reinach. From such magic-working drawings the art of savages has
gradually developed just as religious figures and designs have been the
initial motive of historic European art.
It seems in any case fairly certain that the artist who engraved our
picture of the three deer on to the stag's antler must have worked from
and copied a completed flat drawing, and probably printed it in some
way on to the prepared antler before engraving its lines thereon and
also checked the work, as he proceeded, by successive trial printings
or "proofs" on to a flat surface. It is possible though it does not
seem very probable, that the drawing was thus committed to perpetual
invisibility on a cylindrical rod–for the purpose of exercising "magic"
with that rod. It seems to me that the Cromagnard owner of the rod
would have wished to see "what the picture really looked like," and so
would have on some occasion and more than once have "printed it off" or
as we say "unrolled it."
Leaving that question aside I have a few words to say as to the present
attempted "completion" of the picture. My difficulty has been in
realizing the suggestion of a free, graceful "bounding" action given
by the pair of small hind legs which form all that remains of the
smallest of the three deer. I have tried various poses of the calf
indicated by these legs–bucking and jumping, and with fore legs closely
bent to the horizontal or in a more open position. The fact is there is
very little in existing drawings or photographs which can help us to a
decision of the problem, "How did the prehistoric artist complete that
exquisite little pair of hanging legs?" The problem is more obscure
even than that of the pose of the arms of the Venus of Melos. One feels
sure that the man who made this carving was an artist who must keep a
certain rhythm and flow in the action and form of the three successive
animals, and it is clear that he was a wonderful observer of the phases
of the limbs in movement. It is, perhaps, a presumptuous thing to
attempt on such a basis to recall the thought of a man who died twenty
thousand years ago, but I set out to do so with the belief that there
is a necessary figure determined by those hind legs.
Some years ago, as a step towards a solution of the problem, I
published a "restoration" or "completion" of this picture in the
"Field" (May 13th, 1911), and asked for criticisms and suggestions from
the readers of that journal. I had no difficulty as to the completion
of the biggest stag by drawing in his haunches and hind-legs, but
the completion of the head and antlers of the smaller stag–and still
more the calling into being of the entire calf as an inference from
his or her suspended hind-feet and hoofs alone–were not easy tasks.
I consulted many authorities and some instantaneous photographs, but
I was not satisfied with the pose I finally suggested for the calf
nor with the "points" assigned by my draughtsman to the antlers of
the smaller stag. Some interesting suggestions were made in reply
to my appeal by readers of the "Field." Those which seemed to me of
conclusive weight and value were offered by Mr. Walter Winans, who
combines the qualifications of a great observer of big game with those
of a great artist. In the restoration now given in Fig. 5 I have
profited by Mr. Walter Winans' criticism and have been especially
glad to make use of the spirited sketch made by him for my benefit,
and published in the "Field" of 1911, of a red-deer calf when hopping
along with all the feet together, a movement known as "buck-jumping."
"Of course," writes Mr. Winans, "this is quite different to the
bronco-pony's action when trying to get rid of a rider. In the case
of this kind she does not come down with a jar–but as she lands
bends her knees and hocks simultaneously and then straightens them,
also simultaneously, bounding in the air with bent back, tail curled
tight on back, head thrown back, and ears forward; she never puts
her fore-legs, either knee or fetlock, beyond her shoulder in this
action." These words of Mr. Winans and his outline sketch of the
buck-jumping calf precisely realize what the little hanging legs of
the rubbed-out calf had been, as it were, urging my tired brain to
recall and visualize. I am convinced that Mr. Winans' sketch gives the
completion of the picture as drawn by the artist of the Lortet cavern,
and satisfies the demand made by the gracefully suspended limbs shown
in the incompletely preserved original. And so I have used it in my
final restoration here given in Fig. 5.
The following letter by Mr. Winans, giving valuable comments on the
Lortet picture, was published in the "Field," and will assist others
in appreciating its significance: it enabled me to get the middle
stag's antlers correctly drawn. I have omitted a few lines referring to
defects in the original restoration–now corrected.
"SIR,–As Sir Ray Lankester asks for criticism of this wonderful
drawing of three deer, perhaps the following may be of interest.
I have known deer all my life, and lived amongst them the last
twelve years. I agree that the picture is wonderful–better than
anything Landseer or Rosa Bonheur drew, because these latter were
only artists: one can see by their pictures (full of faults as
to attitudes and actions) that they knew nothing of deer. For
instance, Landseer's stags were much too big in the body and
their heads too small, and even the shape of their horns was
conventional....
"The Lorthet drawings enable one to know all details about the
three deer (looking at the original mutilated 'development').
First, the deer have 'got the wind' of an enemy, have come a long
way, and are moving leisurely, the big stag, as usual, bringing up
the rear and taking a last look round before the herd goes out of
sight. The second is the younger stag who generally accompanies
the big stag and acts as his sentinel when he is sleeping, a stag
too small to give the big stag any jealousy as to his hinds. The
third is undoubtedly a calf (Red deer are 'stags,' 'hinds,' and
'calves,' not 'does' and 'fawns'; the latter terms apply to Fallow
deer and Roe-deer).
"The deer are typical Red deer, not Wapiti, except that the only
tail showing (that of the middle deer) is the short Wapiti tail,
not the longer tail of the Red deer, and the ears are shorter than
those of any existing species of deer.
"The horns of the big stag are those of typical park Red deer,
exactly like the Warnham Park big stag: brow, bay, and tray, with
a bunch on top, and the horns are short and straight for their
thickness.
"Now as to the short tail. I am trying, by crossing the Wapiti,
Red deer, and Altai to get back to the original deer before the
various species got separated, and my 'three-cross' deer show
these very characteristics, as follows: Red deer or Warnham
horns, short Wapiti tail, and the rather Roman nose which this
'development' print shows. The only difference is the short ears.
Is it not possible that, as the artist is able to draw the horns
in perspective and show the anatomy and proportions so well, that
the ears are meant to be drawn fore-shortened?
"The stag's mouth is open because he is big and fat and is blowing
(not roaring or bellowing). If it was the rutting season, when
stags roar, the stag would be tucked up in the belly and have a
tuft of hair hanging under the middle of it. He and the stag in
front are moving in the real action (not the conventional action
Rosa Bonheur and Landseer drew, but what the ancient Egyptians
drew sometimes) of a slow, easy canter.... Now as to the middle
stag's horns. I should give him, bearing in mind he is the small
sentry stag, brow, tray, and three on top–a ten-pointer, the thin
points showing in the original drawing indicating that he had thin
horns–in fact, a three-year old.
"In a Scotch forest a ten-pointer is a comparatively old stag, but
at Warnham and my place, where the feeding is good (and in my case
there is hand feeding all the year round), a spike stag gets six
points and can almost be a royal the next year.
"All this shows that the deer at the time this drawing was made
must have had very good feeding and come to maturity quickly,
like modern park deer. The big stag would never have allowed a
ten-pointer in his herd if the latter had been an old stag.
"As to the action of the leading hind. I think she is a hind-calf
by her legs, and is jumping with all four legs together, the
way young deer do when playing, and, being young, is paying no
attention to the danger behind, but is full of life, like a horse
playing about when he is fresh. One often sees the calves of a
herd playing like this if the herd is moving along steadily....
"From the position of the hind legs of the little calf I judge
that she is jumping with all four legs together (the jump from
which the expression 'buck jumping' comes); her tail would be
curled up tight over her back like a pug dog carries it, only
without the curl, and her ears pricked forward. The piece of horn
broken off would show the rest of the hinds and calves, led by an
old 'yeld' (_i.e._, barren) hind, who would be leading the herd
up wind with her nose and ears forward to 'get the wind' of any
danger ahead.
"The day is a hot one in the middle of August, shown by the big
stag blowing and his being with the hinds, instead of with other
stags by themselves, and by his not having 'run' yet, though his
horns are clear of velvet. He is most likely the stag on whose
horn this is engraved. The length of the deer's feet shows that
they live on ground which is soft and not many stones about to
wear down their toes.
"Maybe the fish indicate that the deer are crossing a shallow
ford, and the salmon are getting frightened and jumping. The
right-hand-most fish is just in the attitude of a hooked salmon
trying to leap clear of the fly....
"The picture was most likely first drawn on some flat flexible
surface, skin or bark, in a sticky medium, and then transferred to
the horn by rolling it round the horn and then rubbing it. This
would give a transfer, which would guide the subsequent engraving,
otherwise it would be very difficult to engrave direct on the
horn, and mistakes could not easily be corrected.
"WALTER WINANS
"SURRENDEN PARK, PLUCKLEY, KENT"
With regard to the six fishes in the picture of "The Three Red Deer," I
think that there can be little doubt that they are put in in the same
spirit of exuberance which induced early Italian masters to introduce
a cherub wherever a space for him could be found. The fish represented
are the same in each case, and are undeniably salmonids. Presumably
they are drawn on a larger scale than the deer. Their markings and the
form of the head are deserving of some criticism and comment by those
who are familiar with fish as seen by the fisherman. Probably the
artist's friends at Lourdes captured fish in those days by spearing
them with serrated bone-headed fish spears or harpoons (Fig. 3). No
fish hooks of bone have been found in the cave of Lortet or in others
of like age, although needles and whistles of bone and other useful
little instruments, as well as serrated spear heads and harpoons have
been obtained in several of them.
The tool used by the prehistoric man in engraving the cylinder of
stag's antler was undoubtedly a suitable chipped-out piece of flint–a
flint graving tool, in fact a "burin," such as are abundant in these
caves.
[Illustration: FIG. 6.–Fragment of a roughly-painted vase of the
Dipylon age (_circa_ 800 B.C.) from Tiryns, figured by Schliemann and
cited by Hörnes in his "History of Pictorial Art in Europe." Compare
the fish between the horse's legs with the fish in the Lortet picture
of the Three Deer; also note the lozenge-shaped designs (similar to the
pair above the big stag in the Lortet picture) near the fish and near
the man's head (_d_); and, further, the swastika (_s_).]
Attention has been drawn by Hörnes in his "History of Pictorial Art
in Europe" to the resemblance of the Lortet picture to a fragment of
a roughly painted vase of the Dipylon age (_circa_ 800 B.C.) found at
Tiryns and figured by Schliemann in his account of excavations made at
that ancient Mykenæan fortress of the Peloponese. The fragment (Fig.
6) shows very roughly drawn figures of a man and of a horse. Between
the fore and hind legs of the horse a large elaborately ornate fish
is represented, reminding us of the fishes between the deer's legs in
the Lortet picture. Two other similar fragments of pottery, showing
a fish in this position, are recorded by Schliemann. The drawing is
conventional and careless. It is of a debased decorative character, and
is very far removed from the careful nature-true work of the Lortet
cave-man. It is not possible to trace by any known line of transmission
a connection between the engraving executed 20,000 years ago in the
caves of the Pyrénées and the figures rapidly knocked off in black
paint on the Tiryns vase some 17,000 years later by the local dealers
in cheap pottery. Yet we cannot avoid the suggestion that there is
some connection between the two designs. For the Tiryns painting shows
not only the curious upright fish between the horse's legs, but also
diamond-shaped figures–one marked _d_ in Fig. 6, another near the
fish's tail, and another between the man's feet–closely resembling
the pair of diamond-shaped figures engraved above the neck of the big
stag in the Lortet picture (see Figs. 4 and 5). As we do not know what
these diamond-shaped figures or "lozenges" are intended to signify
in either case, we do not get, at present, beyond the bald fact of
their coincidence. The Tiryns painting also shows (at _s_ in Fig. 6)
a "swastika" (see Chapter XVII), and below the man's arm a carelessly
drawn bit of the ancient wave-fret or key-pattern. It is, of course,
possible that the tradition of an ancient design–even dating so far
back in origin as many thousands of years–may be preserved in the
use made in the Tiryns decoration of the fish and the diamond-shaped
lozenges, though associated with the swastika and the bit of wave-fret
which are probably of later origin and are not known in the decorative
work of the cave-men. The Mykenæan decorative assimilation of geese to
the ship's barnacle exercised its influence over three thousand years
and led to the mediæval belief in the hatching of young geese from
barnacles attached to floating timber, and even from the buds of trees
(see my "Diversions of a Naturalist": Methuen, 1915). Nevertheless it
must not be supposed that the connection of the Lortet engraving and
the vase-painting of Tiryns is probable or more than a very remote
possibility. The gap in time is too vast, and our present ignorance
of what took place in that interval too complete, to warrant us in
regarding the resemblance as more than a coincidence.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] "L'Age du Renne," a posthumous work, with one hundred coloured
quarto plates of objects in the Piette collection, is published by
Masson, of Paris, and gives the complete list of Piette's numerous
earlier papers, issued as his excavations proceeded.
[2] Seven years ago the ape-like lower jaw and thick walled brain-case
called "Eoanthropus" were discovered in a sparse gravel near Lewes in
Sussex. It is probably of older date than either the Neander men or
the Heidelberg men. See on this subject the chapters on "The Missing
Link" in my "Diversions of a Naturalist" (1915) and those on "The Most
Ancient Men" and "The Cave-men's Skulls" in "Science from an Easy
Chair. First Series" (1910).