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26 chapters
INTRODUCTION.
INTRODUCTION.
The "Antiquity of Man" was published in 1863, and ran into a third edition in the course of that year. The cause of this is not far to seek. Darwin's "Origin of Species" appeared in 1859, only four years earlier, and rapidly had its effect in drawing attention to the great problem of the origin of living beings. The theories of Darwin and Wallace brought to a head and presented in a concrete shape the somewhat vague speculations as to development and evolution which had long been floating in the
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CHAPTER 1. — INTRODUCTORY.
CHAPTER 1. — INTRODUCTORY.
No subject has lately excited more curiosity and general interest among geologists and the public than the question of the Antiquity of the Human Race—whether or no we have sufficient evidence in caves, or in the superficial deposits commonly called drift or "diluvium," to prove the former co-existence of man with certain extinct mammalia. For the last half-century the occasional occurrence in various parts of Europe of the bones of Man or the works of his hands in cave-breccias and stalagmites,
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CHAPTER 2. — RECENT PERIOD—DANISH PEAT AND SHELL MOUNDS—SWISS
CHAPTER 2. — RECENT PERIOD—DANISH PEAT AND SHELL MOUNDS—SWISS
LAKE-DWELLINGS. WORKS OF ART IN DANISH PEAT. When treating in the "Principles of Geology" of the changes of the earth which have taken place in comparatively modern times, I have spoken of the embedding of organic bodies and human remains in peat, and explained under what conditions the growth of that vegetable substance is going on in northern and humid climates. Of late years, since I first alluded to the subject, more extensive investigations have been made into the history of the Danish peat
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CHAPTER 3. — FOSSIL HUMAN REMAINS AND WORKS OF ART OF THE RECENT
CHAPTER 3. — FOSSIL HUMAN REMAINS AND WORKS OF ART OF THE RECENT
PERIOD—CONTINUED. DELTA AND ALLUVIAL PLAIN OF THE NILE. Some new facts of high interest illustrating the geology of the alluvial land of Egypt were brought to light between the years 1851 and 1854, in consequence of investigations suggested to the Royal Society by Mr. Leonard Horner, and which were partly carried out at the expense of the Society. The practical part of the undertaking was entrusted by Mr. Horner to an Armenian officer of engineers, Hekekyan Bey, who had for many years pursued hi
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CHAPTER 4. — PLEISTOCENE PERIOD—BONES OF MAN AND EXTINCT MAMMALIA IN
CHAPTER 4. — PLEISTOCENE PERIOD—BONES OF MAN AND EXTINCT MAMMALIA IN
BELGIAN CAVERNS. Having hitherto considered those formations in which both the fossil shells and the mammalia are of living species, we may now turn our attention to those of older date, in which the shells being all recent, some of the accompanying mammalia are extinct, or belong to species not known to have lived within the times of history or tradition. DISCOVERIES OF MM. TOURNAL AND CHRISTOL IN 1828 IN THE SOUTH OF FRANCE. In the "Principles of Geology," when treating of the fossil remains f
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CHAPTER 5. — PLEISTOCENE PERIOD—FOSSIL HUMAN SKULLS OF THE NEANDERTHAL
CHAPTER 5. — PLEISTOCENE PERIOD—FOSSIL HUMAN SKULLS OF THE NEANDERTHAL
AND ENGIS CAVES. FOSSIL HUMAN SKELETON OF THE NEANDERTHAL CAVE NEAR DUSSELDORF. Before I speak more particularly of the opinions which anatomists have expressed respecting the osteological characters of the human skull from Engis, near Liege, mentioned in the last chapter and described by Dr. Schmerling, it will be desirable to say something of the geological position of another skull, or rather skeleton, which, on account of its peculiar conformation, has excited no small sensation in the last
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CHAPTER 6. — PLEISTOCENE ALLUVIUM AND CAVE DEPOSITS WITH FLINT
CHAPTER 6. — PLEISTOCENE ALLUVIUM AND CAVE DEPOSITS WITH FLINT
IMPLEMENTS. PLEISTOCENE ALLUVIUM CONTAINING FLINT IMPLEMENTS IN THE VALLEY OF THE SOMME. Throughout a large part of Europe we find at moderate elevations above the present river-channels, usually at a height of less than 40 feet, but sometimes much higher, beds of gravel, sand, and loam containing bones of the elephant, rhinoceros, horse, ox, and other quadrupeds, some of extinct, others of living, species, belonging for the most part to the fauna already alluded to in the fourth chapter as char
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CHAPTER 7. — PEAT AND PLEISTOCENE ALLUVIUM OF THE VALLEY OF THE SOMME.
CHAPTER 7. — PEAT AND PLEISTOCENE ALLUVIUM OF THE VALLEY OF THE SOMME.
GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE OF THE SOMME VALLEY. The valley of the Somme in Picardy, alluded to in the last chapter, is situated geologically in a region of white Chalk with flints, the strata of which are nearly horizontal. The Chalk hills which bound the valley are almost everywhere between 200 and 300 feet in height. On ascending to that elevation, we find ourselves on an extensive table-land, in which there are slight elevations and depressions. The white Chalk itself is scarcely ever exposed at th
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CHAPTER 8. — PLEISTOCENE ALLUVIUM WITH FLINT IMPLEMENTS OF THE VALLEY
CHAPTER 8. — PLEISTOCENE ALLUVIUM WITH FLINT IMPLEMENTS OF THE VALLEY
OF THE SOMME—CONCLUDED. In the section of the valley of the Somme given in Figure 7, the successive formations newer than the Chalk are numbered in chronological order, beginning with the most modern, or the peat, which is marked Number 1, and which has been treated of in the last chapter. Next in the order of antiquity are the lower-level gravels, Number 2, which we have now to describe; after which the alluvium, Number 3, found at higher levels, or about 80 and 100 feet above the river-plain,
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CHAPTER 9. — WORKS OF ART IN PLEISTOCENE ALLUVIUM OF FRANCE AND
CHAPTER 9. — WORKS OF ART IN PLEISTOCENE ALLUVIUM OF FRANCE AND
ENGLAND. FLINT IMPLEMENTS IN PLEISTOCENE ALLUVIUM IN THE BASIN OF THE SEINE. In the ancient alluvium of the valleys of the Seine and its principal tributaries, the same assemblage of fossil animals, which has been alluded to in the last chapter as characterising the gravel of Picardy, has long been known; but it was not till the year 1860, and when diligent search had been expressly made for them, that flint implements of the Amiens type were discovered in this part of France. In the neighbourho
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CHAPTER 10. — CAVERN DEPOSITS, AND PLACES OF SEPULTURE OF THE
CHAPTER 10. — CAVERN DEPOSITS, AND PLACES OF SEPULTURE OF THE
PLEISTOCENE PERIOD. WORKS OF ART ASSOCIATED WITH EXTINCT MAMMALIA IN A CAVERN IN SOMERSETSHIRE. The only British cave from which implements resembling those of Amiens have been obtained, since the attention of geologists has been awakened to the importance of minutely observing the position of such relics relatively to the associated fossil mammalia, is that recently opened near Wells in Somersetshire. It occurs near the cave of Wookey Hole, from the mouth of which the river Axe issues on the so
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CHAPTER 11. — AGE OF HUMAN FOSSILS OF LE PUY IN CENTRAL FRANCE AND OF
CHAPTER 11. — AGE OF HUMAN FOSSILS OF LE PUY IN CENTRAL FRANCE AND OF
NATCHEZ ON THE MISSISSIPPI DISCUSSED. Among the fossil remains of the human species supposed to have claims to high antiquity, and which have for many years attracted attention, two of the most prominent examples are:— First—"The fossil man of Denise," comprising the remains of more than one skeleton, found in a volcanic breccia near the town of Le Puy-en-Velay, in Central France. Secondly—The fossil human bone of Natchez, on the Mississippi, supposed to have been derived from a deposit containi
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CHAPTER 12. — ANTIQUITY OF MAN RELATIVELY TO THE GLACIAL PERIOD AND TO
CHAPTER 12. — ANTIQUITY OF MAN RELATIVELY TO THE GLACIAL PERIOD AND TO
THE EXISTING FAUNA AND FLORA. Frequent allusions have been made in the preceding pages to a period called the glacial, to which no reference is made in the Chronological Table of Formations given above (Chapter 1). It comprises a long series of ages, during which the power of cold, whether exerted by glaciers on the land, or by floating ice on the sea, was greater in the northern hemisphere, and extended to more southern latitudes than now. [Note 19] It often happens that when in any given regio
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CHAPTER 13. — CHRONOLOGICAL RELATIONS OF THE GLACIAL PERIOD AND THE
CHAPTER 13. — CHRONOLOGICAL RELATIONS OF THE GLACIAL PERIOD AND THE
EARLIEST SIGNS OF MAN'S APPEARANCE IN EUROPE. The chronological relations of the human and glacial periods were frequently alluded to in the last chapter, and the sections obtained near Bedford, and at Hoxne, in Suffolk, and a general view of the Norfolk cliffs, have taught us that the earliest signs of Man's appearance in the British isles, hitherto detected, are of post-glacial date. We may now therefore inquire whether the peopling of Europe by the human race and by the mammoth and other mamm
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CHAPTER 14. — CHRONOLOGICAL RELATIONS OF THE GLACIAL PERIOD AND THE
CHAPTER 14. — CHRONOLOGICAL RELATIONS OF THE GLACIAL PERIOD AND THE
EARLIEST SIGNS OF MAN'S APPEARANCE IN EUROPE—CONTINUED. EXTINCT GLACIERS IN WALES. The considerable amount of vertical movement in opposite directions, which was suggested in the last chapter, as affording the most probable explanation of the position of some of the stratified and fossiliferous drifts of Scotland, formed since the commencement of the glacial period, will appear less startling if it can be shown that independent observations lead us to infer that a geographical revolution of stil
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CHAPTER 15. — EXTINCT GLACIERS OF THE ALPS AND THEIR CHRONOLOGICAL
CHAPTER 15. — EXTINCT GLACIERS OF THE ALPS AND THEIR CHRONOLOGICAL
RELATION TO THE HUMAN PERIOD. EXTINCT GLACIERS OF SWITZERLAND. We have seen in the preceding chapters that the mountains of Scandinavia, Scotland, and North Wales have served, during the glacial period, as so many independent centres for the dispersion of erratic blocks, just as at present the ice-covered continent of North Greenland is sending down ice in all directions to the coast, and filling Baffin's Bay with floating bergs, many of them laden with fragments of rocks. Another great European
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CHAPTER 16. — HUMAN REMAINS IN THE LOESS, AND THEIR PROBABLE AGE.
CHAPTER 16. — HUMAN REMAINS IN THE LOESS, AND THEIR PROBABLE AGE.
NATURE AND ORIGIN OF THE LOESS. Intimately connected with the subjects treated of in the last chapter, is the nature, origin, and age of certain loamy deposits, commonly called loess, which form a marked feature in the superficial deposits of the basins of the Rhine, Danube, and some other large rivers draining the Alps, and which extend down the Rhine into the Low Countries, and were once perhaps continuous with others of like composition in the north of France. [Note 35] It has been reported o
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CHAPTER 17. — POST-GLACIAL DISLOCATIONS AND FOLDINGS OF CRETACEOUS AND
CHAPTER 17. — POST-GLACIAL DISLOCATIONS AND FOLDINGS OF CRETACEOUS AND
DRIFT STRATA IN THE ISLAND OF MOEN, IN DENMARK. In the preceding chapters I have endeavoured to show that the study of the successive phases of the glacial period in Europe, and the enduring marks which they have left on many of the solid rocks and on the character of the superficial drift are of great assistance in enabling us to appreciate the vast lapse of ages which are comprised in the Pleistocene epoch. They enlarge at the same time our conception of the antiquity, not only of the living s
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CHAPTER 18. — THE GLACIAL PERIOD IN NORTH AMERICA.
CHAPTER 18. — THE GLACIAL PERIOD IN NORTH AMERICA.
On the North American continent, between the arctic circle and the 42nd parallel of latitude, we meet with signs of ice-action on a scale as grand as, if not grander than, in Europe; and there also the excess of cold appears to have been first felt at the close of the Tertiary, and to have continued throughout a large portion of the Pleistocene period. [Note 36] The general absence of organic remains in the North American glacial formation makes it as difficult as in Europe to determine what mam
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CHAPTER 19. — RECAPITULATION OF GEOLOGICAL PROOFS OF MAN'S ANTIQUITY.
CHAPTER 19. — RECAPITULATION OF GEOLOGICAL PROOFS OF MAN'S ANTIQUITY.
The ages of stone and bronze, so called by archaeologists, were spoken of in the earlier chapters of this work. That of bronze has been traced back to times anterior to the Roman occupation of Helvetia, Gaul, and other countries north of the Alps. When weapons of that mixed metal were in use, a somewhat uniform civilisation seems to have prevailed over a wide extent of central and northern Europe, and the long duration of such a state of things in Denmark and Switzerland is shown by the gradual
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CHAPTER 20. — THEORIES OF PROGRESSION AND TRANSMUTATION.
CHAPTER 20. — THEORIES OF PROGRESSION AND TRANSMUTATION.
When speaking in a former work of the distinct races of mankind,* I remarked that, "if all the leading varieties of the human family sprang originally from a single pair" (a doctrine, to which then, as now, I could see no valid objection), "a much greater lapse of time was required for the slow and gradual formation of such races as the Caucasian, Mongolian, and Negro, than was embraced in any of the popular systems of chronology." In confirmation of the high antiquity of two of these, I referre
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CHAPTER 21. — ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES BY VARIATION AND NATURAL
CHAPTER 21. — ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES BY VARIATION AND NATURAL
SELECTION. For many years after the promulgation of Lamarck's doctrine of progressive development, geologists were much occupied with the question whether the past changes in the animate and inanimate world were brought about by sudden and paroxysmal action, or gradually and continuously, by causes differing neither in kind nor degree from those now in operation. The anonymous author of "The Vestiges of Creation" published in 1844 a treatise, written in a clear and attractive style, which made t
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CHAPTER 22. — OBJECTIONS TO THE HYPOTHESIS OF TRANSMUTATION CONSIDERED.
CHAPTER 22. — OBJECTIONS TO THE HYPOTHESIS OF TRANSMUTATION CONSIDERED.
THEORY OF TRANSMUTATION—ABSENCE OF INTERMEDIATE LINKS. The most obvious and popular of the objections urged against the theory of transmutation may be thus expressed: If the extinct species of plants and animals of the later geological periods were the progenitors of the living species, and gave origin to them by variation and natural selection, where are all the intermediate forms, fossil and living, through which the lost types must have passed during their conversion into the living ones? And
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CHAPTER 23. — ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF LANGUAGES AND SPECIES COMPARED
CHAPTER 23. — ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF LANGUAGES AND SPECIES COMPARED
[Note 43] . The supposed existence, at a remote and unknown period, of a language conventionally called the Aryan, has of late years been a favourite subject of speculation among German philologists, and Professor Max Muller has given us lately the most improved version of this theory, and has set forth the various facts and arguments by which it may be defended, with his usual perspicuity and eloquence. He observes that if we know nothing of the existence of Latin—if all historical documents pr
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CHAPTER 24. — BEARING OF THE DOCTRINE OF TRANSMUTATION ON THE ORIGIN OF
CHAPTER 24. — BEARING OF THE DOCTRINE OF TRANSMUTATION ON THE ORIGIN OF
MAN, AND HIS PLACE IN THE CREATION. Some of the opponents of transmutation, who are well versed in Natural History, admit that though that doctrine is untenable, it is not without its practical advantages as a "useful working hypothesis," often suggesting good experiments and observations and aiding us to retain in the memory a multitude of facts respecting the geographical distribution of genera and species, both of animals and plants, the succession in time of organic remains, and many other p
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NOTES.
NOTES.
1 ( return ) [ The classification of the strata above the Chalk, as at present employed by the majority of British geologists, is merely a slight modification of that proposed by Lyell in 1833. The subdivisions generally recognised are as follows (Lake and Rastall, "Textbook of Geology," London, 1910, page 438):— This differs chiefly from Lyell's classification in the introduction of the term Oligocene for the upper part of the original Eocene, which was somewhat unwieldy. In the earlier edition
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