741 
 
 ^^~r«rikr 
 
 B 3 121 630 
 
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THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
 6ARTM 
 
 SCfPNCES 
 
 IIBRARY 
 
ARTEFAGTA ANTIQUISSIMA: 
 
 GEOLOGY IN ITS KELATION 
 TO PRIMEVAL MAN. 
 
 BY 
 
 HENRY DUCKWORTH, ESQ., F.E.G.S., E.G.S. 
 
 LIVERPOOL : 
 
 T. BRAKELL, PRINTER, COOK STREET. 
 I860. 
 
EARTH 
 
 SCIENCES 
 
 LIBRART 
 
 

 ARTEFACTA ANTIQUISSIMA: 
 GEOLOGY IN ITS RELATION TO PRIMEVAL MAN. 
 
 The discovery of works of human art in caverns and in 
 superficial deposits, associated with remains of animals 
 hitherto supposed to have become extinct before the intro- 
 duction of man upon the earth, is a subject at present attracting 
 no small amount of attention in the scientific world. 
 
 In the following notes I have endeavoured to draw up an 
 analysis of the principal facts relating to this question, and I 
 trust they may prove of s>ervice to those who have had no 
 opportunities of collecting the scattered evidence themselves. 
 
 It is eleven years since M. Boucher de Perthes, the well- 
 known archaeologist of Abbeville, published the first part of 
 his celebrated *' Antiquites Celtiques et Antediluviennes."* 
 
 In this book, amongst other remarkable statements, he 
 related how he had discovered in beds of undisturbed diluvial 
 gravel in the valley of the Somme, flint instruments — evidently 
 worked by the hand of man — associated with remains of the 
 Mammoth {Elephas j)rimig€nius,) and other extinct animals. 
 
 • Paris, 1847, rimprime en 1847, publie en 1849.) 
 
 055 
 
This singular announcement, strange to say, hardly excited 
 any attention at the time. Men of science ridiculed the very 
 idea, and were incredulous. Such treatment might perhaps 
 have cooled the ardour of any other man than M. de Perthes ; 
 hut he only carried on his researches with redoubled energy, 
 and after a lapse of eight years, the second part of his work 
 appeared, in which he boldly re-asserted his former opinions. 
 
 In the following year, (1858,) facts of a somewhat kindred 
 nature were elucidated at Brixham, in Devonshire. A cavern 
 abounding in fossil remains having been discovered there, the 
 Eoyal Society voted a grant for its examination, and the ex- 
 ploration was entrusted to Dr. Falconer and Mr. Pengelly. 
 
 From the preliminary reports it appears that the principal 
 remains brought to light so far are those of Ehinoceros 
 tichorrhinus. Bos, Equus, Cervus tarandus, Ursus spelseus, 
 and Hysena — and curiously enough, — a great number of flint 
 knives and arrow heads, evidently of human manufacture, 
 were discovered indiscriminately commingled with them. One 
 in particular was found immediately beneath a fine antler of a 
 reindeer and a bone of the cave bear, which were imbedded 
 in the superficial stalagmite in the middle of the cave.* 
 
 This remarkable revelation naturally reminded Dr. Falconer 
 of M. de Perthes' discoveries, and having proceeded to 
 Abbeville to inspect that gentleman's magnificent collection 
 of worked flints, he returned thoroughly convinced of their 
 genuineness, and at his instigation Mr. Prestwich was per- 
 suaded to cross the channel and to examine the gravel beds 
 in the valley of the Somme. Mr. Prestwich who informs us 
 that he undertook the inquiry full of doubt,t went towards 
 the end of April last year to Amiens, where he found the 
 gravel-beds of St. Acheul capping a low chalk-hill a mile S.E. 
 
 * Abstract Proceedings Geol. Soc , 22iul June, 1859. 
 + Proceedings of the Royal Society, 20tli May, 1859. 
 
of the city, about 100 feet above the level of the Sommc, and ) 
 not commanded by any higher ground. 
 
 The beds, as determined by him, consisted of — 
 
 1st. — Brown brick-earth (with old tombs and coins,) 
 10 to 15 feet. 
 
 2nd. — White marl containing recent land and fresh- 
 water shells, 2 to 8 feet. 
 
 3rd. — Coarse sub-angular gravel in which are found 
 bones of elepltas, eqiiiis, bos and cervus, and 
 the flmt instruments, ("Langues de chats" of 
 the workmen,) 6 to 12 feet. 
 
 Mons. Pinsard, of Amiens, with whom I have lately been 
 in correspondence, has kindly sent me drawings of sections of 
 these beds, and his classification, as will be seen from the 
 annexed cuts is rather more elaborate than Mr. Prestwich's. 
 
 No. 1. 
 
 Trois couches d'argile mameuse et sablonneuse. 
 
 Lit de petit silex de 10 @ 19 centimetres. 
 Argile et mame. 
 . . . Sable marneux 30 cent 
 
 . . . Couche de caUloux de silex ou sont les 
 
 M 
 
 " Haches" .... 1.90 cent. 
 
 • / / /// 
 
 iiilllllUltll 
 
 Crcdc. (Chalk.) 
 
 No. 3. 
 
 Trois couches distintes d'argile marneuse avec 
 petit silex. Saches de sable aigre. 
 
 1.13. .Cailloiix de silex ou se trouvent les " Haches. 
 
No. 3. 
 
 Hauteur moyenne. 
 
 1.00. 
 
 . Terre vegetale argileuse. 
 
 v,;^^- . . , » . ^ ^ © *» • , g,*. . V * ,• • .75 Lit de petits cailloux. 
 
 /^M0mWMmi •'^^ -^"S^^^ mameuse. 
 
 '//////////y////////////,,,,, ///////// ^ -y^ 
 
 .90 @ 1.00. . . .Autre couclie distinte de la premiere. 
 
 7L 
 
 ''/lyTl / / /J fp^^^^^^'^f^'^'''/- -30 @ .80 Sable aigre mele de gravier. 
 
 M. c. 
 
 .2.90«nyjron..Couclie de cailloux dans laquelle se 
 trouvent les " Haches" et les dents 
 d'elephants et de cheval. 
 
 Craxe. (Chalk.) 
 
 The irregularity in the stratification of these beds is a 
 point on which M. Pinsard particularly dwells, and I will 
 here state what he says respecting it in a letter addressed 
 to me — 
 
 " La stratification du diluvium de St. Acheul est tres irregu- 
 *' liere, et les coupes que je vous donne aujourd'hui ne sont 
 " que des moyennes." 
 
 '^Lorsque les ouvriers ont avance les tranchees de quelques 
 "metres, la hauteur de gravier varie tres sensiblement ; ]a 
 "hauteur du banc de gravier dans lequel se trouvent les 
 " Haches varie de 2 a 4 metres, mais la hauteur moyenne est 
 " de 2 metres 90 centimetres environ." 
 
 "Les couches superieures indiquent plusieurs depots, ces 
 " sont des argiles, des glaises, et des bancs de petits cailloux, 
 " (aussi des bancs faibles de Sable Aigre.) les couches d'argile 
 
** qui sont voisines des cailloux sont trds marneuses et c'est 
 *'dans ces couches que se trouvent beaucoup de coquilles 
 ** decrites par Mr. Prestwich." 
 
 "Ou trouve tous les jours de Haches, tres souvent des 
 ** dents de clieval et rarement des dents d'elephants; ces 
 "objets sont dans les couches de gravier posee sur la craie. 
 
 "Les depots de St. Acheul, sont curieux a cause de leur 
 " irregularite. Si on mettait le gravier a peu on n' aurait pas 
 "une surface ondulee mais une surface composee de petits 
 " cones a peu pres semblables aux dunes de la Yeu pres St. 
 " Yalery-en-Mer." 
 
 "Jen'ai pas remarque que les couches inclinent vers la 
 " vallee de Somme plutot q' autrement." 
 
 " L' irregularite existe partout ; les couches superieures 
 *' seulement sont plaines." 
 
 "Du sol de la craie audessus de la terre vegetale, on pent 
 *' toujours compter 6 a 8 depots et quelquefois 10. Vous le 
 " voyez r irregularite est grande et les couches donnent des 
 *' epoques differentes. 
 
 "Les ' Haches' se trouvent exclusivement dans les couches 
 " qui reposent sur la craie."* 
 
 Mr. Prestwich on his first visit obtained several specimens 
 of worked flints from the quarrymen, but could not find any 
 himself. Revisiting the pits, however, shortly afterwards with 
 Mr. Evans, he was shown one which had been left ''in situ" for 
 his inspection. It was 1 7 feet from the surface, in undisturbed 
 ground. Photographic views of the section were taken by 
 
 * And Mods. Buteux, m his memoir "La Geologic clu department de la 
 Somme," writes tlms. — "Ainsi il est bien etabli, et je le repete : les objets que 
 " nous allons decrire ne se trouvent ni dans le limon argilo-sableux ou terre a 
 " briques qui forme la couche superieure, ni dans les lits intermediaires d' argile 
 *' plus ou moins pure, de sables et de petits cailloux. * ♦ * • * ;Mais 
 "ils se rencontrent exclusivement dans la veritable diluvium c' est-a-dire dans le 
 " depot qui renferme les restes des especes animales de 1' epoque qui a precede 
 " immediatement le cataclysme pai- lequel elles ont ete detruites. II ne pent y 
 " avoir auoun doute a cet egard." 
 
 Quoted in "AntKjuiles Celtiques et Antediluvienne," vol ii, p. 0. 
 
8 
 
 s Mons. Faure of Amiens, and having obtained copies from 
 that gentleman, I am glad to have an opportunity of exhibiting 
 them to this society. 
 
 Later on in the year Mr. Flower obtained a very perfect 
 specimen of a flint instrument from these beds himself* ; and 
 about the same time Mons. Gaudry (Membre de 1' Institut,) 
 examined a fresh section, with the most satisfactory results, 
 for no fewer than nine implements were discovered associated 
 with remains of rhinoceros, hippopotamus and mammoth.f 
 f Besides visiting Amiens, Mr. Prestwich went to Abbeville, 
 Moulin- Quignon, St. Gilles and Menchecourt, at all of which 
 places he appears to have found the deposits occurring much 
 in the same order as those of St. Acheul. 
 
 Menchecourt is especially interesting on account of the 
 admixture of marine and freshwater shells in one of its beds, 
 and the great quantity of Mammalian remains found along 
 with " Haches" in the lower stratum of sub-angular gravel. J 
 
 The bones in question are those of Elephas primigenius. 
 Rhinoceros tichorrhinus, Cervus Somonensis, Cervus tarandus- 
 priscus, Ursus spelseus. Hyaena spelsea. Bos primigenius, 
 Equus adamaticus and a Felis. 
 
 Mr. Prestwich examined M. Boucher de Perthes* collection 
 
 * Abstract of Proceedings Geol. Soc, No. 36, 22nd June, 1859. Times, 18th 
 Nov. I8r.9. 
 
 + " L' Institut" 5th Oct. 1859. 
 
 I A section examined by Mr. Prestwich consisted of — 1 . A mass of brown 
 sandy clay with anguhxr fragments of flints and clialk rubble. No organic remains. 
 Base very in-egular and indented into No. 2; average thickness 2 to 12 feet. 
 2. A light coloured sandy clay, (" sable gras " of the workmen,) analogous to 
 the Loess, containing land shells, pupa, helix, and clausilia of recent species. 
 Flint axes and Mammalian remains are said to occur occasionally in this bed; 
 avei-age thickness 8 to 25 feet. 3. White sand (" sable aigre") with 1 to 2 feet 
 of sub-angular flint gravel at base. This bed abounds in land and freshwater 
 shells of recent species of the genera helix, succinea, cyclas, pisidium, valvata, 
 bithynia, and planorbis, together wdth the marine Buccinum undatum, Cardium 
 edule, Tellina solidula, and Purjnira lapillus. Mr. P. also found the Cyrena con- 
 sobrina, and Littorina rudis. With them are associated numerous Mammalian 
 remains and it is said flint implements; average thickness 2 to 6 feet. 4. Light 
 coloured sandy marl, in places very hard with helix, zonites, succinea, and 
 pupa; not traversed. 
 
9 
 
 at Abbeville, and appears to have been much astonished at its 
 beauty and extent. The opportunity was a favourable one for 
 comparison, and he did not fail to profit by it, for in speaking 
 of the different appearances of flint instruments from various 
 localities in the Somme valley, he makes the following im- 
 portant observations : — 
 
 " In looking over the large series of flint implements in 
 M. de Perthes' collection, it cannot fail to strike the most 
 casual observer that those from M'enchecourt are almost 
 always white and bright, whilst those from Moulin-Quignon 
 have a dull yellow and brown surface ; and it may be noticed 
 that whenever (as is often the case,) any of the matrix 
 adheres to the flint it is invariably of the same nature, texture 
 and colour as that of the respective beds themselves." 
 
 "In the same way at St. Acheul where there are beds of 
 white and others of ochreous gravel, the flint implements 
 exhibit corresponding variations in colour and adhering 
 matrix ; added to which as the white gravel contains chalk debris, 
 there are portions of the gravel in which the flints are more 
 or less coated with a film of carbonate of lime ; and so it is with 
 the flint implements which occur in those portions of the gravel." 
 
 From such plain facts as these, he justly infers a con- 
 temporaneous deposition of the instruments and the gravel in 
 which they are imbedded. It is well known that flints become 
 deeply discoloured when in ochreous deposits, whitened and 
 opaque in argillaceous matter, encrusted with carbonate of 
 lime when imbedded in chalk; and here we find the ''Haches" 
 exactly in the same condition in this respect as the rough 
 unworked flints which surround them — " a constituent part of 
 the gravel" in fact, as Mr. Prestwich observes. There seems 
 to be no doubt as to the age of the drift deposits in question ; 
 and Mr. Prestwich identifies them with the gravel of East 
 Croydon, Wandsworth Common, and other places in the 
 neighbourhood of London. 
 
10 
 
 The predominant form of '' Haches " found at Amiens 
 varies very matei'ially from that of the Abbeville specimens. 
 
 The former are generally long and pointed at one end, and 
 appear to have been primeval spear heads. 
 
 Those from Abbeville, on the contrary, are oval and chipped 
 to a comparatively fine edge all round. Mr. Evans seems to 
 think they may have been used as sling-stones or hatchets. 
 
 The accompanying sketches, however, will convey a better 
 notion of the two types than any description. (See plate V.) 
 
 Before leaving this part of my subject, I would allude to 
 the very able address delivered by Sir Charles Lyell, at the 
 last meeting of the British Association, and which related 
 almost entirely to the question now before us. 
 
 Having visited Amiens and Abbeville himself, and examined 
 the drift beds in the valley of the Somme his words necessarily 
 carry great weight with them. 
 
 The conclusions which he arrived at respecting the nature 
 and age of the deposits in which the flint implements are 
 found, may be gathered from the important passage quoted 
 below.* 
 
 * " But while I have thus failed to obtain satisfactory evidence in favour of 
 the remote origin assigned to the human fossils of Le Puy, I am fully pre- 
 pared to corroborate the conclusions which have been recently laid before the 
 Royal Society, by Mr. Prest\vich, in regard to the age of flint implements 
 associated, in undisturbed gravel in the north of France, with the bones of 
 Elephants at Abbeville and Amiens. These were first noticed at Abbeville, and 
 their true geological position assigned to them by M. Boucher de Perthes in 184:9, 
 in his " Antiquites Celtiques," while those of Amiens were afterwards described 
 in 1855, by the late Dr. Higollot. For a clear statement of the facts, I may refer 
 you to the abstract of Mr. Prestwich's Memoir in the Proceedings of the Eoyal 
 Society, for 1809, and I have only to add that I have myself obtained abundance 
 of flint implements (some of which are laid upon the table,) during a short visit 
 to Amiens and Abbeville. Two of the worked flints of Amiens were discovered 
 in the gravel-pits of St. Acheul, one at the dej)th of ten, and the other of seven- 
 teen feet below the surface, at the time of my visit; and M. Georges Pouchet, of 
 Eouen, author of a work on the " Traces of Man," who has since visited the 
 spot, has extracted with his own hands one of these implements, as Messrs. 
 Prestwich and Flower had done before him. The stratiQed gravel in which these 
 rudely-finished instruments are bmied, resting immediately on the chalk, belongs 
 to the Post- Pliocene period, all the freshwater and land shells which accompany 
 them being of existing species. The great number of the fossil instruments 
 which have been likened to hatchets, spear-heads and wedges, is truly wonderful. 
 

 
 . s 
 
 •^.^■^A 
 
11 
 
 It is worthy of note, that long before M. Boucher de 
 Perthes dreamed of his wonderful discoveries in the Valley 
 of the Somme,* flint implements, very similar in form to 
 the " Haches " from Amiens, were found and described in 
 England. It appears that so far back as 1797,t a Mr. John 
 Frere published a memoir, giving an account of the discovery 
 of numerous flint implements in a bed of gravel, eleven feet 
 from the surface, at Hoxne, in Suff'olk. 
 
 In this same bed of gravel (which is stated to have been 
 covered with sand and brick earth) were also found bones of 
 
 More tlian a thousand of them have already been met with in the last ten years, 
 in the valley of the Soiume, in an area fifteen miles in length." 
 
 "I infer that a tribe of savages, to whom the use of kon was unknown, made 
 a long sojourn in this region ; and I am reminded of a large Indian mound 
 which I saw in St. Simonds Island, in Georgia ; a mound ten acres in area, and 
 having an average height of five feet, chiefly composed of cast away oyster shells, 
 throughout which arrow heads, stone axes, and Indian potteiy are dispersed. If 
 the neighboiuing river, the Alatamaha, or the sea, which is at hand, should 
 invade, sweep away, and stratify the contents of this mound, it might produce a 
 very analogous accumulation of human implements, unmixed j)erhaps, with 
 human bones." 
 
 " Although the accompanying shells are of living species, I believe the antiquity 
 of the Abbeville and Amiens flintainstruments to be great indeed, if compared to 
 the times of history or tradition." 
 
 " I consider the gravel to be of fluviatile origin, but I could detetct nothing in 
 the structure of its several parts indicating cataclysmal action ; notliing that 
 might not be due to such river-floods as we have witnessed in Scotland during 
 the last half century. It must have required a long period for the wearing down 
 of the chalk which supplied the broken flints for the formation of so much gravel 
 at various heights, sometimes one hundred feet above the present level of the 
 Somme ; for the deposition of fine sediment, includmg entire shells, both ter- 
 restrial and acquatic ; and also for the denudation which the entire mass of 
 stratified drift has undergone, portions having been swept away, so that what 
 remains of it often terminates abruptly in old river clifls, besides being covered 
 by a newer unstratified chift." 
 
 " To explain these changes I should infer considerable oscillations in the level 
 of land in that part of France — slow movements of upheaval and subsidence, 
 deranging, but not wholly displacing the course of the ancient rivers." 
 
 " Lastly, the disappearance of the Elephant, Ehinoceros, and other genera of 
 quadnipeds now foreign to Europe, implies in like manner, a vast lapse of ages 
 separating the era in which the fossil implements were formed, and that of the 
 invasion of Gaul by the Romans." 
 
 • J'avais entrevia depuis longtemps cette race antediluvienne et pendant bien 
 des annees anticipe sur la joie que j'eprouverais lorsque dans ces bancs que la 
 geologie a si souvent declares deserts et anterieurs a I'homme, je trouverais enfin 
 la preuve de I'existence de cet homme, ou a defaut de ses os, la trace de ses 
 oeuvres. — " Anliquites Celliqes ct dntediluviennes," vol. ii. p. 8. 
 
 + Archaeologia, vol. xiii., 1860. 
 
12 
 
 some unknown animal, since presumed to have been those of the 
 mammoth. Fully convinced of the artificial character of the 
 flints, Mr. Frere regarded them as war implements '' fabricated 
 and used by a people who had not the use of metals " — and 
 owing to the situation in which they were found, he was 
 almost tempted to refer them '' to a very remote period indeed — 
 even beyond that of the present world." 
 
 Geology had scarcely become a science, it must be remem- 
 bered, when these remarkable words were written.* Mr. 
 Prestwich, shortly after his return from France, visited this 
 interesting locality, but did not succeed in finding any imple- 
 ments himself; — one of two specimens, said to have been dug 
 out of the brick earth deposit during the previous winter, was, 
 however, shown to him by the workmen. f 
 
 During his visit to Italy, at the commencement of last 
 year. Dr. Falconer made several important discoveries in the 
 ossiferous caverns in the hippurite limestone, between Palermo 
 and Trapani in Sicily ; and the examination of the Grotta di 
 Maccagnone, in particular, yielded ruost extraordinary results. 
 
 The cave in question, which lies about a mile to the west 
 of Carini, is situated on the north-east side of Monte Lungo, 
 near its base, about a mile and a half from the sea. 
 
 In the bone breccia below the entrance of the cavern, 
 remains of hippopotamus were met with in great abundance ; 
 and in the upper deposit of humus inside, were found bones 
 of Elephas antiquus,J horns of two extinct species of cervus, 
 besides bones of other ruminants. Of the lower deposits, 
 
 * I may here mention, en passant, that there is in the British Museum a flint 
 implement, stated to have been found, together with an elephant's tooth, opposite 
 Black iMai-y's, near Gray's Inn Lane in Loudon. It orighially formed part of the 
 Sloane collection, and therefore must have been discovered some time anterior 
 to 1750. 
 
 + Proceedings of Royal Society, 2Cth May, 1859. 
 
 J As yet no remains of E. pvimigenius have been discovered here, or in any 
 of the Sicilian caves. 
 
13 
 
 the one known commonly as " ceneri impastate " (concrete of 
 ashes) was found to contain remains of a felis of the same 
 size as F. spelsea, a large ursus, and several small ruminants. 
 
 But the extraordinary feature about the cave — which before 
 proceeding further, I should state, is encrusted with stalag- 
 mite — is this : at a spot on the roof, where a large mass of 
 breccia was observed, denuded partly of the stalagmitic 
 covering, Dr. Falconer found teeth of ruminants and equus, 
 shells of several species of helix, bits of carbon, and a vast 
 abundance of flint and agate knives of human manufacture.* 
 
 At other places, and wherever he had the calcareous coating 
 removed, he found similar remains ; and at one spot, on 
 breaking the stalagmite, a thick calcare.^ochreous layer con- 
 taining numerous coprolites of a large hysena, was found against 
 the roof. 
 
 Dr. Falconer is of opinion that the knives, " the majority 
 of which present definite forms — namely, long, narrow, and 
 thin" — . . . '' closely resemble, in every detail of form, 
 obsidian knives from Mexico, and flint-knives from Stone- 
 henge, Arabia, and elsewhere, and that they appear to have 
 been formed by the dislamination, as films, of the long 
 angles of prismatic blocks of stone. These fragments occur 
 intimately intermixed with the bone splinters, shells, &c., in 
 the roof-breccin, in very considerable abundance ; amorphous 
 fragments of flint are comparatively rare, and no pebbles or 
 blocks occur within or without the case. But similar 
 reddish flint or chert is found in the hippurite limestone 
 near Termini. "f 
 
 And now, after reviewing carefully the whole of the evi- 
 dence adduced here, it may fairly be asked— Taking' for 
 granted that the flint implements, w4iich have been found so 
 
 * Abstract Proceedings of the Geol. Soc. No. 32, 4th May, 1859. 
 + Abstract Proceeilings Geol. Soc. No. 86, -^Sud June, 1859. 
 
u 
 
 plentifully in the Valley of the Somme and elsewhere, owe 
 their present forms to human agency,* how comes it to pass 
 that not a single bone of the men who fashioned and used 
 them has as yet been discovered ? To sucli an enquiry, M. 
 de Perthes replies : " Ayez patience ; avant Cuvier, vous 
 ignoriez completement que la butte de Montmartre recelat des 
 milliers de quadrupedes de 1' epoqne dont il s' agit. 
 
 " Si r on vous eut dit qu' ils y etaient et surtoiit qu'ils repre- 
 sentaient des especes n'existant plus sur la terre, vous auriez 
 refuse de le croire. C'est que vous feriez encore si Ton vous 
 annongait qu'on vient de rencontrer un amas de restes humains, 
 et vous ajouteriez que cette trouvaille est impossible. 
 
 " Or, en ceci vous vous tromperiez, car ce qui n'est pas vrai 
 aujourd'hui le sera demain, et si ce n'est pas a Paris ou en 
 France qu'on trouve cet ossuaire humain, ce sera ailleurs. 
 
 " Oui, cette decouverte doit infailliblement avoi lieu ; il 
 suffit, pour cela, d'une fouille heureuse, du retrait d'un lac on 
 d'une baie, de I'eboulement, d'une montagne, &c. 
 
 "Alons ce ne sera pas un squelette isole, e'en sera des 
 milliers, parce qu'il est certain qu'anterieurement a la catas- 
 trophe diluvienne et pent etre meme a I'epoque on elle arriva, 
 les hommes etaient nombreux sur cette terre, et la preuve, 
 c'est le nombre de leurs oeuvres ; par ce qui reste de ces 
 monuments de pierre de ces baches, de ces outils en silex, on 
 pent juger ce qu'il y en avait."t 
 
 But are we sure that human remains have not already 
 been discovered, associated with bones of the mammoth, 
 tichorrhine rhinoceros, and other extinct animals, in undis- 
 turbed deposits ? 
 
 A little pamphlet, written in 1857, by Herr Robert Eisel, 
 
 * Mr. Wright, the Antiquary, and Dr. Ogclenboth doubt the artificial character 
 of their objects : the former ascribing their peculiar forms to " violent and con- 
 tinued gyratory motion in water;" the latter, to chemical agency. — Vide Athe- 
 n<Eum, Nos. 1651 and 1071. 
 
 f " Antiquites Celtiques et Antediluviennes," avant propos. vol. ii, p. 13. 
 
15 
 
 of Gera in Saxony, clearly proves, T think, that they have.* 
 
 It appears that in the gypsum quarries in the neighbour- 
 hood of Kostritz bones of Elephas priraigenius, Rhinoceros 
 tichorrhinus, Ursus spelaeus. Bos primigenius, &c., have been 
 discovered, intermixed with undoubted remains of man, in 
 beds of clay covered with debris from the surrounding 
 mountains. From the angular form of the fragments com- 
 posing these debris, it may be inferred that they were not 
 exposed to protracted aqeous action, but were deposited, soon 
 after they were torn from their parent masses, in the crevices 
 in which we find them at the present day. 
 
 This Southern diluvium must not be confounded with the 
 Northern drift, which contains large rounded boulders of 
 Norwegian granite and Galerites vulgaris, from the chalk 
 of the north, — for it consists of an irregular deposit such as 
 any sudden inundation in a mountainous region is apt to 
 sweep along before and leave behind it. 
 
 It is supposed that the upper basin of the river Elster was 
 formerly a lake, whose banks were inhabited by manf and by 
 
 * Zeitschrift fiir die Gesammten Naturwissenschaften, Halle-ii-Saale. Sept, 
 1857. No. ix. 
 
 Znr Umgebung von Gera. Ein Beitrag zur Kenntniss cler dasigen qiiatemaren 
 Gebilde, von Robert Eisel. 
 
 I acknowledge here, with much gratitude, the kind assistance afforded me by 
 Dr. F. Bialloblotzky of Gottingen, who procured a copy of R. Eisel's memoir, 
 and made an admirable digest of it for me. 
 
 + The manner of life of this primeval race may perhaps not have been unlike 
 that of the amphibious inhabitants of Lake Prasias, described by Herodotus. 
 *' Platforms supported upon tall pilesj stand in the middle of tbe lake, which are 
 approached from the land by a single narrow bridge. At the first the piles which 
 bear up the platforms were fixed in tlieh places by the whole body of the citizens, 
 but since that time the custom which has prevailed about fixing them is tliis : — 
 They are brought from a hill called Orbelus, and every man drives in three for 
 each ^vife that he marries. Now the men have all many -^-ives apiece, and this is 
 the way in which they live. Each has his own hut, wherein he dwells, upon one 
 of the platforms, and each has also a trap door gi^■ing access to the lake beneath ; 
 and their wont is to tie their baby children by the foot with a string, to save them 
 from rolling into the water. They feed their horses and their other beasts upon 
 
 % Robt. Eisel mentions that a semi-petrified trunk of an oak tree which evidently had 
 been prepared by the hand of man for use, as it bore on its surface indubitable marks of 
 the axe by which its work had been commenced, was found at Zwiitzen, embedded in clay 
 and boulders, twelve feet below the surface. 
 
16 
 
 numerous animals, among which were Elephas primigenias 
 Rhinoceros tichorrhinus, Bos primigenius, Cervus tarandus, 
 Equus fossilis, Lepus diluvianus, Ursus spelseus, Hysena 
 spelsea, Felis spelsea. When the lake, swollen at some time 
 or other by excessive torrents, overflowed its banks, many of 
 the inhabitants of the district were drowned, and when a part 
 of the mountain which hemmed in the water suddenly gave 
 way, the dead bodies were carried downwards by the flood into 
 the crevices and hollows of the country below. The bones 
 
 fish, which abound in the lake to such a degree that a man has only to open his 
 trap-door and to let down a basket by a rope into the water, and then to wait a 
 very short time, when up lie di'aws it quite full of them." — 
 
 Book V. (Terpsichoi^e,) chap, xvi. 
 
 "Recent discoveries in the lakes of central Europe, particularly those of 
 Switzerland, have confirmed in the most remarkable way this whole description 
 of Herodotus. It appears that at an ancient date, probably anterior to that of 
 the immigration of the Celts, there lived on most of these lakes a race or races, 
 who formed for themselves habitations almost exactly like those which Herodotus 
 here describes. At a short distance from the shore, rows of wooden piles were 
 driven into the muddy bottom, generally disposed in lines parallel to the bank, 
 but not at regular intervals, upon which there can be no doubt that platforms 
 were placed and habitations raised. Within the area occupied by the piles, and 
 over the space immediately adjoining, are found at the bottom often occupying a 
 depth of several feet, objects of human industry, consisting of rude pottery and 
 various implements in stone, bone and bronze." 
 
 "Everything marks the high antiquity of these remains. The pottery is 
 coarse in character and shaped by the hand ; it has scarcely a trace of ornament. 
 The implements in stone and bone, indicate a nation in the most primitive 
 condition. The complete or almost complete absence of iron is most significant. 
 Also it must be observed that there is in most places a deposit of mud, the 
 gTowth of centuries, covering the remains, in the whole of which there ai'e no 
 implements. Bones of animals which had apparently been killed for food, 
 appear throughout the whole stratum of mud in which the implements are found. 
 In one case at least, a remnant of the bridge was discovered, by which the in- 
 habitants communicated with the land. (See a letter from M. Fred. Troyon to 
 M. Pictet, in the " Bibhotheque Universelle de Geneve," Mai, 1857,) and an 
 elaborate article in the " Mittheilungen der Antiquarishen Gesellschaft in Zurich," 
 for 1854, by Dr. Ferdinand Keller. Compare also "Die Pfahlbau-Alterthiimer 
 von Moosseedorf im Kanton Bern," by M. M. Yalin and Uhlmann, published in 
 1857. Antiquaries seem fully agreed that these are among the most primitive 
 remains in Europe, belonging either to the early Celtic, or perhaps more probably 
 to a pre-Celtic jjeriod. We may suspect that this people occupied the lakes for 
 security at the time when the Celts began to press upon them ; but that they 
 failed to maintain themselves, and gradually yielded and were absorbed in the 
 immigrants. In some places it is evident that the platforms were finally destroyed 
 by fire, abundance of charred wood being found above all the rest of the remains. 
 A similar mode of life to that here described by Herodotus, and apparently 
 practised by the early inhabitants of Switzerland, is found among the Papous of 
 New Guinea. (See the Histoire of Dumont d' Urville," torn, iv, p. 007.) 
 
 RuwUnsons Herodotus, vol. iii, p. 2'2G, 227. 
 
17 
 
 were found all mingled together in a mass of debris twenty- 
 four feet in depth, so that nobody could doubt the co-existence 
 of the creatures in life. They were apparently killed by the 
 same cause, buried at once in the same grave, and covered by 
 the same materials which were swept along by the same forces 
 in operation at the same time. 
 
 Many of the bones are very much broken and cannot be 
 easily determined. On one occasion a perfect skull was dis- 
 covered, but soon destroyed by ignorant labourers; only a 
 part of the jaw and some teeth were rescued, and these are 
 now in the Geological collection of the Gymnasium of Gera. 
 
 In the British Museum there are also bones belonging to the 
 series under consideration, bearing the following inscription : — 
 
 " Human parietal bone and portion of femur, found in 1820, 
 '' at a depth of fifteen yards below bones of Rhinoceros, &c.. 
 '' in Winter's Gypsum quarry, at Kostritz." 
 
 This German discovery is, I think, far from being of the 
 same nature as the one lately made in the neighbourhood of 
 Oxford, and which I will briefly describe here. The extensive 
 gravel beds of Yarnton, having been laid open a few years 
 ago, during the construction of the railway, grinders and 
 tusks of the mammoth commingled with human bones and 
 fragments of pottery were brought to light in great abundance. 
 
 Professor Phillips, who visited the locality, found at a depth 
 of sixteen feet from the surface, — first, Oxford clay; next a 
 bed of glacial drift, on the top of which were a great many 
 elephant's teetli; and lastly, an irregular series of gravel, 
 sand, and loam deposits, with dark patches occurring through- 
 out the layers. These darker parts being closely examined 
 were found to be nothing more than ancient British burial 
 places full of human bones and pottery, and from their im- 
 mediate proximity to the remains of the extinct elephant, a 
 superficial observer might very easily have concluded that they 
 had been simultaneously deposited. 
 
18 
 
 I feel fully persuaded, however, tliat no mistake of this 
 kind has occurred at Kostritz, and I see no way of resolving 
 the difficulty but by acknowledging contemporaneity in life of 
 the various extinct organisms found there. 
 
 EobertEisel seems to think that the indubitable co-existence 
 of our race with the mammoth tichorrhine, rhinoceros, cave 
 bear, &c., rather proves that these animals lived at a much 
 more recent period than is generally admitted, than that man 
 commenced his existence at an earlier dace than the usual 
 chronology warrants.* And this view I think is not rendered 
 less tenable by such facts as the following : — 
 
 The celebrated mammoth, discovered at the commencement 
 of the present century in the ice-bound shores of the river 
 Lena, in Siberia, appears to have been in such a wonderful 
 state of preservation when disintombed, that the Yakoutski are 
 said to have fed their dogs on as much of its flesh as was not 
 devoured by beasts of prey. • , 
 
 There seems to be no reason for doubting the truth of this 
 statement ; at any rate the skeleton of the animal together 
 with a considerable portion of its skin and hair, as well as 
 the eyeballs and the hoofs, may be seen in the Imperial 
 Academy of St. Petersburgh at the present day. 
 
 Eemains too of this primeval elephant have been found in 
 turbary near Holyhead, and its tusks in most instances are so 
 little altered that they are constantly employed for the same 
 purposes as ordinary ivory.f Pallas in his "Voyage dans 
 I'Asie Septentrionale," records the discovery of the carcase 
 of a tichorrhine rhinoceros in frozen soil, and the skin, tendons 
 and flesh appear to have been perfectly unchanged.! 
 
 * Mr. Prestwich at the couclusion of his memoir on the Vcalley of the Somme 
 flint implements, expresses precisely similar opinions, for he remarks tliat — " he 
 " does not consider that the facts as they at present stand, carry back Man in past 
 " time, more than they bring forward the great extinct Mammals to our own 
 " time, the evidence having reference only to relative and not to absolute time.'' — 
 Proceedings of the Royal Society, vol. x, No. 35, p. 58. 
 
 + See the story of " The Ivoi-y Mine " in Chambers's Papers, vol. ii. 
 
 X Op. cit. pp. 130-132, quoted by Prof. Owen in his " Palaeontology," p. 306. 
 
19 
 
 That gigautic elk, Megaceros Hibeniicus, has been found 
 abundantly in the peat bogs of Ireland and the Isle of Mau, 
 also in Lancashire* along with remains of Hippopotamus 
 major. Bos longifrons, though now extinct, we know for 
 certain was co-existent with the earliest human inhabitants 
 of these isles. 
 
 At a time like the present when a disposition to rush into 
 extreme views respecting the antiquity of our race is so con- 
 stantly manifested amongst us, it is well to bear in mind such 
 facts as these, for I cannot help thinking they counteract in 
 some measure the revolutionizing tendency of the evidence 
 we have been principally considering here. The whole 
 question however, it appears to me, is in such a peculiarly 
 delicate position at present, that to attempt to arrive at any 
 definite conclusions respecting it, is well nigh impossible. 
 The wiser course by far is to exercise that habit of mind 
 ,which a reviewer of Mr. Darwin's work on the " Origin of 
 Species" has recommended to all students of the hypothesis 
 set forth there, t — the " thatige skepsis" of Goethe — doubt 
 which so loves truth that it neither dares rest in doubting, 
 nor extinguish itself by unjustified belief. 
 
 * Owen's "British Fossil Mammals and Birds," p. 4G7. 
 + " Times," 26th December, 1859. 
 
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