Chapter III: Men of the River Drift.1

Beginning of the Glacial Age—Inter-glacial Age—Man living in
Europe during this age—Map of Europe—Proof of former elevation of
land—The animals living in Europe during this age—Conclusions
drawn from these different animals—The vegetation of this
period—Different climatic conditions of Europe during the Glacial
Age—Proofs of a Glacial Age—Extent of the Glacial Ice—Evidence of
warm Inter-glacial Age—The primitive state of man—Early English
civilization—Views of Horace—Primitive man destitute of
metals—Order in which different materials were used by man for
weapons—Evidence, from the River Somme—History of Boucher de
Perthes’s investigations—Discussion of the subject—Antiquity of
these remains—Improvement during Paleolithic Age—Description of
the flint implements—Other countries where these implements are
found—What race of men were these tribes—The Canstadt race—Mr.
Dawkins’s views—When did they first appear in Europe—The
authorities on this question—Conclusion.

The tertiary age, with its wonderful wealth of animal and plant
life, gradually drew to its close. In our “Outline” we have named
the period that next ensued the Glacial Age.2 This was
sufficiently exact for our purpose then, but we must remember
this is the name3 for a long series of years. During this period
great changes in climate occurred. At its commencement, a genial
temperate climate prevailed throughout Europe; and this, as we
know, was preceded, during the Miocene Age, by a warm tropical
one.4 This succession, then, shows us that, for some reason or
other, the climate had been gradually growing colder. This change
went forward uninterruptedly. Doubtless very gradually, from
century to century, the seasons grew more and more severe, until,
finally, the Summer’s sun no longer cleared the mountains of the
Winter’s snow. This was the beginning of the Glacial Age proper.

The best authorities also suppose that the reign of snow and ice
was broken by at least one return (possibly more) of genial
climate, when animals and plants from the south again visited the
countries of Northern Europe—only, however, to be once more
driven forth by a return of arctic cold. But finally, before the
increasing warmth of a genial Climate, the glaciers vanished, not
to return again, and the Glacial Age became merged in that of the
present.

It is no longer a question that man lived in Europe during the
largest portion of this age, if not from the beginning. It is
necessary, then, to come to a clear understanding of the
successive stages of this entire age, and to trace the wonderful
cycles of climate—the strange mutation of heat and cold, which
must have exerted a powerful influence on the life, both animal
and vegetable, of the period—and see when we first find decisive
proofs of man’s presence, and learn what we can of his condition.

The map of Europe, at the close of Pliocene times and the
commencement of the Glacial Age, is of interest to us in several
ways. From this it will be seen that it was considerably more
elevated than at the present. As this is no fancy sketch, but is
based on facts, it is well to outline them. Without the aid of
man, land animals can not possibly pass from the mainland of a
continent to an island lying some distance off the shore. But it
is well known that animals like the rhinoceros, and several
others, wandered as well over the surface of the British Islands
as on the adjacent coast of Europe. We are therefore compelled to
assume, that at that time the English Channel and the Irish Sea
were not in existence. This necessitates an elevation of at least
four hundred feet, which would also lay bare a large portion of
the North Sea.5 In proof of this latter statement is the fact,
that, at a distance from land in the North Sea, fishermen at the
present day frequently dredge up bones and teeth of animals that
then roamed in Europe.6

Map of Europe.

While there is no necessity for supposing an elevation greater
than that required to lay bare a passage for animals back and
forth, yet soundings undertaken by the British government have
established the fact, that the ocean deepens very gradually away
from the shores of the main-land until a depth of six hundred
feet is reached, when the shore falls away very suddenly. This is
supposed to be the sea-coast of that time. The English Channel
would then have existed as the valley of the Seine, and the Rhine
have prolonged its flow over the present bed of the North Sea. As
the land stood at this height through a large portion of the
Glacial Age, it is not at all unreasonable to suppose that
primitive tribes hunted back and forth along these valleys, and
so doubtless many convincing proofs of their presence at that
early day lie buried underneath the waves of the sea. In like
manner, at the south, we know that elephants, lions, and hyenas
passed freely from Africa to Spain, Italy, and the Island of
Crete,7 and, consequently, the Mediterranean Sea must have been
bridged in one or two places at least.8

The change from Pliocene times to early Glacial was so gradual
that quite a number of animals lived on from one to the other,
and, as we have already stated, one of these species has even
survived to our own times.9

But we note the arrival in Europe of a great number of new
animals, and the diversity of species seems at first an
inexplicable riddle. The key, however, is to be found in the
great climatic changes, which we have already mentioned as
occurring during this age. On the one hand, we find such animals
as the musk-sheep, reindeer, and arctic fox, animals whose
natural home is in high northern latitudes, where snow and ice
prevail most of the year.10 Yet during this age they lived in
Southern France and Italy, which must then have had a far
different climate than that at present.

Were we to confine our attention to these alone we would be
convinced that the climate of Europe at that time was arctic in
its severity. But side by side with the remains of these animals
are found others which imply an altogether different climate. The
hippopotamus, now frequenting the rivers of Africa, during that
period roamed as far north as Yorkshire, England.11 This animal
could not live in a country where the cold was severe enough to
form ice on the rivers. The remains of a number of other animals
are found whose natural home is in the warm regions of the
earth.12 These two groups of animals, one from the north and one
from the south, show how varied was the climate of Europe during
the Glacial Age.

In addition to these, there was also a large number of animals
whose home is in the temperate regions of the earth—animals that
thrive in neither extremes of heat and cold. This includes a
great many animals of the deer kind, several varieties of bears
and horses; in fact, the majority of those with which we are
acquainted.13

Now, what conclusion follows from this assemblage of animals?
Many theories have been put forward in explanation. It has been
suggested that Europe at that time had a climate not unlike that
of some portions of the earth at present; that is, a long and
severe Winter was followed by a short but warm Summer. During the
Winter reindeer and other northern animals would press from the
north in search of food, but would retire on the approach of
Spring, when their feeding grounds would in turn be occupied by
bisons and animals of a southern habitat. In confirmation of this
view it is pointed out that a vast collection of bones, from the
bottom of a sink-hole or pond in Derbyshire, England,
conclusively show that in the summer-time it was visited by
bisons with their calves, and in Winter by reindeer.14 This
theory is open to a great many objections. As is well known, some
animals make quite extensive migrations annually, but we can
scarcely believe that heavy, unwieldy animals like the
hippopotamus, were then such industrious travelers as to wander
every year from Italy to Northern England and return.15 But the
very ground on which this theory rests, that of strongly
contrasted summers and winters, could not be true of Europe or
the western portions of it, owing to the presence of the Atlantic
Ocean, and the influence which it inevitably exerts on the
climate.16 We see, then, that the presence of these different
animals can be explained only by supposing great secular changes
in climate. Let us see if we can strengthen this view by an
appeal to the vegetation of this period.

We have seen how important a guide as to climate were the remains
of the vegetation of the early times. We therefore turn with more
confidence to such discoveries as will tell us of the flora of
this age. But there are many reasons why remains of plant growth
should be few. As we shall soon learn, this was a period of
flooded rivers; and in the gravels and loams thus formed is found
our principal source of information as to the life of the age.
But such a rush of waters would form gravelly banks or great beds
of loam, and would sweep any plants which might be washed into
its floods far out to sea; or if by chance they should become
buried in such gravel beds, the action of water would speedily
cause the decay of the tender portions, such as leaves, bark, and
soft wood, in which case no profitable investigation could be
made. Occasionally, however, around the shores of old lakes,
vegetable beds have been buried, and we know that some mineral
springs deposit a sort of protecting sediment on every thing with
which they come in contact. By such means, at rare intervals,
leaves, seeds, and fruits have been sealed up for future
inspection, and from a careful study of all such instances much
valuable information has been obtained. At one place in the
valley of the Seine was discovered, under a bed of tufa, the
remains of a forest growth. It is not doubted that the deposit
belongs to the Glacial Age.17

Yet the forest growth reminds us of that prevalent during the
Miocene Age. The fig-tree, canary, laurel, and box-tree grew in
profusion. These are all southern forms. One severe winter would
kill them all, and even hard frosts would prevent the ripening of
their fruits.

Neither were the Summers hot and dry. This is shown by the
presence of numerous plants which can not thrive in hot and dry
localities, but live in the shady woods of Northern France and
Germany. The evidence of this forest growth surely presents us an
inviting picture of Europe during a portion of the Glacial Age.

We are not without evidence, also, of a much more severe climate.
In a lignite bed (a species of coal) found in nearly the same
latitude as the forest growth just mentioned, we detect the
presence of trees that grow only in cold northern climates, such
as birch, mountain pine, larch, and spruce.18 And in some
peat-bogs of Southern Europe belonging to this age19 are found
willows now growing only in Spitzbergen, and some species of
mosses that only thrive far to the north. It is quite evident
that this deposit testifies to an altogether different climate
from that indicated by the deposit before mentioned. No theory of
migration can explain this assemblage of plants, unless it be
migration taking place very slowly, in consequence of an equally
slow change of climate.

From what we have just learned of the animals and plants living
in Europe during this age, we can frame some conception of the
different climatic conditions of Europe. On the one hand, we have
a country with a mild and genial climate. Trees of a warm
latitude were then growing as far north as Paris, and we may well
suppose Europe to have abounded in shady forests and grassy
plains, through which flowed large rivers. It was just such a
country as that in which elephants and southern animals would
flourish, while vast herds of deer and bovine animals wandered
over the entire length and breadth of the land. Where animal life
was so abundant there were sure to be carnivorous animals also,
and lions, hyenas, tigers, and other animals added to the variety
of animal life.

This, however, is but one side of the picture. The other presents
us with a very different scene; instead of an abundant forest
growth, the land supported only dwarf birch, arctic willows, and
stunted mosses. Arctic animals, such as musk-sheep and reindeer,
lived all the year around in Southern France. The woolly mammoth
lived in Spain and Italy. In short, the climate and conditions of
life were vastly different in the two stages.

We must now turn our attention to the proofs of glaciers in
Europe, the phenomena from which this age derives its name.
Descriptions of Alpine glaciers are common enough, but as
glaciers and the Glacial Age have a great deal to do with the
antiquity of man, we can not do better than to learn what we can
of their formation, and their wonderful extension during this
period. The school-boy knows that by pressure he gives his
snowball nearly the hardness of ice. He could make it really ice
if he possessed sufficient strength. The fact is, then, that snow
under the influence of pressure passes into the form of ice. In
some cases nature does this on a large scale. Where mountains are
sufficiently elevated to raise their heads above the snow line we
know they are white all the year around with snow. What is not
blown away, evaporated, or, as an avalanche, precipitated to
lower heights, must accumulate from year to year. But the weight
pressing on the lower portions of this snow-field must soon be
considerable, and at length become so great, that the snow
changes to the form of ice. But as ice it is no longer fixed and
immovable. We need not stop to explain just how this ice-field
moves, but the fact is that, though moving very slowly, it acts
like a liquid body. It will steal away over any incline however
small, down which water would flow. Like a river it fills the
valleys leading down from the mountains. But, of course, the
lower down it flows the higher the temperature it meets, and it
will sooner or later reach a point where it will melt as fast as
it advances. This stream of ice flowing down from snow-clad
mountains is called a glacier. Those we are best acquainted with
are but puny things compared with those of the polar regions,
where in one case a great river of ice sixty miles wide, flowing
from an unknown distance, some thousands of feet in depth (or
height), pours out into the sea.20

We at once perceive that such a mass of ice could not pour down a
valley without leaving unmistakable signs of its passage. The
sides of the mountains would be deeply scarred and smoothed.
Projecting knobs would be worn away. The surface of the valley,
exposed to the enormous grinding power of the moving ice, would
be crushed, pulverized, and dragged along with it. Pieces of
stone, like that here represented, would form part of this moving
_débris,_ and as they were crowded along they would now and then
grate over another piece of stone more firmly seated, and so
their surface would be deeply scratched in the direction of their
greatest length. There is always more or less water circulating
under the Alpine glaciers, and the streams that flow from them
are always very muddy, containing, as they do, quantities of
crushed rock, sand, and clay.

Scratched Stone.

If, for any reason, this earthy matter was not washed out it
would form a bed of hard clay, in places packed with these
striated stones. Such beds of clay are known as “till” or bowlder
clay.21

This is descriptive, though in a very general way, of the
glaciers as they exist to-day. Geologists have long been aware of
the fact that they have convincing proofs of the former presence
of glaciers in Northern Europe, where now the climate is mild.
The mountains of Scotland and Wales show as distinct traces of
glaciers as do those of the Alps. It is not necessary, in this
hasty sketch, to enumerate the many grounds on which this
conclusion rests. It is sufficient to state that by the united
labors of many investigators in that field we are in possession
of many conclusions relating to the great glaciers of this age
which almost surpass belief; and yet they are the results of
careful deductions. The former presence of this ice sheet itself
is shown in a most conclusive manner by the bowlder clay formed
underneath the great glacier, containing abundant examples of
stone showing by their scratched surface that they have been
ground along underneath the glacier. The rocks on the sides of
the mountains are scratched exactly as are those in the Alps. By
observing how high up on the mountains the striæ are, we know the
thickness of the ice-sheet; and the direction in which it moved
is shown in several ways.22

Briefly, then, the geologist assures us that when the cold of the
Glacial Age was at its maximum glaciers streamed down from all
the mountains of Scotland, Wales, and Northern England; that the
ice was thick enough to overtop all the smaller hills, and on the
plains it united in one great sea of ice some thousands of feet
in thickness, that it stretched as far south as the latitude of
London, England. But that to the west the ice streamed out
across, the Irish Sea, the islands to the west of Scotland, and
ended far out into what is now the Atlantic.23 But these
glaciers, vast as they were, were very small compared with the
glaciers that streamed out from the mountains of Norway and
Sweden. These great glaciers invaded England to the south-west,
beat back the glacier ice of Scotland from the floor of the North
Sea, overran Denmark, and spread their mantle of bowlder clay far
south into Germany.24

While such was the condition of things to the north, the glaciers
of the Alps were many times greater than at present. All the
valleys were filled with glacier ice, and they spread far out on
the plains of Southern Germany and westward into France. The
mountains of Southern France and the Pyrenees also supported
their separate system of glaciers. Ice also descended from the
mountains of Asia Minor and North Africa.25 In America we meet
with traces of glaciers on a vast scale; but we can not pause to
describe them here.26

It need not surprise us, therefore, to learn of reindeer and
musk-sheep feeding on stunted herbage in what now constitutes
Southern France. When a continuous mantle of snow and ice cloaked
all Northern Europe, it is not at all surprising to find evidence
of an extremely cold climate prevailing throughout its southern
borders. We thus see how one piece of evidence fits into another,
and therefore we may, with some confidence, endeavor to find
proofs of more genial conditions when the snow and ice
disappeared, and a more luxuriant vegetation possessed the land,
and animals accustomed to warm and even tropical countries roamed
over a large extent of European territory. In Switzerland it was
long ago pointed out that after the ancient glaciers had for a
long time occupied the low grounds of that country they, for some
cause, retreated to the mountain valleys, and allowed streams and
rivers to work over the _débris_ left behind them. At Wetzikon
most interesting conclusions have been drawn. We there learn
that, after the retreat of the glaciers, a lake occupied the
place, which in course of time became filled with peat, and that
subsequently the peat was transformed into lignite. To judge from
the remains of animals and plants, the climate must have been at
least as warm as that at present; and this condition of things
must have prevailed over a period of some thousands of years to
explain the thick deposits of peat, from which originated the
lignites.27

But we also know that this period came to an end, and that once
more the ice descended. This is shown by the fact that directly
overlying the lignite beds are alternating layers of sand and
gravel, and, resting on these, glacier-born bowlders. The same
conclusion follows from the discoveries made at many other
places.

In Scotland it is well known that the bowlder clay contains every
now and then scattered patches of peat and beds of soil either
deposited in lakes or rivers. The only explanation that can be
given for their presence is that they represent old land
surfaces; that is, when the land was freed from ice, and
vegetation had again clothed it in a mantle of green. In this cut
is shown one of these beds. Both above and below are the beds of
bowlder clay. The peat in the centre varies from an inch to a
foot and a half in thickness, and contains many fragments of
wood, sticks, roots, etc.; and of animals, numerous beetles were
found, one kind of which frequents only places where deer and
ruminant animals abound.

Interglacial Bed.

From a large number of such discoveries it is conclusively shown
that, after all, Scotland was smothered under one enormous
glacier, a change of climate occurred, and the ice melted away.
Then Scotland enjoyed a climate capable of nourishing sufficient
vegetation to induce mammoths, Irish deer, horses, and great oxen
to occupy the land. But the upper bowlder clay no less
conclusively shows that once more the climate became cold, and
ice overflowed all the lowlands and buried under a new
accumulation of bowlder clay such parts of the old land surface
as it did not erode. Substantially the same set of changes are
observed in English and German geology.28

Having thus given an outline of the climatic changes which took
place in Europe during the Glacial Age, and the grounds on which
these strange conclusions rest, we must now turn our attention to
the appearance of man.

The uncertainties which hung over his presence in the earlier
periods, spoken of in the former chapter, do not apply to the
proofs of his presence during this age, though it is far from
settled at what particular portion of the Glacial Age he came
into Europe. We must remember we are to investigate the past, and
to awaken an interest in the history of a people who trod this
earth in ages long ago. The evidence on which we establish a
history of the early tribes of Europe is necessarily fragmentary,
but still a portion here and a piece there are found to form one
whole, and enable us to form quite a vivid conception of manners
and times now very far remote.

It is not claimed that we have surmounted every difficulty—on the
contrary, there is yet much to be deciphered; but, in some
respects, we are now better acquainted with these shadowy tribes
of early times than with those whose history has been recorded by
the historian’s facile pen. He has given us a record of blood. He
acquaints us with the march of vast armies, tells us of pillaged
cities, and gives us the names of a long roll of titled kings;
but, unfortunately, we know little of the home life, the
occupation, or of those little things which make up the culture
of a people. But the knowledge of primitive tribes, gathered from
the scanty remains of their implements, from a thorough
exploration of their cavern homes, has made us acquainted with
much of their home life and surroundings: and we are not entirely
ignorant as to such topics as their trade, government, and
religion. We must not forget that this is a knowledge of tribes
and peoples who lived here in times immeasurably ancient as
compared with those in existence at the very dawn of history.

We must try and form a mental picture of what was probably the
primitive state of man; and a little judicious reasoning from
known facts will do much for us in this direction. Some writers
have contended that the first condition of man was that of
pleasing innocence, combined with a high degree of enlightenment,
which, owing to the wickedness of mankind, he gradually lost.
This ideal picture, however consonant with our wishes, must not
only give way before the mass of information now at our command,
but has really no foundation in reason; “or, at any rate, if this
primitive condition of innocence and enlightenment ever existed,
it must have disappeared at a period preceding the present
archæological investigations.”29 Nothing is plainer than that our
present civilization has been developed from barbarism, as that
was from savagism.30 We need go back but a few centuries in the
history of any nation, before we find them emerging from a state
of barbarism. The energy and intelligence of the Anglo-Saxon has
spread his language to the four corners of the globe; he has
converted the wilderness into fruitful fields, and reared cities
in desert lands: yet his history strikingly illustrates our
point. A century back, and we are already in a strange land. The
prominent points of present civilization were yet unthought of.
No bands of iron united distant cities; no nerves of wire flashed
electric speech. The wealth of that day could not buy many
articles conducive of comfort, such as now grace the homes of the
poor. The contrast is still more apparent when we recall another
of the countless centuries of the past. England, with Europe, was
but just awakening to modern life. Printing had but just been
invented. Great discoveries had been made, and mankind was but
just beginning those first feeble efforts which were to bring to
us our modern comforts. But a millennium of years ago, and the
foundation of English civilization had but just been laid by the
union of the rude Germanic tribes of the Saxons and the Angles.
Similar results attend the ultimate analysis of any civilization.
It was but yesterday that wandering hordes, bound together by the
loose cohesion of tribal organization, and possessing but the
germ of modern enlightenment, held sway in what is now the
fairest portion of the world: and we, the descendants of these
rude people, must reflect that the end is not yet—that the onward
march of progress is one of ever hastening steps—and that, in all
human probability, the sun of a thousand years hence will shine
on a people whose civilization will be as superior to ours as the
light of day exceeds the mellow glow of a moon-lit night.

If such are the changes of but a few centuries, what must we not
consider the changes to have been during the countless ages that
have sped away since man first appeared on the scene! The early
Greek and Roman writers were much nearer right when they
considered primitive man to have been but a slight degree removed
from the brute world. Horace thus expresses himself: “When
animals first crept forth from the newly formed earth, a dumb and
filthy herd, they fought for acorns and lurking places —with
their nails, and with fists—then with clubs—and at last with
arms, which, taught by experience, they had forged. They then
invented names for things, and words to express their thoughts;
after which they began to desist from war, to fortify cities, and
enact laws.” The learning of modern times leads to much the same
conclusion.

It is evident that primitive man must have been destitute of
metals; for it requires a great deal of knowledge and experience
to extract metals from their ores. In the eyes of savages, the
various metallic ores are simply so many varieties of stone— much
less valuable for his purposes than flint, or some other
varieties. We know it to be historically true, that a great many
nations have been discovered utterly destitute of any knowledge
of metals.

When we reflect how much of our present enlightenment is due to
the use of metals, we can readily see that their discovery marks
a most important epoch in the history of man. There is, then,
every reason to suppose that stone was a most important article
for primitive man. It was the material with which he fought his
battle for existence, and we need not be surprised that its use
extended through an enormously long period of time. Not only was
primitive man thus low down in the scale, but of necessity his
progress must have been very slow.

The time during which men were utterly destitute of a knowledge
of metals, far exceeds the interval that has elapsed since that
important discovery.31 Scholars divide the stone age into two
parts. In the first, the stone implements, are very few, of
simple shapes, and in the main formed of but one variety of
stone—generally flint~-and they were never polished. In the
second division, we meet with a great many different implements,
each adapted to a different purpose. Different varieties of stone
were employed, and they also made use of bone, shell, and wood,
which were often beautifully polished.

From what we have learned of the development of primitive
society, it will not surprise us to learn that the first division
of the age of stone comprises a vastly greater portion of time,
and is far more ancient, than the second. We will give an outline
showing the order of use of different materials; but it is here
necessary to remark that Bronze was the first metal that man
learned to use, and Iron the second.

ORDER IN WHICH DIFFERENT MATERIALS WERE USED FOR WEAPONS AND
IMPLEMENTS BY PRIMITIVE MAN.

Age of Stone.
Rough, or Old Stone Age
Paleolithic

Polished, or New Stone Age
Neolithic

Age of Metals.
Bronze Age. Iron Age.

In this outline the words Paleolithic and Neolithic are the
scientific terms for the two divisions of the Stone Age, and will
be so used in these pages.

The only races of men that we could expect to find in Europe
during the Glacial Age would be Paleolithic tribes, and it is
equally manifest that we must find traces of them in beds of this
age, or in association with animals that are characteristic of
this age, or else we can not assert the existence of man at this
time. The valley of the river Somme, in Northern France, has
become classical ground to the student of Archæology, since it
was there that such investigations as we have just mentioned were
first and most abundantly made. It is now well known that the
surface features of a country—that is, its hills and dales, its
uplands and lowlands—are mainly due to the erosive power of
running water. Our rivers have dug for themselves broad valleys,
undermined and carried away hills, and in general carved the
surface of a country, until the present appearance is the result.
It must be confessed that when we perceive the slow apparent
change from year to year, and from that attempt to estimate the
time required to produce the effects we see before us, we are apt
to shrink from the lapse of time demanded for its accomplishment.
Let us not forget that “Time is long,” and that causes, however
trifling, work stupendous results in the course of ages.

Paleolithic Flints.

But a river which is thus digging down its channel in one place,
deposits the materials so dug away at other and lower levels, as
beds of sand and gravel. In the course of time, as the river
gradually lowers its channel, it will leave behind, at varying
heights along its banks, scattered patches of such beds. Wherever
we find them, no matter how far removed, or how high above the
present river, we are sure that at some time the river flowed at
that height; and standing there, we may try and imagine how
different the country must have looked before the present deep
valley was eroded.

In the case of the river Somme, we have a wide and deep valley, a
large part of which has been excavated in chalk rock, through
which the river now winds its way in a sinuous course to the
English Channel. Yet we feel sure that at some time in the past
it was a mighty stream, and that its waters surged along over a
bed at least two hundred feet higher than now. In proof of this
fact we still find, at different places along the chalky bluff,
stretches of old gravel banks, laid down there by the river,
“reaching sometimes as high as two hundred feet above the present
water level, although their usual elevation does not exceed forty
feet.”32

The history of the investigation of the ancient gravel beds of
the Somme is briefly this: More than one instance had been noted
of the finding of flint implements, apparently the work of men,
in association with bones of various animals, such as hyenas,
mammoths, musk-sheep, and others, which, as we have just seen,
lived in Europe during the Glacial Age. In a number of cases such
finds had been made in caves. But for a long time no one
attributed any especial value to these discoveries, and various
were the explanations given to account for such commingling. A
French geologist, by the name of Boucher DePerthes, had noted the
occurrence of similar flint implements, and bones of these
extinct animals, in a gravel pit on the banks of the Somme, near
Abbeville, France. He was convinced that they proved the
existence of man at the time these ancient animals lived in
Europe. But no one paid any attention to his opinions on this
subject, and a collection of these implements, which he took to
Paris in 1839, was scarcely noticed by the scientific world. They
were certainly very rude, and presented but indistinct traces of
chipping, and perhaps it is not strange that he failed to
convince any one of their importance. He therefore determined to
make a thorough and systematic exploration of these beds at
Abbeville. In 1847 he published his great work on this subject,
giving over sixteen hundred cuts of the various articles he had
found, claiming that they were proof positive of the presence of
man when the gravels were depositing.

Flint Implements, so-called.

Now there are several questions to be answered before the
conclusions of the French geologist can be accepted. In the first
place, are these so-called flint implements of human workmanship?
From our illustrations, we see that they are of an oval shape,
tending to a cutting edge all around, and generally more or less
pointed at one end. The testimony of all competent persons who
have examined them is, that however rude they may be, they were
undoubtedly fashioned by man. Dr. C. C. Abbott has made some
remarks on implements found in another locality, equally
applicable to the ones in question. He says: “We find, on
comparing a specimen of these chipped stones with an accidentally
fractured pebble, that the chipped surfaces of the former all
tend toward the production of a cutting edge, and there is no
portion of the stone detached which does not add to the
availability of the supposed implement as such; while in the case
of a pebble that has been accidentally broken, there is
necessarily all absence of design in the fracturing.”33

Like the watch found on the moor, they show such manifest
evidence of design, that we can not doubt that they were produced
by the hand of man. But it is not enough to know that they are
artificial, we must also know that they are of the same age as
the beds in which they are found.

Section of Gravel Pit.

This cut represents a section of a gravel pit at St. Acheul, on
the Somme. The implements are nearly always found in the lowest
strata, which is a bed of gravel from ten to fourteen feet thick.
Overlying this are beds of marl, loam, and surface soil,
comprising in all a depth of fourteen feet. It has been suggested
that the implements are comparatively recent, and have sunk down
from above by their own weight, or perhaps have been buried in
artificial excavations. The beds are however too compact to admit
of any supposition that they may have been sunk there; and if
buried in any excavation, evident traces of such excavation would
have remained. We can account for their presence there in no
other way than, that when the river rolled along at that high
elevation, and deposited great beds of sand, these implements
were someway lost in its waters, and became buried in the gravel
deposits.

Finally, we have to consider the age of the deposits. This is a
question that can be answered only by geologists, and we may be
sure that more than ordinary attention has been bestowed upon
them. The remains of many animals characteristic of the Glacial
Age were found in the beds at Abbeville. These include those of
the elephants, rhinoceros, hyenas, cave-bear, and cave-lion.34

In the formation of these gravel beds, ice has undoubtedly played
quite an important part. Bowlders that could have got there only
by the aid of ice, are found in several localities. Evidence
gathered from a great many different sources all establish the
fact that these gravels date as far back as the close of the
Glacial Age at least, and there are some reasons for supposing
them to be interglacial.

We can easily see that the melting away of the immense glaciers
that we have been describing would produce vast floods in the
rivers, and it is perhaps owing to the presence of such swollen
rivers that are due the great beds of surface soil, called loam
or loess, found in all the river valleys of France and Germany.35
These deposits frequently overlie the gravel beds. They are then
of a later date than the beds in which are found such convincing
proofs of the presence of man, and if they themselves date from
the close of the Glacial Age, it is no longer a question whether
the gravel beds themselves belong to that age. Thus we see that
we can no longer escape the conclusions of Boucher DePerthes. The
discovery of rudely worked flints in the drift of the Somme River
thus establishes the fact that some time during the Glacial Age,
man in a Paleolithic state lived in France.

Geological terms convey to us no definite ideas as to the lapse
of time, and we have an instinctive desire to substitute for them
some term of years. In most cases this is impossible, as we have
no means to measure the flight of past time, nor are we yet
prepared to discuss the question of time, since to do so we must
learn a great deal more about the cause of the Glacial Age. We
might, however, cite statements which can not fail to impress us
with the fact that a great extent of time has passed.

In the case of the river Somme we have a valley in some places a
mile or more in width, and about two hundred feet in depth. This
has mostly been excavated in chalk rock. Taking our present large
rivers as a basis, it would require from one to two hundred
thousand years for the Somme to perform this work.36 It will not
do, however, to take the present action of our rivers as a guide,
since we have every reason to suppose this work went forward much
more rapidly in past times. But we can not escape the conclusion
that it demands a very long time indeed to explain it. The valley
has remained in its present shape long enough to admit the
formation of great beds of peat in some portions. Peat is formed
by the decomposition of vegetable growth. Its growth is in all
cases slow, depending entirely upon local circumstances. European
scholars who have made peat formation a special study assure us
that to form such immense beds as occur near Abbeville, several
thousand years are required, even under the most favorable
conditions.

Yet we would be scarcely willing to rest such important
conclusions as the foregoing on the researches of one individual,
or in one locality. As already stated, DePerthes made his
discoveries public in 1847. Yet they were so opposed to all that
had been believed previously, that but few took the pains to
investigate for themselves. In 1853, Dr. Rigollot, of Amiens, who
had been skeptical as to DePerthes, commenced to look for himself
in the gravel beds at St. Acheul, about nine miles below
Abbeville. As might be expected, he was soon convinced.

Paleolithic Flint, England.

It may be said that the scientific world formally accepted the
new theory when such English scientists as Evans, Falconer,
Lyell, and Prestwich reported in its favor. Since that time, many
discoveries of ancient implements have been made at various
places in France and England under circumstances similar to those
in the valley of the Somme. In England they have been found along
almost all the rivers in the southern and south-eastern part. One
class of discoveries there gives us new ideas as to the extent of
time that has passed since they were deposited. That is where
they occur in gravel beds having no connection with the present
system of rivers. In one case the gravel forms a hill fifteen
feet high, situated in the midst of a swampy district, surrounded
on all sides by low, flat surfaces. Several such instances could
be given; but, in all such cases, we can not doubt that,
somewhere near, there once rolled the waters of an ancient river,
that man once hunted along its banks, and that, owing to some
natural cause, the waters forsook their ancient bed—and that
since then, in the slow course of ages, the action of running
water has removed so much of the surface of the land near there,
that we can not guess at its ancient configuration: we only know,
from scattered patches of gravel, that we are standing on the
banks of an ancient water-course.

One instance, illustrative of the great change that has come over
the surface features of the country, demanding for their
accomplishment a great lapse of time, is furnished by the Isle of
Wight. That island is now separated from the mainland by a narrow
channel, called the South Hampton Water, or the Solent Sea.

It is now known that this is nothing but an old river channel, in
which the sea has usurped the place of the river. The coast is a
river embankment, with the usual accompaniments of gravel beds,
flint implements, and fresh water shells. On the shores of the
island we find the opposite bank of the old river. A very great
change must have taken place in the surface features before the
sea could have rolled in and cut off the Isle of Wight from the
mainland.

In speaking of the length of time demanded for this change, Dr.
Evans says: “Who can fully understand how immeasurably remote was
the epoch when what is now that vast bay was high and dry land,
and a long range of chalk downs, six hundred feet above the sea,
bounded the horizon on the South? And yet that must have been the
sight that met the eye of primitive man who frequented the banks
of that ancient river, which buried their handiwork in gravels
that now cap the cliffs—and of the course of which so strange and
indubitable a memorial subsists in what has now become the Solent
Sea?”37

The illustrations scattered through this essay are
representations of the stone implements found in the drift of
European rivers. During all the long course of time supposed to
be covered by the Paleolithic Age, there are but very few
evidences of any improvement, as far as we can judge from the
implements themselves. This is in itself a melancholy proof of
the low condition of man. He had made so little advance in the
scale of wisdom, he possessed so little knowledge, he was so much
a creature of instinct, that, during the thousands of years
demanded for this age, he made no appreciable progress. The
advance of the last century was many times greater than that of
the entire Paleolithic Age. A blow struck on one end of a piece
of flint will, owing to the peculiar cleavage of flint, split off
pieces called flakes. This is the simplest form of implement used
by man. It is impossible to say with certainty how they were
used; but, from the evidence observed on them, they were probably
used as scrapers. The men of that day doubtless knew some simple
method of preparing clothing from the skins of the animals they
had killed, and probably many of these sharp-rimmed flakes were
used to assist in this primitive process of tanning.

Flint Flakes.

When the piece of flint itself was chipped into form, it was one
whose shape would indicate a spear-head or hatchet. We present
illustrations of each. Forms intermediate between these two are
found. Some have such a thick heavy base that it is believed they
were used in the hand, and had no handle or haft.

Others, with a cutting edge all round, may have been provided
with a handle. M. Mortillet, of France, who has had excellent
opportunities of studying this question very thoroughly, thinks
that the hatchet was the only type of implement they possessed,
and that it was used for every conceivable purpose—but that their
weapon was a club, all traces of which have, of course, long
since vanished away.38

Spear Head Type and Hatchet Type.

These few implements imply that their possessors were savages
like the native Australians. In this stage of culture, man lived
by hunting, and had not yet learned to till the ground, or to
seek the materials out of which his implements were made by
mining. Re merely fashioned the stones which happened to be
within reach in the shallows of rivers as they were wanted,
throwing them away after they had been used. In this manner the
large numbers which have been met with in certain spots may be
accounted for. Man at this time appears before us as a nomad
hunter, poorly equipped for the struggle of life, without
knowledge of metals, and ignorant of the art of grinding his
stone tools to a sharp edge.39 Of course we can not hope to learn
much of their social condition other than that just set forth.

DePerthes found some flints which show evidence of their human
origin, and yet it would be very difficult to say what was their
use. He thinks they may have a religious significance, and has
set forth a great variety of eloquent surmises respecting them.
It only need be said that such theorizing is worse than useless.
That while it is very probable these tribes had some system of
belief, yet there is no good reason for supposing these flints
had any connection with it. It has been supposed, from another
series of wrought flints, that the men of this epoch were
possessed of some sentiments of art, as pieces have been found
thought to represent the forms of animals, men’s faces, birds,
and fishes; but as very few have been able to detect such
resemblances, it is safe to say they do not exist.

As the love of adornment is almost as old as human nature itself,
we may not be surprised to find traces of its sway then. Dr.
Rigollot found little bunches of shells with holes through either
end. The supposition is that these were used as beads; which is
not at all strange, considering how instinctively savage men
delight in such ornaments. These ancient hunters made use of
beads partially prepared by nature.

Europe is not the only country where the remains of this savage
race are found. They are found in the countries bordering the
Mediterranean in Northern Africa, and in Egypt. In this latter
country they are doubtless largely buried under the immense
deposits of Nile mud; yet in 1878 Professor Haynes discovered in
Upper Egypt scrapers and hatchets, pronounced by archæologists to
be exactly similar to those of the river Somme. We are not
informed as to their geological age, but there can be no question
that they are much older than any monument of Egyptian
civilization hitherto known.40

Paleolithic implements have also been found in Palestine and in
India. In the latter country the beds are so situated that they
present the same _indicia,_ of age as do those of the Somme
Valley. A great portion of the formation has been removed, and
deep valleys cut in them by running water.41 They have also been
found in at least one locality in the United States; that is in
the glacial gravel of the valley of the Delaware at Trenton, New
Jersey. We must not confound these remains with those of the
Indian tribes found scattered over a large extent of surface.
Those at Trenton also are not only in all respects, except
materials, similar to those of the Somme, but are found imbedded
in a formation of gravel that was deposited at least as far back
as the close of the Glacial Age, thus requiring the passage of
the same long series of years since they were used, as do the
implements of European rivers.42 We must also bear in mind that
no country has been so carefully explored for these implements as
has Europe, and that the very country, Asia, where, for many
reasons, we might hope to find not only unequivocal proofs of
man’s presence but from our discoveries be able to clear up many
dark points, as to the race, origin, and fate of these primitive
tribes, is yet almost a sealed book.

But the scattered discoveries we have instanced show us that the
people whose implements have been described in this chapter were
very widely dispersed over the earth, and everything indicates
that they were far removed from us in time. The similarity in
type of implements shows that, wherever found, they were the same
people, in the same low savage state of culture—“Alike in the
somber forests of oak and pine in Great Britain, and when
surrounded by the luxuriant vegetation of the Indian jungle.”43

We have yet two important points to consider. The first is, what
race of men were these river tribes? and second, when did they
arrive in Europe? Did they precede the glacial cold? did they
make their appearance during a warm interglacial period? or was
it not until the final retreat of the glaciers that they first
wandered into Europe? These questions are far from settled; yet
they have been the object of a great amount of painstaking
research.

To determine the first point, it is necessary that anatomists
have skeletons of the men of this age, to make a careful study of
them. But for a great many reasons, portions of the human
skeleton are very rarely found in such circumstances that we are
sure they date back to the Paleolithic Age, and especially is
this true of the men of the River Drift. In a few instances
fragmentary portions have been found.

M. Quatrefages, of France, who is certainly a very high authority
on these points, thinks that the hunter tribes of the River Drift
belonged to the Canstadt race—“so named from the village of
Canstadt, in Germany, near which a fossil skull was discovered in
1700, and which appears to be closely allied to the Neanderthal
skull, discovered near Dusseldorf in 1857, and about which so
much has been written.”44 Quatrefages supposes that this type of
man is still to be found in certain Australian tribes. These are
not mere guesses, but are conclusions drawn from careful study by
eminent European scholars.45

It is well known that a competent naturalist needs but a single
fossil bone to describe the animal itself, and tell us its
habits. So also anthropologists need but fragments of the human
skeleton, especially of the skull, to describe characteristics of
the race to which the individual belonged.

Neanderthal Man.

This cut, though an ideal restoration, is a restoration made in
accordance with the results of careful study of fragmentary
skulls found in various localities in Europe. The head and the
face present a savage aspect; the body harmonized with the head;
the height was not more than five feet and a half; yet the bones
are very thick in proportion to their length, and were evidently
supplied with a powerful set of muscles, since the little
protuberances and depressions where the muscles are attached are
remarkably well developed.46 Huxley and Quatrefages have both
pointed out that representatives of this race are to be found
among some Australian tribes. Among the races of this great
island there is one, distributed particularly in the province of
Victoria, in the neighborhood of Port Western, which reproduces
in a remarkable manner, the characters of the Canstadt race.”47
Not the least interesting result of this discovery is the
similarity of weapons and implements. “With Mr. Lartet, we see in
the obsidian lances of New Caledonia the flint heads of the lower
alluvium of the Somme. The hatchet of certain Australians reminds
us, as it did Sir Charles Lyell, of the Abbeville hatchet.48

Yet some hesitate about accepting these interesting inferences,
thinking that the portions of the human skeleton thus far
recovered, which are beyond a doubt referable to this period, are
too fragmentary to base such important conclusions upon. This is
the view of Boyd Dawkins, who thinks “we can not refer them to
any branch of the human race now alive.”49 “We are without a
clew,” continues he, “to the ethnology of the River Drift man,
who most probably is as completely extinct as the woolly
rhinoceros or the cave bear.”50 Future discoveries will probably
settle this point.

It is yet a much disputed point to what particular portion of the
Glacial Age we can trace the appearance of man. We can profitably
note the tendency of scientific thought in this direction. But a
short time has elapsed since a few scholars here and there began
to urge an antiquity for man extending back beyond the commonly
accepted period of six thousand years. Though it is now well
known and admitted that there are no good grounds for this
estimate, yet such was its hold, such its sway over scientific as
well as popular thought, that an appeal to this chronology was
deemed sufficient answer to the discoveries of DePerthes,
Schmerling, and others. It was but yesterday that this popular
belief was overthrown and due weight given the discoveries of
careful explorers in many branches, and the antiquity of man
referred, on indisputable grounds, to a point of time at least as
far back as the close of the preceding geological age.51

It seems as if here a halt had been called, and all possible
objections are urged against a further extension of time. It is,
of course, well to be careful in this matter, and to accept only
such results as inevitably follow from well authenticated
discoveries. But it also seems to us there is no longer any doubt
that man dates back to the beginning of that long extended time
we have named the Glacial Age.52

In the first place, we must recall the animals that suddenly made
their appearance in Europe at the beginning of this age. Though
there were a number of species, since become extinct, the
majority of animal forms were those still living.53

These are the animals with which man has always been associated.
There is therefore no longer any reason to suppose the evolution
of animal life had not reached that stage where man was to
appear. We need only recall how strongly this point was urged in
reference to the preceding geological epoch, to see its important
bearings here. Mr. Boyd Dawkins has shown that the great majority
of animals which invaded Europe at the commencement of this age,
can be traced to Northern and Central Asia, whence, owing to
climatic changes, they migrated into Europe.54

Inasmuch as man seems to have been intimately associated with
these animals, it seems to us very likely that he came with them
from their home in Asia. We think the tendency of modern
discoveries is to establish the fact that man arrived in Europe
along with the great invasion of species now living.55

Turning now to the authorities, we find this to be the accepted
theory of many of those competent to form an opinion.

In England Mr. Geikie has strongly urged the theory that the
Glacial Age includes not only periods of great cold, but also
epochs of exceptional mildness; and he strongly argues that all
the evidence of the River Drift tribes can be referred to these
warm interglacial epochs; in other words, that they were living
in Europe during the Glacial Age.56

In answer to this it has been stated that the relics of River
Drift tribes in Southern England overlie bowlder clay, and must
therefore be later in origin than the Glacial Age.57

But, Mr. Geikie and others have shown that the ice of the last
great cold did not overflow Southern England,58 so that this
evidence, rightly read, was really an argument in favor of their
interglacial age.59 The committee appointed by the British
Association to explore the Victoria Cave, near Settle, urge this
point very strongly in their final report of 1878.60 To this
report Mr. Dawkins, a member of the committee, records his
dissent, but in his last great work he freely admits that man was
living in England during the Glacial Age, if he did not, in fact,
precede it.61

Mr. Skertchley, of the British coast survey, in 1879,62 announced
the discovery in East Anglia of Paleolithic, implements
underlying the bowlder clay of that section. Mr. Geikie justly
regards this as a most important discovery.63

Finally Mr. Dawkins, in his address as President of the
Anthropological section of the British Association, in 1882, goes
over the entire ground. After alluding to the discovery of
paleolithic implements in Egypt, India, and America, he
continues: “The identity of implements of the River Drift hunter
proves that he was in the same rude state of civilization, if it
can be called civilization, in the Old and the New World, when
the hand of the geological clock struck the same hour. It is not
a little strange that this mode of life should have been the same
in the forests of the North, and south of the Mediterranean, in
Palestine, in the tropical forests of India, and on the western
shores of the Atlantic.” This, however, is not taken as proving
the identity of race, but as proving that in this morning-time of
man’s existence he had nowhere advanced beyond a low state of
savagism. Mr. Dawkins then continues: “It must be inferred from
his wide-spread range that he must have inhabited the earth for a
long time, and that his dispersal took place before the Glacial
epoch in Europe and America. I therefore feel inclined to view
the River Drift hunter as having invaded Europe in preglacial
times, along with other living species which then appeared.” He
also points out that the evidence is that he lived in Europe
during all the changes of that prolonged period known as the
Glacial Age.64

Sir John Lubbock also records his assent to these views. He says
on this point: “It is, I think, more than probable that the
advent of the Glacial Period found man already in possession of
Europe.”65

In our own country Prof. Powell says: “It is now an established
fact that man was widely scattered over the earth at least as
early as the beginning of the Quaternary period, and perhaps in
Pliocene times.”66

This completes our investigation of the men of the River Drift.
We see how, by researches of careful scholars, our knowledge of
the past has been enlarged. Though there are many points which
are as yet hidden in darkness, we are enabled to form quite a
clear mental picture of this early race. Out of the darkness
which still enshrouds the continent of Asia we see these bands of
savages wandering forth; some to Europe, Africa, and the west;
others to America and the east.

This was at a time when slowly falling temperature but dimly
prophesied a reign of arctic cold, still far in the future. This
race does not seem to have had much capacity for advancement,
since ages came and went leaving him in the same low state.
During the climax of glacial cold he doubtless sought the
southern coasts of Europe along with the temperate species of
animals. But whenever the climatic conditions were such that
these animals could find subsistence as far north as England he
accompanied them there, and so his remains are found constantly
associated with theirs throughout Europe. Though doubtless very
low in the scale, and at the very foot of the ladder of human
progress, we are acquainted with no facts connecting them with
the higher orders of animals. If such exists, we must search for
them further back in geological time. The men of the River Drift
were distinctively human beings, and as such possessed those
qualities which, developing throughout the countless ages that
have elapsed, have advanced man to his present high position.

REFERENCES

This chapter was submitted to Prof. G. F. Wright, of Oberlin,
for criticism.

Lyell’s “Antiquity of Man;” Geikie’s “Prehistoric Europe,” p.
332.

It is, however, applicable to only a portion of the Quaternary,
or Post-tertiary period. (Wright.)