ceived, nor the manner in which tliey have been applied to
the Lake dicellings of Switzerland and elsewhere. I shall
not insist further upon the different degrees of civilizatit)n
betrayed by the use of two metals and of polished or ground
stone. I shall confine myself to the remark that in Denmark
the Iron age entirely corresponds with that of the beech tree,
while the Bronze age corresponds Avith the entire period of
the oak, and the close of that to the jtine. Lastly, the pine
is the tree of the Stone age.

The presence of objects formed by human industry proves
the presence of man. Thanks to their irrefutable testimony,
there is no difficulty in tracing him through the zones of the
oak and the pine. The immense number of objects, which have
been left by him in the peat period, points to the existence of
a somewhat dense population. These objects, on the contrary,
become very rare, and at the same time ruder, in the layer
of amorphous peat. They were, for some time, even thought
to be wanting altogether, till they were finally discovered by
Stecnstrup associated with the remains of the reindeer.

Man, then, was living in Denmark when Arctic plants,
such as Iktula nana and Saline jnAaris grew at the bottc^m
of tlie skovmo.ses ; he was accompanied by the reindeer,
which com[)ktes the resemblance between the past state of
that country and the present state of Lapland. Now we
know that such a state of things could only have existed in
Denmark in the latter part of the Quaternary epoch, when
the ice, retreating from the south northwards, would still be
far removed from its present limits. We can then affirm
that man existecl and lived in Mnrojie at tlie very dawn of
tlie j)resent geological epoch.

This fact is ngain j>r()ved by the discovery of a human
station, made by M. Fraas, at Schus,senried in Wurtemberg.



^o-c of the Iluuian Species. 135

Here man, ^vhosc pieseuce is attested by worked flints of
various forms, by weapons and instruments of bone, by
phalanges of reindeer made into whistles, lived with the
riindeer, the glutton, and the polar fox, and gathered mosses
which are now confined to Northern Europe, such as
llijpnum sminentosum, fiuitans, and aduncum. As in
l)L'nmark, he seems to have followed the glaciers step by
stop, as the melting of the latter opened out new lands to
his activity.

IV. Without claiming such accuracy for the historic dates,
or even such an approximation as that derived from the
Aryan traditions on the most ancient monuments of Egypt,
is it possible to estimate the number of years which have
• lapsed since the times we have just been discussing?

This question luis often attracted the attention of geologists
and anthropologists, and several attempts have been matle to
s(jlve it. But the results are still far from being satisfactory.
They are none the less interesting, and calculated, to a
certain extent, to encourage fresh research. The method is
good ; it has only been hitherto wanting in sufficiently
precise dates, and we may hope that they will be sooner or
later forthcoming.

This method is easily comprehended. Fur example, let us
admit that the peat has a regular growth in the skovmo.ses,
and suppose, in addition, that a coin, recognised as belongiijg
to the twelfth century, ha.s been found at a depth of loO
metres (4 9 feet) ; we shall conclude that the layer of peat
has only rcfpiired about GOO years for its formation. The
age of a bronze hatchet found at greater depth, 8 metres
(2(»'24 feet), will be given by the proportion I'^oO : 6 : : 8'" : x.
The hatchet would then be ^,'200 years old, and would date
from the fourteenth century before our era.

Many natural phenomena arc available for calculations of
this kind. Such are the alluvium of a river, the silting up
of a lake, the erosion of a hill or plateau, etc. But in order
tiiat the results of these calciilations may have a real value,
the phenomenon which serves a.s the basis, and the calcula-
7



136 The Iluuian Species.

tions resulting from the data must satisfy three conditions
wliieh liave been very clearly stated by M. Forel.

1. The phenomenon should be perfectly constant and
regular, which is never the case. At least, it ought to be
possible to regard its action as giving an annual mean or
constant centennial result, by means of compensations which
arc produced naturally.

2. When super-imposed strata are used as a means of
estimation, the age of the strata socving as a term of com-
parison, ought to be rigorously determined ; the nature of
the objects compared should leave no doubt.

3. We ought to be certain that the objects found in any
stratum really belong to it, that they have not been displaced
by any reformation or by their mere weight. (Peat.)

Should even one oidy of these condition* be unfulfilled,
the calculation is neces.sarily erroneous. Now, hitherto, wc
cannot be absolutely certain that the conditions laid down by
M. Forel are satisfied. Nevertheless, I repeat, it is interest-
ing to know what results have been obtained by these
attempts at prehistoric chronology.

It would seem, at first sight, that the skovmoscs must be
useful for researches of this kind. It is not so. Steenstrup,
an excellent judge of these matters, after having cstimatLil
at forty centuries tlic time necessary for the formation of the
peat accumidated in these bogs, declares that it might be
twice, or even four times as much.

In reality, the uncertainty as to the results obtained from
the growth of peat, is very much greater tiian the Danish
savant admits. In adding to the data collected by lirandt,
those kindly presented to nio by my colleague, M. Besal, I
find that for a period of 4 t'l y».ars the mean animal growth
..f prat is ()(>:{2 metre (TiifJ inch). Jhit tliis mean is the
result of numbers who.sc extremes are 0005 metre (256 inch)
and ()0()(;."i metre (0 20 inrli). That is to say. that the
means found by dinVrent observers for the annual growth of
peat, vary from one to ten.

The calculations of ,M.M. (lillieron and 'I'royon, resting upon



Present Geological Epochs. 137

the deposition of silt, which has caused the retreat of the
Lakes of Bienne and Nouchatel, have but little connection
with the present subject. Both have sought to determine
the age of the Lake dwellings, which belong, probably, to a
nuich later period than the one which we arc now endeavour-
ing to determine. We may, however, notice the numbers,
(5,000 years and 3,300 years, found by these observers.

The chronological results derived from the littoral accumu-
lition of silt, of which I have just spoken, exhibit chances
for error which Vogt has rightly pointed out. For some
time the results have been thought more worthy of confi-
dence which were based upon the researches made by M.
Mt)rlot upon the conical accumulation of silt deposited by
the Tiniere. This cone, which was cut through by the rail-
way for a di.stance of 133'"' (436 feet), and to a depth
of 7"7"'* (2.') feet), exhibited in the midst of the mass
of gravel three undisturbed soils, the highest of which con-
tained Roman instruments and coins ; the second, pottery
of the Bronze age ; and tliC third, split bone.s, charcoal, and
ditVcrent objects referable to the close of the Stone age.
Fixing the commencement of the Roman period in Switzer-
land at the first century of our era, and the end of it at the
year oGS, and making some corrections which cannot be de-
tailed here, M. Morlot has con.sidered himself able to propose
the following numbers as approximate dates : —

Age of layer of Roman jH-riixl . . . 10 to 1.") coiiturios.

Ape of liiviT of nroii/.c; jMTi(«l . . 29 to 42 eeiituries.

Ape of layer of Sioiio piriiKl , . . . 47 to 70 centuries.

Age of whole cone 7 t to 100 centuries.

These ntimbei-s are not high. The number given by M.
.Morlot as the age of the Stone period in Switzerland, leads
us back to an antiquity which does not exceed that given
by the Eg}-ptian monumonts ; and it is impossible to avoid
being struck with the diflcrenccs of civilization exhibited by
the two countries. Nevertheless, this fact cannot constitute
a reason for doubting the results of the Swi.ss .savant. It is
well known that man during the same time has not every-



138 The Hu7)mn Species.

where equally advanced in civilization, and that the Eskimas
are still in tlie Neolithic period.

But other criticisms have been brought forward against M.
Morlot, the result of which is that the numbers furnished by
the cone of the Tiniere cannot be accepted a^* giving a real
approximation to the date which we are seeking for.

V. M. Forel, who has taken an active part in this discus-
sion, has tried to solve the problem in an indirect way. In-
.stead of seeking directly for the age of a prehistoric fact, he
lias proposed to have recourse to the rule of false position,
which allows the determination either of a maximum which
tlio numbers cannot possibly exceed, or a mininuim below
which they cannot fall. He has applied this plan, which is
JUS correct as it is ingenious, to the Lake of Geneva,

It is well known that the waters of the Rhone, especially
during the floods caused by the melting of the snow, enter
the lake in a very turbid condition, and flow on remarkably
clear. The mud thus deposited evidently tends to fdl up the
lake, and has already silted up a part of the great depression
which was fdled by the ice of the Quaternary epoch. M.
Forel has first determined the annual volume of the deposit.
He has then calculated the volume of the present lake, basing
his calculations on the soundings made by La Bechc. Ho
luus thus been enabled to calculate the time necessary for the
se<liment of the llhone to fill \\\} the entire lake. Then, ad-
mitting that the part of the original lake already filled up
ha<l a mean depth equal to that of the present lake, ho ha.s
eomp.Tred the surface of the alluvial deposits already formed
with the surface of the lake itself. The proportion is almost
one to three. These dopo.sjts liavc then been formed in a
third of the time nccesstuy to fill up the ])resent lake.
Now their formation commenced inuneiliately after the re-
treat of the glaciers. The date thus obtained is, then,
that of the modem geological epoch.

Such is the method by which AI. Forel arrives at the
number of 1 ()(),()()() y<ars. 'J'hi.s is a maximum which is
probably much exaggerated. M. Fore I shows this himself



Aj^c of tJic Human Species. 139

very clearly. He has always taken the lowest numbers
for the estimation of the increase of alluvium ; he has con-
sidered on the whole year ninety days only as contributing to
this increase ; he has only included the Rhone in this estima-
tion, and taken no account of other rivers, streams, etc. ; he
has not taken into consideration inundations, extraordinary
I'alls of ruin, landslips, etc. ; he has Jissumcd the floods of the
Rhone have always resembled the present floods, while they
must originally have been much more considerable, and have
carried away much more material from mountain slopes but
recently relieved from their covering of ice; he has said
nothing of the gravel and sand which must necessarily be
c.irried along the bed of a rapid stream like the Rhone, etc.

M. Forel's result must therefore undergo serious reduc-
tion before it approximates to the truth. Without attempt-
ing a precise statement, we can (at least) admit with almost
al)solute certainty that the present geological epoch com-
menced less than 100,000 years ago.

On the other liand, M. Arcelin has pought for a solution of
the .same problem in the deposits of the Saonc. The present
river flows in a channel hollowed out in the alluvium of the
Saone of Quaternary times, the banks of which have been
raised by the sediment deposited during floods. The two
deposits are very easily distinguished. The homogeneity of
the modern alluvium indicates, moreover, a remarkably
regvdar phenomenon. The banks of the Saone at different
points form more or less abrupt hills which constitute so
many natural geological sections. The erosions of the river
have laid bare objects easily recognised as belonging to
the Roman period, the Ihonze age, and the Neolithic ago.
These objects are found at a constant height, showing that
they arc in situ. The hills of the Saone, then, constitute
one of those means of estimating ])rehi>turic chronology,
which are .so valuable to us. MM. Arcelin and Do Ferry
have attempted fii^st to determine the age of the different
layeis. The numbers so obtained show a certain amount
of discordance, undoubtedly due to the fact that M. de



140 The Human Species.

Ferry lias La'^cd liis calculations upon a single section,
wliilc those of M. Arcolin represent the mean taken from
33 points. The latter has, however, afterwards had re-
course to the method of M. Forel, and to the rule of false
position. But instead of seeking a maximum, he has en-
deavoured to determine a minimum. This calculation
gives the following results : —

Aj^c of Roman layer . 1.500 years I Ajjc of Xenlithic layer . ^.000 years
Age i)f IJroiizc layer . . 2.UJ0 years | A^je of Quaternary elay G,7jO ytiiirs

This represents a very moderate anticiuity, and corresponds
almost entirely with the dates of Manetho. But the minimum
of M. Arcelin appears to me to Le too low, and the error
greater than in the case of the maximum of ^I. Forel. I
.shall only point out the most important of the causes which
have led to this result. The calculations of the author are
based upon the hypothesis of the cijuality of the Hoods, and
of the alluvial deposit in the period between the present and
the Roman period, and in times previous to that. He thus
confounds the epochs when the basin of the Saono was left to
Nature alone, with other epochs when the same basin was
stri])pod of its forests, cleared and cultivated as it is at pre-
sent. Now everyone knows how niueii more powerful the
action of atmospheric agents, of rain in particular, are upon
cuUivaUd land than u|»on uncidtivuted. The ujiper layers,
which served as the basis for the calculations of M. Arcelin,
liave necessarily dimiiiished to a considerable cxtrnt the
final result, since they miist have been fornud much more
ra[)idly than a great part of the lower layers.

I KJiall say, then, of (li»j mininmm ol M. Aici lin what I
hav(! .said of the maximum of M. Forel. It leaves us the
eertainty that tlu; present gecjlogical jieriod goes back much
further than 7—8000 years.

VI, AVhat corrections oui^ht the extreme numbers which
I have just (juoted to undergo in order to a|)i»roximate to
the truth ? It is still impossible to say. But ihe j)ath
which shfjuld b(! follow(;d in order to dimini.sh IIm; space



Present Geological Epochs. 141

wliich separates them is hencefoivth clear. The alkiviuin of
the Saoue has always appeared to mo to present couditious
of uncertainty which it would be difficult to overcome, and
the best means of determining the age of the present period
by prehistoric chronology, appears to me to be the Lake of
Geneva.

In order to correct the first results obtained by M. Forel,
it would be necessary to take into account all tlie circum-
stances pointoil out above, and several others also. It would
be especially necessary, at different seasons of the year, in
dry and wet weather, to gauge the smallest rivulets and
ravines all round the lake, to measure the amount of mud
their waters contain, and the amount of gravel and sand they
carry down with it. This ta.sk is be^'ond the power of a
single man; it would' require the formation of an Association
for this end. The problem would be worth the trouble, and
the Swiss savants, so justly proud of their beautiful lake,
might easily make arrangements to obtain its .solution.

JSuch as they arc, the works of MM. Arcelin and Ford
load to some important conclusions. The total age of our
globe, used till lately to be rcstrictcil to a little more than
(>,000 years ; the alluvial deposits of the Saone show that the
l»resent geological epoch alone surpasses this by several cen-
turies. On tlie other hand, imdcr the influence of Darwinian
prejudices, men have bcgim to handle time with a strange
laxity, and it has been affirmed that millions of years
separate us from glacial times. The deposits of silt in the
Lake of Geneva show that these times terminated less than
lOO.OOO years ago. As M. Furel well say.s, " 'J'his does nof
yet constitute historic chronology ; it i.s, nevertheles.s, a little
more than simple geological chronology ; " and we see once
more experience and observation doing justice to theoretical
coufiptii lus.



CHAPTER XIII.
AGE OF Tin: HUMAN sri:cii:s. — past geological epochs.

I. The skovinoscs and the remains at Scliusscnrieil have
shown that man existed in Europe at the close of the Glacial
Epocli. But did he live through this epoch ? Did he
precede it ? Has he, therefore, been contemporary with
vegetable and animal species, which have long been con-
sidered a-s fossils? We know that we can with certainty
reply in the affirmative to these questions. We know
also that the proof of this great ftxct, one of the grandest
scientific conquests of modern times, dates, so to speak, from
yesterday.

This demonstration rests on proofs which are now so well
known that the enumeration of them will be sufficient. It
is evident that human bones, buried beneath an undisturbcil
layer of soil, prove the existence of man at the time when
the layer was formed. It is no less clear that flints worked
bv human hands and made into hatchets, knives, etc., bones
of animals made into harpoons ami arrow-heads, are so many
irrefutable testimonies of the existence of the workcr.s.
Lastly, when human bonos are found assotiatctl with bones
of animals in the .same undisturbed layers, it is :tg;iin cvidcMit
that man and these animal species liavc been (•••iifoin-
poraneous.

Many facts included in these three categoriis were pn.vcd
in the earlier years, and during the course of the l.xst century.
Since 1700, exr.ivat ions mad«- by the c»rder of Diiku Kbcih.ird
Iajxuh do WurtomlM-rg. at ( 'anstadt, n«;ar Stuttg.ird, biou-ht,
to light a great n»iml)er of bones of animals, among which was
fuun<l a human cranium. The nature of this precious relic



A^e of the //ion tin Species. 143

w.:is, however, only reco;^iii.sed by Jaeger in 1835. About
the same time an EnglLslnnan, Kemp, found in London itself,
side by side with the teeth of elephants, a stone hatchet
similar to those of S;iint Acheul. Some time after P]sper in
Germany, and John Frere in England, discovered more or
less analogous facts. But none of them were able to
recognise their significance, for geology Avas quite in its
infancy, and paUcontology not yet in existence.

II. It was not till 1823 that Amy Boud gave Cuvicr some
human bones which he had found in the loess of the Rhine,
near Lahr, in the Duchy of Baden. Bouc regarded these
lM)nes as fossils. Cuvier refused to admit this conclusion.
He has often been reproached with this, but the reproach is
unjust. Cuvier had too often seen pretended fossil men
change either into mastodons or salamanders, or even into
simple contorted blocks of sandstone, not to be on his guard,
and, in presence of a fact hitherto unique, he th(»ught it
wiser to admit a disturbance which would have carried into
the loess bones of much later date than that of the formation
of this layer.

But Cuvier, whatever may have been said of him, never
denied the possibility of the di.scovery of fossil men. lie
hius, on the contrary, formally admitted the existence of our
species as anterior to the latest revolutions of the globe.
" Man," he says, " may have inhabited some country of
small extent from which he repeopled the earth after these
terrible event.s." We see that the praises and reproaches
whicli have been addressed to our great naturalist on ac-
count of an opinion which he never held, are c(|ually unde-
8erve«l.

The reserve, perhaps exaggerated, which Cuvier imposeil
u|>>n himself, and the confidence which was placed in him,
weighctl heavily tipon sci4?nce by impeding the comprehcn-
.'^iun of the value of observations made by Tournal (1828-
182!)) in L'Aude, by Christol (182!)) in Lo Gard ; by
Schmerling (1833) in Belgium; by Joly (1835) in Lozere;
by Marcel de Serres (183!)), in L'Aude, and by Lund (1844) in



144 '^^^^ Iliniian Species.

Brazil. In IS to almost all the savants, properly so called,
sliared tlic opinion so well stated by Desnoyers. AVitliout
re^jarding the existence of fossil man as impossible, they did
not think that the discovery had as yet been made.

It is to the persevering efforts of a distinguished archieo-
logist, Boucher de Perthes, that we owe the proof of a fact
so long denied, and now universally admitted. Under the
influence of curtain philosophical ideas, little calculated to
j)rocure him f(jllowers, he had admitted d j)r'iori the ex-
istence of human beings anterior to the present man, from
whom they must have differed considerably. He hoped to
find either their remains themselves, or the jnoducts of their
industry, in the upper alluvial deposits. Watching either
himself or thiough his agents the excavation of the gravel
pits near Abbeville, he collected there a number of flints,
more or less rudely worked, but bearing the unmistakable
impress of the hand of man. Some of his publications (1847)
brought him visitors, who in their turn carried on the search.
Soon after, M. Regcjllot (1855) and M. Gaudry (185G) obtained
from the gravel of Saint Aclieul hatchets similar to those of
Alibeville, and declared themselves convinced. The English
savants, Falconer, Prcstwich, and Lyell, after liaving visited
the collection of Boucher do Perthes, did the same, and liad
many imitators.

III. In spite of the discoveries which were midtijilied in
cavenis and gravel-pits, even in the neighbourhood of Paris,
the same objections were brought against the believers in
lussil man which Cuvier had opposed to Amy Bond The
juxtapositi(;n ui the renuiins of extinct animals and human
boncH, or articles of human workmanship, were attributed to
a reforiiidtum effected by water. The high aufliorify of M,
de Bramont lent new force to this argument. Jle coujpand
the alluvium of the neighbourhood of Alibcvillc to his
fi.rrainn den pcntcn, form««l, he said, by storms of an ex-
ceptional violence, which oidy happened once in a thousand
years, and which heap up together materials derived from
different beds. As for the oljects discovered in caverns they



Past Geological Epochs. 145

inspired still less confidence than the others, on account of
tlio c;i.^e with which the bed might be undermined by e(ldics,
which would tend to deposit in the heart of a subjacent layer
objects derived from the upper layers, without destroying
cither the one or the other.

Many men of high intellect still hesitated, until M. Lartet
published his remarkable work upon the grotto of Aurignac
(ISOl). Here doubt was impossible. This grotto, or rather
rock-shelter, was closed at the time of its discovery by a slab
of stone brought from a distance ; M. Lartet discovered,
either in the interior or at the entrance, the bones of eight or
nine species of animals which are essentially characteristic of
quaternary deposits. In his memoir he gives details of all
the remains. Some of these animals had evidently been
eaten upon the spot, their bones, partly carbonized, still bore
the trace of fire, the charcoal and ashes of which were dis-
covered ; those of a young tichorhine rhinoceros showed marks
made by flint implements, and their .spongy extremities had
been gnawed by carnivora ; the species of the latter was
shown by his excrement, which wa.s recognized as that of the
hyena spelcea.

The grotto or rock-shelter of Aurignac is excavated in a
small mountainous group, a spur of the plateau of Lanemezan,
which the Pyrcnean drift has never reached. It is, therefore,
free from tbc objections drawn from the intervention of
aqueous currents. Thus the facts made known by M. Lartet
were generally accepted at once in their fullest signification.
These facts show that man lived in the midst of a quater-
nary fauna, which he usetl as food, including the rhinoceros,
and was fallowed by the hyena of this epoch, who finished
tl»e remains of his meals. The coexistence of man wiili
these fossil species was proved.

A few ill-judged attacks were still made by .savants, who
did not accept the testimony of these fact.s, among others