306 



THE POPULAR EDUCATOR. 



Eocene Tertiary strata. In this gravel are blocks of sandstone, 

 some twenty feet in circumference, and to account for their 

 presence at some distance from their mother rock, we must have 

 recourse to the agency of ice. It is in this gravel those nume- 

 rous specimens of stone tools, precisely similar to those of the 

 Somme valley, have been found. Hence, when these PalEeolithic 

 men inhabited our island it was amid the ice and snow of an 

 Arctic region, or at least in the proximity of glaciers and ice- 

 fields ; and since the time of their existence the Southampton 

 river, the Avon, and the Stour have begun their course, and 

 gradually worn for themselves their present valleys ; and 

 probably the Isle of Wight was then part of the mainland. 

 But not only have | their hunting . grounds passed away, but 

 many of the animals they chased are now extinct ; the bones of 

 the mammoth, the woolly-haired rhinoceros, the reindeer, the 

 Norwegian lemming, are all associated with the flint weapons. 

 These animals have all an Arctic relation the two first have 

 never been known alive in historical times. In the valley of the 

 Somme the hippopotamus and the musk-ox are also found, 

 indicating a somewhat more genial climate. 



For a long time geologists refused to entertain the notion 

 that man was co-existing with the mammoth ; but now all 

 doubt upon the subject has been set at rest, for more than 

 3,000 flint instruments belonging to the Palaeolithic age 

 have been discovered. The south of our island appears to be 

 the highest latitude then inhabited. Probably all Scandinavia 

 was under ice. As, however, the causes which made the whole 

 of Europe as far as the 40th degree of latitude an Arctic 

 region during the Pleistocene period gradually declined, the 

 more genial climate crept northwards, bringing man with it. 

 Throughout the whole of Scandinavia, although quantities of 

 flint instruments are found, none of them are of the rude 

 Palaeolithic type, but all belong to the Neolithic age, being 

 ground and better shaped. Along the coast of the Danish 

 Islands are mounds from three to ten feet high, and some of 

 them as many as 1,000 feet long. These mounds are rightly 

 termed kitchen-middens, being in reality refuse heaps where the 

 savages threw the shells of the mollusks upon which they 

 existed. Being in close proximity to their huts, it is natural 

 that they should contain many remnants of their savage life 

 burnt bones of the animals they cooked, their stone knives, 

 spears, etc. Sometimes bone and horn implements are found in 

 great numbers. The animals with which they were associated 

 are all still living in Europe, with the exception of the beaver. 

 However, the dog alone seems to have been domesticated. This 

 fact, and fragments of rude pottery, go to prove that a step in 

 the progress of civilisation had been taken. These ancient people 

 have reminiscences of their existence also preserved to us in 

 feat-mosses, and in Denmark the successive ages are strikingly 

 marked. In the lower beds of peat the stone weapons occur 

 side by side with roots of the Scotch pine, a tree which has 

 never been known in Denmark in aistorical times ; higher up 

 in the same bog, bronze instruments are found ; but now the 

 pine has become extinct, and the oak takes its place. Still 

 nearer the surface the bronze gives way to the iron age ; but 

 during that bronze ac^o the oak growth waxed and waned, and 

 next the beech tree, which now flourishes in Denmark, occupied 

 the country. Let the long years which it must take for the 

 growth of generations of forest trees to wear itself out, tell the 

 years which measure those ages of stone, and bronze, and iron. 



An interesting and singular repository of these ancient relics 

 has lately been discovered in Switzerland. It seems that it was 

 the custom of the ancient inhabitants of the Swiss valleys to 

 construct their villages on piles driven into the bottom of the 

 lakes, when the water was not more than fifteen feet deep. 

 No fewer than 150 of these lake-villages have been discovered. 

 Being surrounded by water, the inhabitants were secure from 

 wild beasts, and in some measure safe from sudden attacks of 

 their enemies. By dredging in the ooze great numbers of 

 articles have been found. Some villages are exclusively of the 

 etone age, others of the bronze, others have been inhabited 

 successively by people of both ages. Amongst other things 

 dredged up from the stone age settlements, are charred corn 

 and bread. This proves that the people of even this early 

 period cultivated cereal crops. During the bronze age no coins 

 have been discovered, but the pottery occasionally bears the 

 mark of the potter's wheel. Many animals were domesticated, 

 and gold, amber, and glass were used for ornaments. From the 



size of the sword-handles and the bracelets it is concluded that 

 the people of the stone age were smaller than the present 

 inhabitants of Northern Europe. 



Of Human Skeletons we need say little. During the stone 

 age the mode of burial seems to have been in rude coffins of 

 undressed stone. The skull is remarkably round and small. 

 This type is most nearly approached in the Laplander. He 

 may be the survivor of the people of the stone age, having 

 followed the edge of the ice as it gradually retreated north- 

 wards. He now occupies the Arctic regions, which in the times 

 of his forefathers stretched southward to the Isle of Wight. 

 During the bronze ago the fashion of burial changed, and they 

 burned their dead, so that we have no human remains of this 

 period. When tho iron age dawned the sepulchral burial was 

 again resorted to, and now we find that the skull has become 

 larger and longer. 



The floors of caves have proved the richest repositories of 

 human remains ; but owing to the fact that the cave may have 

 been occupied or used as a burying-place in comparatively 

 recent times, it does not necessarily follow that human remains 

 lying side by side with the bones of extinct animals belonged to 

 a human being who lived contemporaneously with those animals. 



Out of the numerous fragments of skeletons which from time 

 to time have been unearthed, Professor Duncan concludes that 

 the lower jaw found in the Cave of La Naulette, the skull from 

 the Engis cave, and the jaw of the Grotto des Fees are " the 

 only examples of human bones which can bear criticism, and 

 which can bo referred to tho mammoth age." 



This subject of tho antiquity of man is of the greatest 

 interest ; but as yet no safe conclusions can be drawn as to the 

 length of time which has elapsed since the period of the 

 Palaeolithic man. In x>ur opening lesson (Vol. IV., p. 159) we 

 asserted that though the Bible does not, and was never 

 intended to, contain all truth ; yet whatever it does contain 

 is truth, and tho day must yet come when the perfect coinci- 

 dence between the Book of Nature and the Book of Grace, in 

 matters which concern both, will be made apparent. And if 

 that day has not a place in time it will have in eternity, when 

 God shall bring to light " hidden things," and we, untram- 

 melled by "villain bodies" bodies of serfdom shall roam 

 through the fields of Nature, and, devoid of many of the 

 hindrances which now beset our path of observation, the more 

 readily arrive at truth and gather for Him garlands of praise. 



LESSONS IN ENGLISH. LY. 



SYNTAX OF THE PREDICATE : THE VEEB THE OBJECT. 



I MUST now conduct you to the predicate of a simple proposi- 

 tion. In order to effect my purpose, I must modify our model 

 sentence a little, as thus : 



SUBJECT. 

 The sick mail 



PREDICATE. 



drinks a beverage made of wine and water. 



The sentence thus altered brings under our notice two addi- 

 tional parts of speech, namely, the preposition (of) and the 

 conjunction (and). It also directs our attention specifically to 

 government, namely, in the relation borne by the verb drinks to 

 the noun beverage, and in the relation borne by the preposition 

 of to the noun wine and the noun water. 



If now we look at our predicate, we find that it may be 

 divided into two parts, namely, the verb and the object ; as 



SUBJECT. PREDICATE. 



Verb. Object. 



The man drinks a beverage made of wine and water. 



Viewed in relation to its several components, the predicate con- 

 tains the verb drinks ; the article a ; the nouns beverage, wine, 

 water; the past participle made; the preposition of; finally, 

 the conjunction and. The articles have been already handled. 

 The nouns, the verb, and the preposition range themselves under 

 the general head of government ; the past participle offers an 

 instance of agreement ; the conjunction acts merely in the way 

 of combination. 



GOVERNMENT THE OBJECT AFTER A VERB. 



Every transitive verb has an object, expressed or understood, 

 and the same verb may sometimes be used transitively or in- 



