November 24, 19 10] 



NATURE 



123 



its trunk hidden in the Secondary period and its branches 

 and twigs passing upwards through all the stages — a tree 

 >t life with the living forms as its fruit, the extinct species 

 filling up the intervals between the living forms, and 

 approximating to them in proportion as they approach 

 nearer to the present day. In our search for the first 

 haces of man on the earth, it is obvious that we cannot 

 xpect to find the most highly organised of the Mammalia 

 n any portion of the geological record where there are 

 ■10 other living mammalian species, or, in other words, in 

 ;he two earlier stages of the Tertiary period — in the 

 Hocene, where there are no living Eutherian genera, and 

 in the Miocene, where there are no living species. We 

 nay search for him in the Pliocene stage, when the living 

 -pecies come in, with some small chance of success, but 

 our main efTorts must be directed to the Pleistocene stage, 

 when the living Kutherian forms were dominant and the 

 face of nature as a whole was almost as it is to-day. If 

 the doctrine of evolution be true there was no place for 

 man in nature in the Eocene and Miocene stages, and if 

 he had then been on the earth it is incredible that he 

 should not,- like all the other Mammalia then alive, either 

 have become extinct or changed into a form that is no 

 longer what it was before. As the evidence stands at 

 present, man first appears on the earth in the Pleistocene 

 age in that phase of the evolution of nature to which he 

 belongs. The view of the higher antiquity of man based 

 by M. Rutot on the presence of "eoliths." or chipped 

 flints simulating the work of man in Eocene, Miocene, 

 and Pliocene strata, is rendered untenable by the researches 

 of Mr. Warren in this country and of MM. Boule and 

 H. Breuil in France, who have proved that these forms 

 can be, and in many cases have been, made bv natural 

 causes. These eoliths, therefore, cannot be used as 

 nthropolc^ical documents in our inquiry. 

 The first starting point for our inquiry is presented bv 

 the discovery in i8q4 of a skull and femur bv M. Dubois 

 in a Pleistocene river-deposit at Trinil, in Java, assigned 

 by him to Pithecanthropus erectus, a form intermediate 

 between the higher apes and man. and closelv linked to 

 . the latter by the large brain and the erect gait. It is a 

 veritable precursor of man. not only appearing at the 

 point in the geological record where he might be ex- 

 pected, but in a tropical region . taken by Lord Aveburv 

 and others to have been the birthplace of the human race. 

 In Europe the implements and weapons of the Palaeolithic 

 hunter, associated with the bones and teeth of the animals 

 that he hunted, afford ample proof of his presence in the 

 caverns and in the river valley of the Pleistocene age over 

 the whole region between the Mediterranean and the 

 Baltic. The Palaeolithic hunter presents two distinct 

 phases of culture, those of the river-drift man and of 

 the cave man, the former being the ruder and also the 

 older, and the latter culminating in the wonderful artistic 

 dcyelooments shown in the encjravings, carvings, and 

 oainted frescoes of the caves of France and north-western 

 Spain. 



The conditions under which man found his wav into 

 Pleistocene Europe were strangelv unlike those of to-dav. 

 The continent then extended southwards over the Mediter- 

 ranean region, offering fre^ oassage to mit^ration from 

 northern Africa bv wav of Gibraltar and Sicilv, and from 

 Asia Minor bv the elevation of the yEf<ean Sea and the 

 Hellespont. On the Atlantic side the British Isles wre 

 united to France and German v by the elevation of the 

 beds of the intervening seas. On 'the east, too, a route 

 of migration hitherto closed bv a barrier of sea was 

 offered to the Siberian fauna." The hi^jher mountains 

 vyere crowned with glaciers, and the climate was con- 

 tinental in character, with cold winters and hot summers. 

 L-nder these geographical conditions the Pleistocene 

 Mammalia invaded Europe both from the south and from 

 the east and north-east at the close of the Pliocene age. 

 and gradually took possession of the feeding grounds of 

 the Pliocene fauna. 



^ The invading forms may be divided into groups accord- 

 ing to their present range, those that are now livin<* (i) 

 in temperate regions, (2) in northern, and (3) in soutTiern 

 climates. The first croun. which includes most of the 

 wild animals now living in middle and southern Europe, 

 probaibJv came from west central Asia. The second 

 including such Arctic species as the reindeer, musk sheep, 

 NO. 2143, VOL, 85] 



and Arctic fox, came from the Siberian regions, and the 

 third, represented by the lion, leopard, spotted hyaena, 

 hippopotamus, caffer cat and others, came from the 

 warmer regions, probably from northern Africa and 

 perhaps Asia Minor. The e.xtinct invading species, such 

 as the mammoth and woolly rhinoceros, the cave-bear and 

 the rest, also fall into one or other of these three groups. 

 These animals ranged over the great Pleistocene continent, 

 the northern so far to the south as the Alps and Pyrenees, 

 and the southern over Spain and Italy, France and 

 Ciermany. so far to the north as Yorkshire and Ireland, 

 and both are found together in the caves and river deposits 

 of the whole of central Europe and the British Isles. ' * 

 There were, therefore, three distinct zones in Pleistocene 

 Europe : the northern, into which no southern animal 

 penetrated ; the southern, in which no northern species 

 is found ; and the middle, extending from the Alps and 

 Pyrenees over France, Germany, and the British Isles so 

 far north as Yorkshire. In this the northern and southern 

 forms were so mingled together that there can be no doubt 

 that they lived at the same time. The spotted hyaena, for 

 example, in the caves preyed upon the reindeer as well 

 as the hippopotamus. This mixture of animals can only 

 be explained by the migrating of these animals at different 

 seasons in a continental climate with hot summers and 

 cold winters, coupled with the secular changes in climate 

 indicated by the development of an ice-sheet in the north 

 and the spread of the glaciers over the lower valleys of 

 the mountains. 



The place of the river-drift man in these great migra- 

 tions is clearly marked by his range. He came from the 

 south, and his implements occur throughout the southern 

 and middle zone so far to the north as Yorkshire. He 

 also ranged in the Pleistocene age throughout northern 

 Africa. Palestine, and Arabia into India, where he used 

 the same implements as in Europe. He appeared and 

 vanished along with the southern animals, and he lived in 

 Europe during the time that the ice covered the higher 

 grounds in the British Isles, as well as after the retreat 

 of the ice from the districts which were covered during 

 the maximum cold of the period. 



The discoveries in the caves of Belgium, France,, and 

 Gibraltar establish the fact that the low type of river- 

 drift man found in the Neanderthal cave ranged over 

 those regions, and more recently Dr. Keith has noted it 

 in the caves of Gibraltar. The river-drift man in Britain 

 probably belonged to this primitive race. 



The range of the cave man contrasts in every respect 

 with that of the river-drift man. It is confined, with the 

 solitary exception of the frescoed cave of Altamira, near 

 -Santander, to the region north of the .Alps and Pyrenees, 

 occupied bv the northern group of M.ammalia, the imple- 

 ments and weapons being met with in France, Belgium, 

 Germany, and so far to the east as Moravia, and to the 

 north as southern Yorkshire. They were successors of 

 the river-drift men, and lived in the latest phase of the 

 Pleistocene period. 



L'nfortunately, the caves of Great Britain throw no 

 light on their physique. Nor are we helped in solving 

 the problem by the caves of the Continent, because even 

 if all the alleged discoveries be accepted, it does not follow 

 that the same tribes lived in Britain. From the identity 

 of their culture with that of the Eskimos, and from the 

 fact that at various places in Siberia there are old camp- 

 ing grounds containing implements and the remains of 

 the animals, both living and extinct, that are found in 

 the caves of Britain and France, it is probable that the 

 cave men have in remote times been in touch with the 

 latter in northern Asia. The phvsical relations of the two 

 peoples can only be decided by further discoveries in 

 Europe, and especially bv the archaeological survey of 

 Siberia. As the case stands now, the cave man probably 

 came into Europe with the northern Mammalia from, and 

 retreated with them into, northern ^sia at the close of 

 the Pleistocene period. 



The Pleistocene period was undoubtediv of vast duration, 

 and the antiquity of man is corresj>ondingly great. It is 

 to be measured bv the sequence of geological events, by 

 the changes in animal life, and by ♦^he advance in culture 

 of successive races of mankind. It cannot be measured 

 in years, because there are no chronometers in nature 

 that record so small a unit of time. Outside historv we 



