406 



SCIENCE 



[Vol.. V., No. 119. 



at the time of its discovery by Europeans. Although 

 it is only twenty years since they began to make col- 

 lections of the stone age in South Africa, so many 

 specimens have been found, that an older and a 

 younger stone age may be recognized. As yet have 

 been found no objects of polished stone. For a few 

 years past an English railroad-engineer residing at 

 Natal, who had made many finds, has undertaken to 

 examine all South Africa. From his researches, it 

 appears that there are large quantities of stone im- 

 plements, both in the sea near the Cape, in the alluvial 

 layers at Natal, and in the mountains. It is impos- 

 sible to fix the time of these stone objects. Kjokken- 

 moddings have also been found in many places, near 

 Simonstown and Capetown, and masses where the 

 Hottentots had burned lime from oyster-shells: these 

 do not belong to the present natives, as the Kaffirs 

 never eat shell-fish, and rarely fish. A find has also 

 been made in the caverns, but nothing is known 

 about it yet. In Basuto-land have been found arrow- 

 heads of flint. From the older iron age the above- 

 named engineer had found, in the layers of gravel 

 near the rivers, and in large hills covered with forest, 

 and in the diamond diggings at Kimberley, imple- 

 ments and chips at a depth of forty feet, where the 

 diamonds occur. It may be concluded that the stone 

 age dates very far back. This shows that the prehis- 

 toric ages are not periods of time, but states of de- 

 velopment, — in the case of Africa there was a sudden 

 rise from the stone to the iron age, without any in- 

 tervening bronze period, — the result, not of develop- 

 ment from within, but of commercial intercourse 

 from without. 



PARADISE FOUND. 



The title of this book will attract attention, 

 and find for it a wide sale. The mode of treat- 

 ment, and the style too, are such as are most 

 pleasing to the popular mind. The book is very 

 ingenious and learned, but, as it seems to us, 

 conceived and written in the spirit of advo- 

 cacy rather than in the true scientific spirit. 

 It is true, scientific, as well as every other kind 

 of literature, is laid under contribution ; but 

 authorities are used — now a Huxley, and now 

 a Winslow — with little discrimination; and 

 thus conclusions are reached which a cautious 

 science would not accept. Yet we believe the 

 book may be read with profit, even b} r the 

 scientific anthropologist. 



There are few questions connected with man 

 more deeply interesting than the place of his 

 origin ; for that he did originate in one place, 

 and not in many places, is now generally ad- 

 mitted. After giving (we think at too great 

 length) the various baseless speculations on 

 this subject, the author states his own thesis ; 



Paradise found ; the cradle of the hitman race at the north 

 pole. By William F. Warren. Boston, Houghton, Mifflin. 

 & Co., 1885. 24+505 p., illustr. 8°. 



viz., that the cradle of the human race was 

 a north-polar continent, now submerged ; the 

 submergence being coincident with what science 

 calls the glacial epoch, and what universal 

 tradition calls the deluge. This view, he con- 

 tends, consistent^ explains and reconciles all 

 traditions and all scientific facts. 



He proceeds, first, to remove some obvious 

 objections. The climate of polar regions is now 

 unfavorable for human life, as witnesses the 

 melancholy history of polar expeditions ; but 

 in miocene times, as shown by its luxuriant 

 forests of temperate and subtropic species, it 

 was wonderfully mild and equable. During 

 this time, too, one or more large bodies of 

 polar land, or perhaps a polar continent, 

 existed where now only the ocean reigns. Good 

 scientific authorities are cited for this belief. 



The long polar night may be thought an ob- 

 jection : but he shows that this has been great- 

 ly exaggerated ; that there is more da}' and less 

 night at the pole than anywhere else, viz., 

 six months full day, nearly four months twi- 

 light, and only two months full night. Add 

 to this the full moon (which would be above 

 the horizon during the polar night) and the 

 auroras, and the polar man would have no 

 reason to complain. 



But the most important scientific contribution 

 to his view is the probable polar origin of many 

 existing species. From miocene times until 

 now, there has been apparently a gradual 

 though not uniform refrigeration of climate ; 

 and as a consequence a streaming southward, 

 along all longitudes, of species successively 

 originated hy change of climate at the pole. 

 This view, first brought forward br Professor 

 Asa Gray, has been most distinctly formulated 

 by Marquis de Saporta. Among the number 

 thus originating and migrating, the author in- 

 cludes man ; and he gives much good scientific 

 authority showing that he is not alone in this 

 belief. But the author, we think, overstates 

 the facts. He seems to think all species origi- 

 nated in polar regions ; but this is far from 

 true. It is probably true that there has been 

 from miocene times a streaming southward 

 of species originating there, but undoubtedly 

 many species and genera have been formed by 

 modification in the course of migration. It is 

 not impossible that man, too, if derivative in 

 origin, may have been thus formed in the 

 course of migration. This depends much on 

 the time of his southward migration. If, as 

 the author thinks, this took place in the quater- 

 nary, then he probably left his home as man, 

 and the modifications have since gone only so 

 far as to form races. This point requires more 



