J. M. Naynes.

. THE

EPOCH OF THE MAMMOTH

AND

THE APPARITION OF MAN UPON

THE EARTH.

BY

JAMES C. SOUTHALL, A.M., LL.D.,

AUTHOR OF THE "RECENT ORIGIN OF MAN."

With Illustrations.

PHILADELPHIA:

J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO.

1878.

PREFACE.

THE question of the antiquity of man is intimately connected with the truth or falsity of the theories of evolution which colour so materially all current scientific investigations. If traces of man shall be carried back to the Glacial Age, and if the date of this epoch in the geological history of the earth can be fixed at one or several hundred thousand years ago; and if, moreover, it shall prove true also, on examination, that man is pre-glacial, and that his remains may be found even in the strata of the Pliocene and Miocene periods, then, undoubtedly, a powerful accession is made to the testimony from the lower world adduced in favour of the gradual development of animal life from earlier and more simple forms. If, on the other hand, these traces of man fail in the glacial and pre-glacial deposits, and the glacial epoch should prove, in addition, to be removed from us by no considerable lapse of time; and much more, if introduced recently and since the glacial epoch, man should appear in the beginning, in the words of M. Pruner-Bey, "constituted man in the full force of the term "--the man in all respects of the present day ;

then it is impossible, so far at least as man is concerned, for the evolution theory to be true.

The ultimate decision of these great questions must rest on the facts; and the active exploration of the posttertiary (and tertiary) strata in most parts of the world within the past thirty years has accumulated a mass of evidence on the subject which must very soon put an end, one way or the other, to the discussion.

The object of the present volume is to give in a compact form all that the investigations of the students of geology and pre-historic archæology have brought to light with regard to "man's age in the world." It is a question which should be decided apart from all theological prepossessions, and in no way prejudged by any supposed interpretations of a biblical revelation on the subject. It is purely as a question of science that I propose to discuss it; and if we arrive at a conclusion out of harmony with religion, let it be squarely recognised, and let the adjustment constitute a separate task.

If, on the other hand, the two records agree, it is only another wonderful testimony to the endurance and vitality of the Hebrew books.

It is very certain that at some undefined period in the past man was to be found all over Europe, south of the Baltic and the line of 54° lat. in England, living in caves, and that elephants and rhinoceroses, lions and hyænas, reindeer and hippopotami, abounded in all this region at that time.

It is equally certain that some time after the race had been thus spread over Europe, a great flood covered a large portion of the continent with water, and that

the same deluge submerged large districts of country in America and in Asia. This was the Flood of the Loess, which closed the Palæolithic Age. It was probably subsequent to the Noachian Deluge, which was probably local in its character and more serious in its effects, within its range. It is extremely doubtful whether, previous to this-the Biblical Deluge-the human race had left their original home. They were probably up to that time shut in by the ice and the sea to a very limited area. There was an African Mediterranean Sea covering the space now occupied by the Northern Sahara, and an Asiatic Mediterranean, of which the Caspian and the Aral and the Black Seas are the shrunken relics. Far to the south the reign of ice prevailed in Europe, and the Northern Ocean rolled far over Russia and Siberia. The Arabian and Nubian

deserts, with the snow-capped mountains of Abyssinia and the east coast of Africa, formed, it is not unlikely, a barrier in that direction. There were glaciers in the Lebanon; glaciers in the Atlas; glaciers in Anatolia. The Himalaya Mountains constituted a barrier towards India, and the elevated plateau of Central Asia shut out China on the east, a great portion of which was probably under water-as was North-western IndiaCentral India (like the western part of North America) being at the same time the theatre of terrific volcanic convulsions.

Such was the geology and zoology of the earth when man appeared. The crust of the earth was still in an unstable condition, although that strange episode in the geological history of the earth, the Glacial Age, had