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diff --git a/75564-0.txt b/75564-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4d3795a --- /dev/null +++ b/75564-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3542 @@ + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75564 *** + + + + + + Transcriber’s Note + Italic text displayed as: _italic_ + + + + + THE + + PUZZLE OF LIFE. + + + + + LONDON: PRINTED BY + SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE + AND PARLIAMENT STREET + +[Illustration: + + _Frontispiece_ + +_The Mammoth._] + + + + + THE PUZZLE OF LIFE; + + AND + + HOW IT HAS BEEN PUT TOGETHER. + + A SHORT HISTORY OF THE FORMATION OF THE EARTH, + WITH ITS VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL LIFE, + FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES, + + INCLUDING AN ACCOUNT OF + + _PRE-HISTORIC MAN, his WEAPONS, TOOLS and WORKS_. + + BY + + ARTHUR NICOLS, F.R.G.S. + + _WITH ILLUSTRATIONS by FREDERICK WADDY._ + + SECOND EDITION. + + LONDON: + LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. + 1877. + + _All rights reserved._ + + + + + TO + + MY YOUNG FRIENDS + + BEATRIX, GUY, SYLVIA, MAY, AND GERALD. + + THE CHILDREN OF + + GEORGE DU MAURIER. + + + + +PREFACE + +TO + +THE SECOND EDITION. + + +The favourable reception accorded to the first edition has induced me +to give the present a more definite educational character. Foot-notes +are appended, referring to the position in the British Museum of all +the principal antiquities, fossils, and implements mentioned in the +text; so that the specimens can easily be found by any young student +who wishes, with the book in his hand, to make himself familiar with +these records of past time. This will probably facilitate the search +for and recognition of specimens by the reader. + +The additions to the text consist chiefly of a more extended account of +the deposition of chalk and other deep-sea formations, founded on the +results of the “Challenger” and “Tuscarora” expeditions, and a sketch +of the earthworks of the Ohio mound-builders and the stone monuments +of Easter Island. Examples of pre-historic art and lake-dwellings have +been added to the illustrations. + + A. N. + + HAMPSTEAD: _March 1877_. + + + + +PREFACE + +TO + +THE FIRST EDITION. + + +Having found that children could be interested in the history of life +upon the Earth, and that it appealed forcibly to their understanding, +I considered that a little book upon the subject might give them +the taste for more extended study in after years. The difficulty of +treating the, to them, novel conclusions of geology, often founded on +abstract reasoning, in language simple in form yet stating clearly the +great principles upon which this reasoning rests, will probably be +apparent on every page. Breadth, rather than minuteness, has been aimed +at, in the belief that a general view, not overcrowded with details, +is likely to be the most impressive. Thus, in the geological part the +leading features of the succession of strata have been preserved, +but no details of systematic classification entered into. Similarly, +Primeval Man is considered mainly with reference to gradual progress +from a rude to a more civilized condition. To have been more explicit, +where there is still much difference of opinion, would have obscured +the main facts of the evidence for man’s great antiquity. + +The illustrations are typical examples of the three arbitrary but +convenient divisions of the history of life—the vegetable, the animal, +and the human—such as will be most readily met with in museums. +Slight as this sketch is, the liking for it shown by some intelligent +children, who saw it in manuscript, encouraged me to believe that there +are many others to whom it might prove interesting. + +Some acquaintance with the leading facts in science is daily becoming +more necessary to those who aspire to liberal culture, and instruction +in them is a recognised feature in the curriculum of some public and +leading private schools. Thus, it is hoped that the present volume +may to some extent serve as a text-book without the severity of such +a form. The best English and foreign authorities have been consulted, +and other trustworthy sources—as papers read before scientific +societies—drawn upon, bringing the information down to the latest time. +Though these pages are designed for young persons, other readers, +perhaps, who are not familiar with the subject, may find some interest +in them if they are not deterred by the necessarily simple style. + +My thanks are due to Mr. H. B. WOODWARD, of the Geological Survey +of England and Wales, for some valuable suggestions made during the +progress of the work. + + A. N. + + HAMPSTEAD: _November 1876_. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + PAGE + + THE FRAMEWORK OF THE PUZZLE 1 + + THE GEOLOGICAL PART 17 + + THE VEGETABLE PART 56 + + THE ANIMAL PART 77 + + THE HUMAN PART 120 + + CONCLUSION 168 + + INDEX 171 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS. + + + THE MAMMOTH _Frontispiece_ + + I. UPHEAVAL: SUBSIDENCE: DENUDATION 51 + + II. DIFFERENT KINDS OF PLANTS OF THE COAL FORESTS 65 + + III. TRILOBITE 79 + + IV. FOOTPRINTS OF LABYRINTHODON: FOOTPRINTS OF BIRDS, + (2) WITH MARKS OF RAIN-DROPS 83 + + V. FISH-REPTILES 87 + + VI. BIRD-REPTILES 93 + + VII. FOSSILS OF THE CHALK 97 + + VIII. GIGANTIC IRISH STAG (CERVUS MEGACEROS) 108 + + IX. THE MEGATHERIUM 112 + + X. 1. FLINT ARROW-HEAD; 2. STONE AXE IN HANDLE; 3. FLINT KNIFE; + 4. BONE HARPOON; 5. BONE NEEDLES; 6. SCEPTRE MADE OF HORN; + 7. MARROW SPOON 129 + + XI. EXAMPLES OF PRE-HISTORIC DRAWINGS 135 + + XII. LAKE-DWELLINGS 148 + + XIII. THE GUADALOUPE HUMAN FOSSIL 159 + + + + +THE + +PUZZLE OF LIFE. + + + + +_THE FRAMEWORK OF THE PUZZLE._ + + +You must often have looked with wondering eyes at this World of ours, +and asked yourselves questions about it. How did it come here? What is +it made of? How old is it? All of them questions not to be answered +without a great deal of thought and study, and even then not so +perfectly as we should like. It is easy to say “It is here,” and “It is +made of earth,” and “It surely must be old,” but that will not satisfy +us. We want to know something more certain than this, if possible. We +can see that a clock goes with wheels, but we are not very intelligent +people if we do not want to find out what makes the clock go. One way +of finding out is to pull things to pieces, but we cannot exactly do +this with the World. We must think about it, and put together all the +knowledge we can gain from the outside and inside, and from the other +Worlds around us, which we can see, and when we have done this we may +get something like answers to our questions. + +How did it come here? But this is not quite the right way of asking the +question, because the World is never for two moments together in the +same place. It is travelling in a great circle round the Sun at the +rate of more than sixty thousand miles an hour, and has been ever since +it was formed. That is a wonderful arrangement by which all Worlds +travel round some other World larger than themselves, in greater or +less circles, and we do not know why it is, though we are certain that +it is so. The Moon travels round us once in about every month, and we +and the Moon together round the Sun once in every year. + +Then again, other planets, with their moons, such as Jupiter, for +instance, travel round the Sun in much larger circles than our World, +and take many years to do the journey, while Venus, which is nearer the +Sun than we are, travels in a much smaller circle, and takes less time. +We do not perceive that we are moving so fast because everything we +see is moving equally fast with us; but there is no doubt that we are +spinning along at sixty thousand miles an hour. + +If we ask an astronomer how our World came into existence, he will tell +us that it is probably a mass separated from the Sun, that it was once +red-hot, and that it slowly cooled down until animals and plants could +live upon it. He will tell us besides, that he can see mountains and +valleys in our Moon, and land and sea, snow and clouds, on the planet +Mars, with his great telescopes. When he thinks about the planets and +our own World, then he believes them to be pieces of some much larger +World—perhaps the Sun—which now travel round the Sun and receive their +light and heat from it. The World is made of what we call “earth,” and +it is of this I mean to tell you now—how it was formed, what changes +have taken place in it, what plants and animals have lived upon it, +and what reasons there are for thinking that it is an exceedingly old +place, with a long and interesting story to tell. + +Little was known thirty or forty years ago by the most learned men +about the age of our World, and it was thought that the human race +had not lived here very long. It was indeed known that many large +animals, whose huge bones have been found, must have lived before man +came to inhabit the Earth, and that even far smaller creatures—such +as fishes, and crabs, and insects, and shell-fish—most probably lived +for many generations, and died and left their bones and shells in the +soil long before the first man or the first tribes of men came to +share the World with them. I hope to be able to tell you something of +the strange and beautiful history of all these animals, and of man +himself, and to show you what reasons there are now for thinking that +the human race has inhabited this Earth for a very long time indeed, +and how all this knowledge has been gained and put together piece by +piece. It is something like the different parts of a puzzle-map, which +might be scattered all over the house, and found at one time or another +in different places, and at last made up altogether. Some parts of +the puzzle have not been found yet certainly; but so many have been +collected, and they fit into one another so well, that we can begin to +see its real shape and size. It will perhaps be a very long time before +some of the missing pieces are found; but in the meantime we can go on +without them, and put the framework together, and no doubt in time we +shall see what our puzzle, the history of life on the Earth, was like. + +Before telling you what its parts are, I ought to say where many of +them have been found, and how they are still being looked for. They are +found _upon_ the ground, _under_ it, in caves, in rivers, and in the +sea. Since railways have been in use a great many tunnels have been +made, as well as very deep cuttings through hills, and some of these +are several miles long. In this way we have come to know something +of the Earth below the surface. Some of these tunnels are bored right +through high hills and even mountains, and the cuttings are deep +enough to hide high houses if they were put into them. While digging +these the workmen have found many of the parts of our puzzle, which +are the bones of animals, and fishes, and shells, and even smaller +things—such as insects. These could not possibly have been put there +by anyone, because they were many, many yards below the surface, and, +until they were dug up, nobody imagined that they could be there. Many +other things besides have been dug out of these places, but nearer the +surface, such as weapons and tools made of flint, and stone, and bone, +and metal, and pieces of rough crockery, and various ornaments, all +of which must at some time or other have been made and used by people +very like ourselves. In digging canals, too, the same kinds of things +have been found, and some caves are almost filled up with them. We have +other means, too, of knowing what is under the surface of the ground +we walk upon. Many of the coal-mines are so deep that the Tower of +London, or St. Paul’s Cathedral, or York Minster, or even the Pyramids +of Egypt could be buried in them! In digging these the workmen have +had to go through a great quantity of earth, sometimes chalk, sand, or +gravel, or clay or limestone, layer upon layer, placed, like a pile +of books of different kinds and different thicknesses, one upon the +other, until they have come to the coal. In these different layers of +earth parts of the puzzle have been found, and we shall see by-and-by +what parts have been found in the coal itself. Then again, when deep +mines are made to get the metals, iron and gold and silver, these +layers of earth have to be dug through; and when the beautiful kinds +of stone, like marble and limestone, are wanted, they must be dug out +of the sides of the hills, and in doing this still more pieces of the +puzzle come to hand. But there are other places where Nature herself +seems to have shown us some of them without the trouble of searching +for them. In many parts of the World, by the sea, and on the banks of +rivers, there are cliffs hundreds of feet high, like the chalk cliffs +at Dover and Ramsgate, and the sandy cliffs at Folkestone and on the +south coast of Devonshire. These cliffs have been cut into by the sea +very gradually, and a kind of wall has been left, and from the sides of +the cliffs great numbers of the pieces of the puzzle, bones, shells, +&c., have been collected and taken away to museums. But the little we +can do with our mines and railway tunnels is nothing in comparison with +the work of Nature. In some of the great mountain chains—the Andes, the +Himalayas, and the Alps, for instance—parts of the sides of mountains +have fallen down, and rents many miles long have been left, showing +what had been buried there in the different kinds of soil; and where +rivers have cut deep, narrow channels through the earth, like the +Cañons of Colorado, these natural miners have turned out more of the +parts of “the puzzle of life” than we can with all our labour. + +It will not be easy at first to understand all the wonders I have to +show you, but, when we get further on, you will see them one by one, +and there will be very little difficulty. You know now where these +things are to be found: principally in the ground you walk upon, +without knowing all there is beneath you. The creatures here are +much more wonderful than any of the monsters of fairy tale or fable, +because the works of God are greater than the imagination of men who +have invented the stories of flying dragons and griffins, and trees +which grew up into the skies; but I cannot help thinking that this +imagination shows what men thought _might_ once have been, and we shall +see that “truth is stranger than fiction.” Creatures really did live on +this Earth of such strange shapes and great size that the imaginations +of those who wrote the fairy tales did not exaggerate much; and, though +we know that no flying serpents or immense birds like the Roc are +living now, and that there is no beanstalk which grows up into the sky +while we are asleep, we shall see that there were lizards as large as +whales, and birds taller than elephants, and great sloths stronger than +the rhinoceros or hippopotamus, and ferns as high as oak trees, and +mosses as large as gooseberry bushes; and that perhaps these animals +and plants grew much faster than they do now, and that their dead +bodies form a very large part of the earth of our World. This is not +imagination, and when you go to a museum you can see all these wonders +for yourselves, just as they were taken out of the earth; but of course +the bones only of the animals are there. The flesh has long since gone +away, and some of the stalks and fronds (leaves) only of the ferns +remain to show us how large they must have been when they were alive +and growing. + +It will be necessary to use a few scientific names, most of which are +borrowed from the Greek and Latin languages, but I will explain the +meaning of them all, so that they will be easily remembered. First of +all, then, the pieces of the puzzle are called _fossils_, and the name +comes from a Latin word meaning “dug out;” because they have been dug +out of the ground either by man in making railways and mines, or by +Nature in the many ways in which she works by cutting down cliffs and +scooping out valleys. These fossils are bones of animals and fishes, +the skins, shells, and wings of insects, and the stalks and leaves +of plants, some of which have lain so very long in the ground that +they have become as hard and heavy as stone. But the shape of them +always remains, and the moment you look at them you see that they once +belonged to living creatures. + +I shall give you pictures of some of these fossils; and no doubt you +will be able to find some like them in the chalk and sands of the +seaside—beautiful shells and bones of fishes. You may pick these out +of the cliffs, and then go to the pools of salt water left among the +rocks by the ebbing tide, and compare your fossils with the living +shell-fish, and see how nearly those inhabitants of the ancient oceans +resemble the creatures we find now, sporting in the water, just as +these fossils did when the sand and chalk cliffs were under the sea. +Of course all the bright colours are gone from the fossils, for the +colour of animals fades away soon after they die, and the flesh does +not last long; but the hard parts—the bones and shells—are not easily +destroyed, because they are made of the same material as rocks. And +when we look at the fossil plants we see the same thing. The colours of +the green stems and leaves have quite faded, but the delicate shapes of +the leaves and branches, and the grain of the wood, can still be seen, +and you will have no doubt that they once lived and bore flowers and +fruit, and died, as plants are living and dying every day. + +You have got so far now that you know what fossils are, and where they +may be found. You know that they are the small and large pieces of the +“puzzle of life”—of all sorts of different shapes and sizes—and you +know that they are scattered about the Earth, deep down in coal-mines, +on the tops of mountains, at the bottoms of rivers, in deep caves, +and under the sea. The patience and industry of clever men have been +well spent in gathering together all they can find, and arranging +them in museums for our instruction, and making a history of them +which is more wonderful than the Arabian Nights, and more beautiful +because it is all _true_. And, though you may think it strange that I +promise to show you creatures more marvellous than those of the fairy +tales, I shall keep that promise faithfully. We shall find no Genii +with wonderful lamps and magic rings, because they never really lived, +though it gave us much pleasure and amusement to read about them; but +we shall see what God, the greatest Genius of all, has done by means of +His magicians—the laws of Nature. These magicians have built up high +mountains and dug out valleys, and sent mighty rivers sweeping down +to the sea, and even filled up oceans with sand and chalk, and buried +ancient forests deep down under sea and land. They worked with fire, +and air, and water; not quickly, but with such strength that nothing +could resist them, and they gradually moulded the Earth into the +beautiful thing it is, so that + + In contemplation of created things, + By steps we may ascend to God.—_Milton._ + +But, lovely as the Earth is, we should not perhaps have thought so +much of it if there had been nothing to discover. We see that it has +been prepared for us an immensely long time ago; and when we know a +little, we want to search further and find out what the whole plan of +Creation is, so far as we can. You will be surprised when you know how +many signs of past life there are around you—many more than you can see +with the eye. The Earth is one great burying-place of creatures which +have passed away. You are walking over their dead and fossil bodies +at almost every step. They are built into the walls of our houses, +and there are millions of them in some of the commonest stones of the +pavement. Those round, smooth pebbles, called flint stones, which we +pick out of the gravel walks, were once partly such soft tender things +as sponges; but time has hardened them, and they have been rolled +together in seas and rivers by the always moving water until they have +become quite different to look at from the rough blue flints they were +when they were washed out of the chalk beds. When you are walking +along the sands of some seacoasts, you are treading on little specks +of these small flints which have been ground down fine in that great +mill, the ocean. The sponges, then, did some part in the building up of +the Earth. The very chalk you draw with is composed of the shells of +sea-animals. Your slates and slate pencils were once a fine mud at the +bottom of the sea, since become so hard that it is used for covering +the roofs of our houses, and in this mud lived myriads of small +shell-fish which have sometimes left their frail houses in the slate +beds to tell us how they were made. That slate is the hardened mud of +an old sea bottom, there is no doubt at all. + +There are many other things in common use which show us the life that +was. + +Perhaps you did not know that coals are _compressed plants_, and that +we are now burning the vegetation of the past time! But these will be +described in their right places by-and-by, and you will see how certain +it is that some of the commonest things we use were living creatures +and graceful plants. + +Here is “the framework” of the puzzle, and I think you will agree with +me that we shall have pleasure in putting it together with all the +queerly-shaped pieces we shall find in the following chapters. We have +fossil plants to show us what grew upon the Earth, fossil bones to tell +us what animals lived here, and thousands of different kinds of fossil +shells and fishes to show us that the seas in the long past time were +crowded with life; and besides, though there are no written histories +of the men whom we shall read about, they, too, have left many things +which they used in the caves where they lived and in their graves, to +make us feel certain that they were some of the oldest people that +ever lived. With all these things to help us, it will be strange if we +cannot make out a great deal of the history of life upon our Earth. + + + + +_THE GEOLOGICAL PART._ + + +You will have learned from other books something about the size and +shape of our World: for instance, that it is a great round body, or +rather more like an orange, a little flatter one way than the other, +and about 8,000 miles through, from one side to the other, and that +it turns round once in every twenty-four hours; but I have only to +tell you now what it is made of. The material is called rock, earth, +or soil; and there are many kinds of it, such as granite, gravel, +clay, sand, chalk, mud, and so on; and we shall see that many of these +different soils contain different fossils. + +It is supposed that a very long time passed while these were being +laid one upon another, and before many plants or animals lived here, +and there are good reasons for thinking that underneath these soils +the Earth is very hot, perhaps in a melting state, because we know +that volcanoes like Vesuvius and Ætna throw out flame and smoke and +lava, which is melted earth and rock; and that this lava has run down +the sides of the mountains for miles, in a great stream of liquid +material, and covered up and destroyed whole villages and towns. You +have heard of earthquakes, when the ground shakes and cracks, and +houses are thrown down, as they have often been in Spain, Italy, and +South America. This convinces us that the inside of the earth must be +very different from the outside. Two or three years ago Mount Vesuvius +was boiling up, and the people of Naples feared that it would throw +out some of the terrible lava and red-hot cinders, and burn up their +vineyards and perhaps injure their city; and during the last two or +three years many people have been killed by earthquakes in South +America. These things seldom happen in the North of Europe, and when +they do they are only slightly felt, and people are not killed, neither +are houses thrown down. Still, this shows that there must be some +great force underneath us, and very much heat. We see nothing of this +when we look upon the green fields, and we should scarcely think it +possible if there were not histories about these eruptions, as they are +called. But when I tell you that I have felt the Earth tremble, and +seen fire rushing out from the top of a high mountain whose sides were +covered with snow, you will understand how real it is—though it may +seem so strange. + +People at one time liked to fancy that powerful spirits lived in +volcanoes and made them their workshops: but we know better now. + +Well, the interior of the Earth is evidently very different from the +part we live upon; and it is the outside we have to think about now, +which would be dreadfully cold if the sun did not shine upon it, though +the inside is so hot. + +I have called this “the Geological Part,” and the name Geological comes +from two Greek words meaning “a talk about the earth;” but now you know +it in its English dress it will be easy to recollect it. Geology is +then the study of the many kinds of rocks and fossils which makeup our +World, but we must know something of the way in which they are placed. + +You may have noticed, if you have made many journeys to different +parts of England or Wales, that the rocks or soils are very different +in various places. Sometimes we find numerous chalk-pits, as in parts +of Kent, or Sussex; if we go into Devonshire we may notice the very +red colour of the soil and of the cliffs, especially near Sidmouth, +Dawlish, and Teignmouth; in North Wales we find great quarries and +hills of slate; while around London we see a great deal of clay used +for making bricks, and called the London clay, as well as many pits in +gravel so useful for making paths and mending roads, and in Kent and +Sussex chalk cliffs and hills are common. + +Now after studying these various rocks all over our country, we find +that there is a certain regular order in which they are found; some +have been made a long time before others, and while most kinds contain +some fossils, those found in the oldest rocks are much less like the +living plants and animals than the fossils we find in the newer rocks. + +But you will want to know how it is that we can tell that one rock +is older than another, when both appear at the surface of the earth. +It would take a long time to make sure of this for ourselves, but +it will be enough to say that the various cliffs, quarries, and +railway-cuttings often show one kind of rock resting upon another, +and these always occur in a certain order. Thus we never find the +Chalk resting on the London Clay, but we constantly find the London +Clay resting on the Chalk. And this is proved in another way, by deep +well-borings. Underneath London many wells have been carried down right +through the London Clay, and if only continued deep enough they always +reach the Chalk. In the same way, the order of the other rocks has +been ascertained in different parts of the country, by examining all +the pits and quarries, and cliffs and cuttings, with the help of what +knowledge can be obtained from deep mines and wells. + +You will now begin to wonder why the older rocks should appear at the +surface. I have told you about earthquakes, and you will find that many +dreadful earthquakes must in former times have ravaged our country. +The reason why the old rocks come to the surface is because they have +been lifted up sometimes violently, but more often very slowly. And the +newer rocks which formerly rested on them have very often been quite +washed away, either by the sea or by rivers and little streams which +formerly acted upon them. + +Suppose then we take six books, some thick and some thin, and pile +them up together on the table, the lowest being a good thick one. The +lowest we will call granite, the next slate, the third sandstone, the +fourth coal, the fifth chalk, and the sixth the London clay. These will +represent some of the principal kinds of earths, and you can fancy many +more with other names coming between them; but the London clay can +never be below the granite nor the chalk below the coal, for the great +coal beds were formed long before the chalk and clay. They generally +come in much the same order as we have named them, hard rocks like +granite at the bottom, and softer earths, like sandstone, chalk and +clay, a long way above them. But we do not always find all these earths +in one place even if we dig ever so deeply, though the granite would +always be found at the bottom if we went deep enough. + +Sometimes the granite and other old rocks have been pushed through +the upper layers by some great force, and have broken them and risen +above them in magnificent mountain chains, like those of the Andes in +South, and the Rocky Mountains in North America, the Wicklow Mountains +in Ireland, the Grampians in Scotland, and the Cornish mountains in +England. We can easily suppose that the lowest of our books (the +granite book) has been pushed upwards by some great force from below, +and parts of it broken through the others, and raised high above them; +and this is what has actually been done with real rocks. And as this +kind of upheaval has taken place at different periods of the earths +history, we find that granites have come to the surface at different +times. + +When the layers are thus broken through they are often tilted up on end +and tumbled about in confusion. But where there has been no disturbance +like this, they generally rest evenly upon one another in their proper +order. + +Granite, and rocks of the same kind, are not in the least like chalk, +or clay, or even sandstone, and when once you have seen any of these +you will not be likely to mistake it for the others. Granite is +excessively hard, and has a beautiful appearance when polished, with a +number of brilliant white and some dark specks in it. It is used for +paving the streets of towns, for which purpose it is cut into oblong +blocks, and for the pillars of fine buildings. Sometimes it is dark +brown, sometimes reddish, but generally a bluish grey. This rock is +composed of a great quantity of crystals, and for this reason it is +thought it must have been melted at one time by intense heat in the +earth, and afterwards slowly cooled. Chalk is very different, and +sandstone, though it is also hard, not in the least like granite. + + +HOW THE ROCKS WERE FORMED. + +What I have just said is about all that we know of the formation of the +oldest and hardest granite rocks: but there is something going on now +which confirms the belief that the materials of which they are made +were melted together by a greater heat than we can make in our furnaces +for melting iron; for I should tell you that it is easier to melt iron +and copper than granite rocks. Volcanoes often throw out melted earths +which when cooled appear to be made of much the same materials as these +granites. + + +SANDSTONE. + +But we know more of the manner of the formation of sandstone. This rock +is composed of rounded grains of sand just like that we find upon the +sea shore. If you take a handful of this sand and squeeze it tightly, +it will keep together a little while. Now suppose a quantity of this +sand was pressed by a very great weight—the weight of a large hill +for instance—after many years the grains would stick firmly together, +and become a sort of stone. It is in this way the sandstones must have +been formed, and perhaps heat helped the work, though not so great a +heat as melted the granite. The sand, after it had been washed upon +the sea shore, became gradually covered with other earths hundreds of +feet thick, and the immense weight above it pressed it into stone: but +you may imagine how very long a time it took to do this. Sandstones +are used for building, but they do not last very long; the frost makes +little cracks in them and they soon crumble away to the grains of sand +of which they were made. Several fossils are found in some of these +sandstones, which have been formed at many different periods of the +earth’s history. + + +CHALK. + +You have seen those high cliffs of chalk along the south coast of +England, perhaps, and you have wondered what that beautiful white +earth was, and how it came there. It is found in many parts of the +world, and the south and south-east of England are to a great extent +composed of it. The material is called by chemists carbonate of lime. +It is almost entirely made up of minute shells called _foraminifera_, +from two Latin words which mean that there are many openings or +chambers in their shells, and there are many beautiful fossils called +_ammonites_ imbedded in the chalk. These are shell-fish, two or three +inches, and sometimes a foot across, and their shape is very like that +of the young leaves of the common fern before it has opened in the +spring. + +Millions of these tiny foraminifera are living now in parts of the +Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and when they die their shells sink to the +bottom and form a greyish mud, something like chalk. + +When H.M.S. “Challenger” was sent out in the year 1873, to find out +what was at the bottom of the deepest seas of the World, great interest +was felt in the expedition, because we were sure that we should learn +something about the manner in which some of the rocks were formed. + +We knew that the whole of the beds of the present seas must be +receiving the washings of the rivers and the bodies of many fishes and +animals, and that the rocks of the future must be forming down there +by these accumulations. Long lines were let down from the ship with a +dredge at the end, and thus parts of the bottom of the sea were brought +up and carefully examined. It was found that the washings, stones, +clay, and mud of the land were carried hundreds of miles out to sea, +and laid upon the bottom. But in the deeper parts, where the Alps would +be almost covered—there was a fine grey mud composed almost entirely of +the shells of the little foraminifera, and this, no doubt, is the chalk +of future times, or perhaps limestone of a harder kind. Deeper, too, +than where this grey mud is found, there is a reddish mud, exceedingly +fine and soft. We cannot exactly say yet whether this is formed from +the remains of shell-fish; but it is, at all events, very like the clay +of the land, and in some future time will most likely become like +that stiff mud we know so well. So that even the materials for bricks +are being made now, and perhaps when all those hundreds of islands +scattered about the Pacific Ocean are joined into one great Continent, +this red mud will be raised and made use of for building the houses of +new peoples and nations. + +When we see this going on now, of course it is very easy to conclude +that the chalk, a great deal of which is above the sea now, must have +been formed in the same way at the bottom of an ancient ocean, and +afterwards raised by the same kind of upward force which made the +granite break through other earths. + +If we did not know that the same cause was at work now, and that the +same kinds of shell-fish were living and laying down new beds of chalk +under the sea, we should not know how to account for the quantities of +chalk in the world. For innumerable ages these little creatures have +thus been paving the floor of the ocean with their dead bodies, and you +may suppose that countless millions of them must have lived and died! +In some of the chalks the shells of the foraminifera can be quite +distinctly seen with a microscope, and when these are compared with the +shells of living ones, they are seen to be almost exactly alike. Next +time you pass through one of the railway cuttings through the chalk +in going to Brighton, or Ramsgate, or Dover, remember that those high +cliffs were built up by these Liliputian giants under the sea, and you +may think of the chalk as “foraminifera earth”. + + +COAL. + +You see this black shining substance almost every day, and you know it +is dug up from very deep pits where the poor miners are often killed by +explosions of gas escaping from it. But it is as well to know what it +is and how it comes to be so useful to us. In the language of chemistry +it is called “carbon”, and a great writer has given it the poetical +name of “compressed sunlight”. But you will ask how sunlight could +possibly get into a deep mine, and how it could be compressed there. +You will see that the explanation is really quite simple by-and-by. +This coal was once above ground, and was a splendid forest of waving +palm-trees, and ferns, and gigantic mosses, as you will see by the +pictures of the fossils of them. + +Many of the animals and plants of past times were giants compared to +those living now, of the same species or kind, and many of the plants +of the present time are dwarfs to those of the same kind which formed +the coal beds. Many generations of trees must have grown and died, and +others must have sprung up, and so on, until beds of them, some ten, +others twenty, or even thirty feet thick, were formed. Here, buried in +the coal, are the stems, leaves, bark, roots, fruit, and seeds of these +trees, and we can have no doubt that almost the whole of the coal is +composed of them. You must not expect to find the shapes of these in +every piece of coal you may happen to look at, because most of it has +been greatly changed by the great weight and pressure upon it, and the +length of time: but it is certainly all the same substance—wood turned +into coal. The fossil plants of the coal are of course entirely black, +but there is no mistake about their having once been living plants. + +You will ask perhaps how the coal came to be buried so deep. It is not +so always, being sometimes at the surface. But just as the granite has +been pushed up through the other rocks, so has the coal in some places +been uplifted and in others has sunk down. It was often covered up by +other earths to a great depth, after the trees which composed it had +died; but where it is now at the surface these newer earths have been +afterwards worn away. When the sun shone upon these coal trees they +took its warmth and light into their stems and leaves, for they could +not live without, and this made them grow so fast and become so large +that it is not untrue to call coal “compressed sunlight.” Charcoal is +in some respects so like coal that it would seem to you at once that +they were probably the same material. Charcoal is simply burnt wood, +and when the coal forests had died down, and when these beds sank down +beneath other layers the pressure and heat together turned the wood +and leaves into a hard mass like charcoal in colour, but heavier and +more solid, and just enough of the stems and leaves have been left to +enable us to know with certainty that coal was once wood. + +We light our fires now and drive our steam-engines with the heat of the +sun which shone upon the coal forests, and has been stored up for many +thousands of years in the Earth, to be brought out once more to give us +light and warmth. + + +CLAY AND MUD. + +While the ancient forests were growing up to form the coal beds, +and the foraminifera were slowly building up the chalk, as I have +explained, the Earth was covered with water in some places which are +now dry land, and the sea now flows over parts of the World which were +once the habitations of plants and animals. These great changes have +left their marks upon many a mountain side, and many an old river or +sea bed has become filled up. A map of Europe during the chalk period +would show that the places where Paris, London, Copenhagen, and Berlin +now are were then under the ocean; but since then these places have +been lifted up, and mud, clay, and gravel swept over the chalk in many +places by the action of new rivers and seas. Water, you perceive, has +had a great deal to do with these changes, and indeed it is one of +Nature’s most powerful tools, for it can wash down rocks and cliffs and +cut its way in rivers for thousands of miles over the Earth’s surface. +It carries down mud, and clay, and gravel, and this soil, which has +been named alluvium, is one of the most interesting of all to us, +because it contains the bones of the immense animals we shall talk +about presently, as well as those of the oldest races of men with their +weapons and ornaments. + +The mud age, and we are in the mud and gravel age now, belongs to what +is called the Tertiary period, and we shall see that this age has +lasted a very long time already, so long that though it is still going +on, the most extraordinary animals have lived and died, and not one of +them is now left alive. Still the same washing and cutting of water is +going on which buried their bones in swamps, and bogs, and river caves, +and may perhaps carry away some of the bones of us who are living now, +to be found ages afterwards by future generations who will read our +history in these silent witnesses, as we read the history of the tree +ferns and foraminifera in the coal and the chalk. + +The present age of the World’s history is the Mud age, or, as we shall +call it in future, the Tertiary period, and I think you will agree with +me when I come to describe it, that it contains the most interesting of +all the pieces of “the puzzle of life.” + +The earth of the Tertiary period is very different from a great many of +the older earths. Clay, mud, and gravel are the washings only of the +older rocks, the fine particles which have been worn off from them by +frost and water and carried down by rivers and left in large beds, and +sometimes they have a good deal of decayed wood and weeds mixed with +them. Here are found the bones of the great animals which were so much +larger and stronger than those of the same kind living now, or any that +lived before them. + + +UPHEAVAL AND DEPRESSION. + +These two words are so often used in books on geology that we shall +not be able to get on without knowing their meaning. We have seen +that the rocks have been formed in a certain way—some by heat, some +by water, and some by dead forests—and that they lie over one another +in pretty regular order. But this order has sometimes been disturbed +and the layers have been tumbled about among one another very much. In +some places the older rocks, such as granite, slate, and sandstone, +have been pushed up through those above, and in others the coal has +sunk down and been covered with thick layers of chalk, sand, and mud. +When the force below pushes a layer up through the others it is called +_upheaval_, and when a layer sinks down it is called _depression_, +or _subsidence_. Both these actions are going on now in different +parts of the Earth. A great part of Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, of +Spitzbergen, Siberia, and the north of America, is being slowly raised +higher above the sea, as we know by the height their old sea beaches +now are above the water; while part of the shore of America opposite +to Europe and also the south of Greenland is slowly sinking down, as +we know by the remains of land animals and trees which are now covered +by the tide; and at many places on the coast of India this subsidence +is also going on. Nearer home, too, there is an example of it in the +island of Guernsey. All round the coast of this island, like that of +Jersey, are found tree trunks and other remains of old forest land +beneath the water. Old histories refer to this as dry land; and if a +map of it made in 1406 is correct, this land must have sunk about 150 +feet since that time. + +Thus we can see, even at the present time, the very same changes which +have worked upon our Earth for innumerable ages. It is now easy to +understand how the forests which must have grown above in the air +have, after a long time, sunk down to a great depth, and been turned +into coal, and covered with the sediment, sand, gravel, and chalk from +the seas which afterwards flowed over the places where they grew. + +Sometimes the rocks by the sea shore are cut into terraces or steps +by the constant wear of the water, and when we see these water marks +far above the present level of the sea we know that the land must have +been lifted up gradually above the sea. There are many such terraces in +Norway. To prove whether this is so marks have been cut upon rocks at +a measured height above the sea, and after some years these marks have +been noticed to have been raised much above the water by the “upheaval” +of the earth at that place. + +Generally this change of level has taken place gradually, and the +greatest work in moving the layers of earth and displacing them has +been very slow. But in some places violent and sudden shocks have +happened, tearing up the rocks and piling them up in heaps; and now +and then islands have suddenly appeared in the sea and vanished out +of sight completely in a short time. Islands have thus come up in the +Mediterranean Sea within the memory of man. In the year 1831 the island +of Julia suddenly appeared near the coast of Sicily, and since the year +186 B.C. no less than three islands have started up in the bay of the +island of Santorin. In this century islands have appeared among the +Azores, the Indian Archipelago, the Philippines, the Moluccas, and on +the coast of Kamtschatka and other places. Some of these have appeared +suddenly, others slowly, and they no doubt have been raised by a great +force from below. + +You will see now how easy it is to account for the changes of the +places of the layers of rock. The same thing is going on now which +has been going on throughout all time, only perhaps with more energy +formerly than now, making mountains, islands, and continents, raising +up a large tract of land in one place and sinking an island or a sea +shore in another. + +These changes have been of great use to us too. Suppose all England +had been covered with coal or slate, we should not have been able to +grow anything! As it is we have sand and gravel in one county, chalk in +another, slate or granite in another, and coal down below in several, +and we can grow a great variety of plants on all these different soils. +We have to thank “upheaval” and “depression” for this. The force which +is always working below us has turned up the different soils like a +gigantic plough, and brought some to the top and covered others, so +that instead of having to dig down deeper than ever we have yet, we +have only to go from one county to another to find the different rocks. +We know that we could not get at the coal in Sussex without going down +an unknown depth through the chalk and other earths, but we dig for it +in the North of England, where we know its depth below the surface. + +I will try now to give you some idea of the way in which the rocks come +in their order, or the succession of formations as geologists call +it. If we started to walk from Wales to London the rocks we should +pass over would be—slate and flagstones in Wales, and going on towards +London, limestone, old red sandstone, more limestones, coal beds, new +red sandstone, oolite, greensand, chalk, and last London clay. We +might not always find each of these near the surface, but they would +be found to be the principal rocks on a line between Wales and London, +the oldest being in Wales and the newest or most recent as we get +nearer London. That word “oolite” which I used comes from two Greek +words meaning “roe” and “stone,” because the rock is composed of little +rounded grains of a chalky substance shaped like the hard roe of a +fish, or like sago before it is cooked. + +If you look at the following table you will see how the principal rocks +are placed one upon the other, beginning at the lowest or oldest at the +bottom and going up to the newest at the top of the table, and on the +right hand side I have written the names of the principal fossils which +each kind of earth contains. + + + + +TABLE OF THE SUCCESSION OF FORMATIONS. + + +TERTIARY, or Upper Rocks + + Peat bogs and caves Fossil Man, with stone implements, + River-mud and brickearth, &c., mammoth, + gravels, and hippopotamus, rhinoceros, + boulder clay (alluvium) Irish stag, cave lion, + &c. + Crag of Eastern Counties Numerous shell-fish, mastodon + London clay, &c. Turtles, crocodiles, shell-fish + + +SECONDARY, or Middle Rocks + + +Cretaceous + + Chalk (with and without Foraminifera, &c., sponges, + flints) corals, sea-urchins, shell-fish + Greensand and gault (Belemnites, Ammonites, + Wealden clay, &c. &c.), fishes + + +Oolites + + Portland stone + Kimmeridge clay + Coral rag Immense reptiles, the Ichthyosaurus, + Oxford clay Plesiosaurus, + Cornbrash and forest Megalosaurus, Pterodactyl, + marble &c. + Great oolite + Fullers’ earth Animals allied to the opossum + Lower oolite and kangaroo + + Lias clay and limestone Cycads and other plants + New red marl and + sandstone + + +PRIMARY, or Lower Rocks + + Coal Ferns, club-mosses, a few + Millstone grit firs, calamites, &c., in + Mountain limestone great abundance + Old red sandstone Numerous corals, shell-fish, + Silurian limestones and trilobites, fishes, &c. + slates + Cambrian slates The Laurentian rocks contain + Laurentian rocks the oldest known + fossil, the Eozöon (or + “life-dawn animal”) + + +IGNEOUS, or Volcanic Rocks + + Greenstone, basalt Of various ages (no fossils) + Porphyry + Granite, &c. + +If you read this table upwards from the bottom you will notice that +life began in a very small way with Eozöon (the “life-dawn animal”), +that fishes appeared afterwards, that the wonderful forests of the coal +period then grew and were covered up by other rocks and pressed into +solid coal, that numbers of great crocodile-like animals lived all +through the oolite time, how the deep wide beds of chalk were laid down +by humble foraminifera, and when we get to the recent newest beds of +gravel, mud, sand, clay, &c., the sweepings by water of the older rocks +ground down by ages of wear and tear, we have the mammoth, mastodon, +megatherium, and other great vegetable eaters, and lastly Man himself +with his simple weapons of stone, bone, and horn—our early forefathers. + +You must always keep in mind that the greatest of these changes +have taken place very slowly. Mountains have been raised, and whole +continents have been sunk by movements so slow that if the hands of a +clock went only once round the dial in a year the hand would go faster +than these mountains have risen or the continents sunk. Almost always +whenever there has been sudden and _violent_ action it has been near +volcanoes or during earthquakes; but these things, terrible as they +are to the people living near, disturb only a very small part of the +surface, and such violence neither buried the coal beds nor raised +the slate hills of Wales. Many of the small effects of the internal +force of the earth have been sudden and violent, but the greatest and +grandest have been slower than anything we can imagine. + +If this had not been so, we should not find fossil shells just as they +sank quietly to the bottom of ancient seas, quite undisturbed. We +should not find delicate ferns and insects with all their breakable +parts perfectly preserved, and as lightly laid as if you had put +them away carefully in a cabinet upon cotton wool. Yet many of these +have sunk down hundreds of feet below the open air where they _must_ +have lived. We find the ripple marks of the waves on old sandstones, +and even the prints of the feet of birds and animals as they walked +upon that rock when it was soft sand, and the little pits made by +rain-drops on the moist earth. All this speaks of stillness, and +gentle movement, no violence. So slowly and softly have these rocks +settled down, that we can read in them the history of the life that +was. But if there had been any sudden and rough movement all these +fossils might have been broken up and we should have had nothing but +fragments, and the “puzzle of life” could never have been put together. +Nature’s forces are immense, but they work slowly, irresistibly, and +majestically. + + +THE ICE AGE. + +We have seen now what the principal rocks are made of and the way +in which their places have been changed by upheaval and depression. +Water, as we know, has been at work and has done great things in _all_ +ages of the World’s history. I have called it “one of Nature’s most +powerful tools,” and when we look at the quantity of chalk alone that +there is in the world, and remember that this was all laid down in +water, and perhaps a great part of its lime carried down by rivers to +the seas where it settled to the bottom, after the corals and small +shell-fish had worked it into their bodies, we are right in thinking +water a great Magician indeed. Why, even so small a river as the Thames +carries down to the sea every year as much dissolved earth as would +make a good large hill; and what must such rivers as the Nile, the +Amazon, the Mississippi, and the great Chinese rivers do! There must +have been gigantic rivers, too, in the old times, or else it would have +been impossible that the deep sandstone and slate beds could have been +formed; for these are all laid down by the washing away of earth in +water. + +Ice, which is only solid water, has also been a powerful tool in +shaping the surface of the Earth, but it has not been _always_ at +work as water has. Ice now covers only a comparatively small part of +the globe near the north and south poles, and mountains like those in +Switzerland; but by watching what ice is doing now in these places we +are able to be certain that there has been a time when it covered +Scotland, Cumberland, Wales, Sweden and Norway, and nearly all North +America. In watching the great “rivers of ice,” called glaciers, in +the Alps, for instance, we see that they slip down from the mountains +slowly, creeping on year by year, and bringing with them pieces of +rock and stones. We see also where they have melted that they have +been grinding the rocks beneath them with their great weight, and have +cut grooves into, and scraped and polished the hardest granite. The +stones underneath the glaciers have been pressed so heavily upon the +rocks that they have left deep marks, and we find the same kinds of +marks and heaps of stones in many mountains where there are no glaciers +now. There are other things too which convince us that a great ice +sheet spread over almost the whole of Great Britain. When the huge +icebergs break away from the frozen shores of Greenland and North +America, they often have frozen into their ice large blocks of rock, +sand, gravel, &c., and when they drift into the warmer seas of the +south they melt, and of course these blocks or “boulders,” as they are +called, sink to the bottom. Just the same kind of boulders are found +in many parts of the world, where icebergs never come now, and as they +are of a different rock from that on which they lie, they must have +been brought there somehow. We naturally suppose then that they were +brought by icebergs. Sometimes boulders of granite have been found thus +among clay, many miles from where there are any granite rocks on the +surface, and there can be no doubt that they were originally frozen +into an iceberg, which floated away with them and when it melted left +them so far from their native place. In many of the midland and eastern +counties once floated these icebergs, dropping the stones and boulders +which they brought away from the Welsh, Cumberland, and Scottish +mountains. + +The climate of the earth must have been fearfully cold when our country +was covered with ice, just as Greenland is now. Geologists suppose that +there must have been more than one age of ice, and that between these +ages the climate of the world was pretty much the same as at present, +although it is certain that there were periods when England was much +warmer, because many of the fossil plants could not have grown in a +cold climate. + +You will want to know whether there were any land animals living during +the ice periods. It is impossible to be quite certain, but it is most +likely that the mammoth was living both before and during the _last_ +ice age, because its bones have been found among the earths brought +down by the glaciers. + +I have said all you will be likely to remember at present about the +nature of the different rocks, but it will help you to understand +better how they have been laid one upon the other, and how they have +been moved and broken by upheaval and subsidence, if you look at the +drawings on page 51. + + +DENUDATION. + +It has often happened that some of the harder and older rocks, like +granite and slate, have pushed themselves through those earths lying +above them, and then the sea or a great river has washed away all the +earths from one side of the rock. The rain, too, falling for thousands +of years, has swept them down into the valleys and mixed them together. +This is called denudation, or “laying bare” the harder rocks by washing +the softer ones away from them. Those beds of pebbles on the sea shore +also have been battering against the rocks for ages and very gradually +wearing them away, as you can see if you watch the stones being driven +into and sucked out of holes and cracks by every wave. Thus, both +the loose stones and the solid rocks get polished and ground away, +and Nature is always destroying and making again by turns. If this +destruction went on continually without any raising of the land to make +up for it, the surface of the whole Earth would in time become level; +but old sea beds are always being slowly raised above the water and +prepared for the growth of plants and the habitation of animals. + +[Illustration: _Upheaval._] + +[Illustration: _Subsidence._] + +[Illustration: _Denudation._] + +If you watch the little rills of water on any rainy day, trickling +down a hill, or the springs which bubble up at the foot of cliffs on +the sea shore, you will see an example of denudation in a small way. +The earth is washed off the surface here and there, and carried down +and laid up in banks in some places, and the harder ground underneath +is laid bare. Little beds of stones are collected in one place, and +sticks and straws and such light things in another, and this is just +what has been done on a large scale in mountain regions, all over the +world for many centuries. + +In the uppermost sketch on page 51 you will see how the granite has +been lifted up with the layers of other earth along its sides, and +afterwards even layers have been deposited above; in the second there +has been a great crack in the land, and a great mass of rock has +subsided, and the hollow has become filled up in time with clay, and +mould, and rich soil, so that some one has built a house and made a +garden on it; in the third the river has cut a gorge in rocks which +were once continuous from cliff to cliff, wearing away the softer +earths more easily than the harder. If the Earth was cut into in +different places we should find the rocks arranged in a very similar +way to that in the three sketches. + + +BOILING SPRINGS, ETC. + +In several different countries there are very strange sights, but +scarcely anything is more astonishing than the fountains of boiling +water which shoot up out of the ground. There are a good many of them +not far from us, in Iceland, and many hundreds in Wyoming in America, +and they are called “geysers.” Steam and boiling water, and sometimes +mud, are thrown up by these natural fountains to a height of 200 +feet—as high as the top of the spire of a church. The water must come +from a great depth in the ground—perhaps many thousand feet down—where +the heat is intense. This water springing up with clouds of snow-white +steam, and falling all round in showers, has a most beautiful +appearance. These geysers now and then throw out very little water, +just bubbling up above the ground, and then travellers boil eggs and +chickens and such things in them, and have a pic-nic near them. It is +impossible to say how long they have lasted, but we know from history +that some have been spouting out water for at least 2,000 years, and +how much longer no one can tell. They may have something to do with +volcanoes, because water may have found its way to the heated interior +of the earth, and being converted into steam, expands and causes an +eruption. + +Now that we have some idea of the construction of the Earth, we must +go on to the _life_ of the wonderful plants and creatures which have +peopled it. + + + + +_THE VEGETABLE PART._ + + +THE DAWN OF LIFE. + +The first beams of the rising sun, and the first grey light of the +morning, tell us of the coming day; but we cannot even think of the +dawn of that far-off day in the Earth’s history, when no voice of man +or beast was heard, and no trees or grass covered it, without solemn +wonder at the immense distance that day is from us. A thousand ages are +in the sight of the Creator but as yesterday, and the period of man’s +existence is only a moment compared to that of the lowly creatures +which built up this World for him. In the first seas and on the land +nothing was heard but the rushing of waters and the roaring of the +fires of volcanoes. + +It is impossible to be quite certain whether the first living things +were animals or plants; but I think it most likely that very simple +plants grew first, and that very simple animals came after or with +them. Among the first of these, or perhaps the very first, were some +small animals called _Eozöon_, which means the “life-dawn animal,” and +with them grew some simple plants. On the banks of the St. Lawrence +river in Canada there is a great bed of rock called the Laurentian +rocks, made almost entirely of the tiny remains of the “life-dawn +animal,” which, when we look at them through a microscope, are found +to possess nearly the same structure as some lowly organized shells +living in the seas now. These rocks are found in many parts of the +world besides—in Eastern America, Bavaria, Scotland, and Norway; and +in some places their thickness has been estimated at thirty thousand +feet, or nearly six miles, or one hundred times as thick as St. Paul’s +Cathedral is high! These little creatures you see were at work over a +great part of the Earth’s surface, and you may fancy how many thousands +of thousands of years it took them to build up these rocks. The +“life-dawn animal” is far older than the chalk-building foraminifera, +and so far as we know it lived alone in its seas. There were none of +the beautiful twisted _ammonite_ shell-fish, nor the shark-like fishes +of the chalk seas. The eozöon was the only kind of living creature, the +“lord of creation” for the time; and though storms raged in the seas it +inhabited, the water was so deep that it lived on undisturbed. When you +are able to use a microscope you will be able to see the traces left by +these tiny animals in what is now hard stone.[1] + +Life began in a very small way: there were none of the great land +animals we have now; but these seemingly insignificant builders were at +work so long that they made the immense rocks I have told you of. But +this is not all. About this time some very simple plants grew on the +land, and were carried down by the rivers and formed deep beds. After +a long time these became covered up with different earths and were +turned into the substance called “black-lead,” which you use in drawing +pencils. But this is not really lead; it is almost pure carbon—in +fact, the oldest kind of coal—so old that it will not now burn like +coal, and is entirely made up of fossil plants crushed out of shape, so +that we cannot now trace their forms, as we can the plants of the coal. +When then you next take up a drawing pencil it will be easy to remember +that the black substance which marks the paper was once a living plant, +now changed by heat and pressure into almost pure carbon. As the name +eozöon has been given to the “life-dawn animal,” I will give this +black-lead the name of _Eodendron_, or the “dawn-plant.”[2] + +Two very simple forms of life then occupied the earth and sea at the +earliest time when anything at all was living, and strangely enough we +use the dead bodies of both of them. We build houses of the rocks the +eozöon laid down at the bottom of the sea, and the beautiful art of +drawing is carried on with the carbon from the first plant life of the +world—the eodendron. + +I must take you away presently to the coal, and sandstone, and chalk, +and show you how plants and animals gradually increased in number and +size, and fishes began to inhabit the seas, and all living things were +slowly going on to greater perfection; for as time went on there was a +steady progress from creatures like the eozöon, which had scarcely any +power of moving about, to the active, quarrelsome and greedy things +like crabs and lobsters which came after them, and the gigantic ferns +of the coal beds. The peaceful “life-dawn animals” drew their food from +the vegetable substances dissolved in the waters, though they perhaps +also lived on animals still smaller than themselves; but, by-and-by, +creatures, which must have been monsters to them, swarmed in the seas +and devoured their smaller companions wholesale; and in time the Earth +became very much the same as it is now, a place where the struggle for +life is always going on. It is certain that animals have fed upon one +another from the very beginning; but this is no doubt a wise law of the +Creator to prevent them from increasing too fast, as they would do if +all that were born lived, and none were destroyed. + +We know much less about the vegetation—the plants and grasses—of the +early ages of the world than of the animals; because plants rot away +faster than bones and shells, and, besides, are less likely to be found +in places where they would be preserved. A dead tree might be eaten up +entirely by insects, as the white ants eat up fallen trees in a short +time in tropical countries, and what is left of them crumbles away to +fine powder and mixes with the soil. Immense trees are thus devoured +now by millions of tiny insects no longer than your thumb nail, in +India and Australia. No such thing as a whole and perfect fossil tree +with every twig and leaf has been found; but then the coal beds are +really great forests which have been buried for so long a time that +they have quite altered in appearance. Still, among these coal beds we +often find the bark, fruit, stems, and branches of trees very much like +firs, and ferns, and huge club-mosses, which have the same shape they +had when living, though they are quite black, and burn exactly like +coal. + +But there were plants long before the coal forests lived, and many +fossil sea weeds are found in the old sandstones and limestones in +Wales and other places.[3] The Old Red Sandstone, whose position you +can see below the coal in the table of succession of formations, page +42, does not give us many fossil plants, though fishes and shells are +common. This rock is found in Scotland, Herefordshire, Devonshire, and +Ireland, as well as other places, and is often more than 2,000 feet +thick. It was not all formed in salt water we know, because many of the +fossil fishes and shells it contains are fresh water kinds. It must +all have been made of the pieces of still older rocks worn away by +rivers and settled like a sediment in immense lakes, some of which were +fresh water. Then, after the Old Red Sandstone, came a time when the +limestones below the coal were laid down at the bottom of a vast sea, +and here the remains of land plants are of course few. Then it seems +there must have been a very long time when there were large continents +all over the world raised above the seas, but not very much, and on +these the forests grew which afterwards became coal fields. Until this +time the plants had been mostly water weeds, reeds, rushes, and sea +weeds, and it was not until England and Ireland became one continent, +as they were once and covered with woods, that the great period of +vegetation began. + +The growth of plants was then most wonderful; but although coal is +found in many different parts of the world, it was not all formed at +one time, and though it is plentiful in England and Wales, Scotland, +Ireland, France, Belgium, Russia, Hungary, Australia, New Zealand, +China, and Borneo, it is older in some countries than in others. It +is fortunate, however, that this useful material was made in Nature’s +workshop in so many different countries, or it would have to be carried +from one to another. The coal forests were not the same trees as we +have now—oaks, elms, ashes, limes, and so on. Most of them had rather +hollow trunks and splendid waving tops like ferns and reeds, though +there were some like our fir-trees. + +If you lie down in the long grass before it is mown, and look through +the stalks and fancy yourself an inch high only, you will have some +idea how the coal forest would have looked if you had lived then. +But there were no human beings on the Earth then, and I do not think +there were any large animals, at least none have been found in the +coal itself, except in Switzerland, where a few bones of the mammoth +(an ancient elephant) and of the rhinoceros have been discovered in +the much newer beds of coal, and also those of a large reptile like a +crocodile in the coal beds of Ohio in America. + +[Illustration: II. + +_Fossil Tree Fern._ + +_Calamites._ + +_Lepidodendron._ + +_Different Kinds of Plants of the Coal Forests._] + +In such immense forests insects must certainly have been plentiful, +and some of the fossil bodies of beetles, dragon-flies, and spiders, +have been preserved, and a few tree lizards.[4] Of course the edges of +the coal forests were washed here and there by the salt sea, and +there must have been some fresh water rivers and ponds, for we find +both fresh and salt water shells in these beds. It was almost dark in +these forests, so thickly did the plants grow together. There were +enormous club-mosses close together and as high as most houses, with +their leaves interlaced making a complete network to shut out the sun. +But the sun which shone on the forests was warm, and the air which went +through them was soft, or they would not have grown so wonderfully. +Indeed, there can be no doubt that the climate of northern regions was +once much warmer than it is now. A thick bed of coal was discovered +by the Arctic Expedition in 1875-6 actually within five hundred miles +of the North Pole, where the ice on the sea is now thirty or forty +feet thick![5] The forest which formed this coal could only have grown +in a temperate climate, and there are no forests there now; it is so +intensely cold they could not live. There must then have been a great +change in the climate of the Arctic regions since that coal was living +vegetation. The few plants and mosses which can live there now are of a +very different and more hardy kind than those of the coal forests. + +If you look at the engraving facing page 64, you will see a drawing of +one of the tree ferns with its delicate fronds which grew so abundantly +in the coal forests, and there are many other plants, some like the +common “mare’s tails,” or _calamites_, growing in shallow ponds and +ditches now—only the “mare’s tails” or calamites of the coal forests +were as high as poplars.[6] You can imagine what a splendid sight these +forests of ferns, club-mosses, and “mare’s tails,” must have been, and +what a multitude of beautiful insects and butterflies must have flitted +about in them; but their frail bodies have almost all perished, so that +we know very little of the animated creatures of the time. + +Besides several sorts of coal both soft and hard there is a substance +called “lignite,” which is scarcely wood and scarcely coal, of a brown +colour. In fact, lignite is wood almost turned to coal, and it has +helped us to learn that coal was once living wood; but it is not nearly +so old as the coal. Then again there is the beautiful substance called +“jet” used for making bracelets. This is a kind of fossil gum or pitch +dropped from the trees while they were growing, and, though different +in colour, it is much the same in kind as amber. Amber is often found +with flies, spiders, and small leaves imbedded in it. When this fossil +resin or gum was flowing out of the ancient pine-trees, and was quite +sticky, flies settled upon it and became entangled in it, and as more +of the gum flowed out they became quite covered. Then the gum dropped +from the tree and hardened, and it is now found in lumps on the shores +of the Baltic Sea, and in beds of sand and clay with fossil wood. It is +of a beautiful bright yellow colour, and beads for necklaces and other +ornaments are made out of it. + +If we arrange the things we have been talking about in order, the +oldest first, they would come thus: plumbago or black-lead—or, as I +have called it, eodendron, “the life-dawn plant”—first, then hard coal, +then soft coal, then lignite and jet, then bog oak and peat. But I +must tell you something about bog oak and peat. In many of the swamps +and bogs of the World the trunks of dead trees are found, which have +become quite black and almost like lignite, because they have been +buried so long. Thus, in the bogs of Ireland oak trees are often found, +and they were most likely living when the reindeer inhabited Ireland. +This old bogwood is made into beads for necklaces and other ornaments. +Peat is a partly decayed vegetable substance, with beautiful little +plants growing on its surface, and is really coal in its infancy. It +is found all over the world more or less in wet places, and consists +of the roots and stems of mosses and reeds, some of which are like +the gigantic plants of the coal period, but very small in comparison. +I have no doubt that in time some of these peat bogs may be turned +into coal if they sink down and become covered with other earths, but +at present they are all on the surface and so soft that they are +dangerous to walk upon because one may sink in and be smothered. + +This, as far as we can trace it, is a sketch of the history of +vegetable life on our Earth. We will go back to the coal for a moment +and see what the animal life of that time was. The seas of the time of +the coal forests were sometimes shallow, sometimes deep, and in the +limestone rocks of the oceans which separated the great continents of +that time there is a record of the inhabitants of the seas. The land +plants were of more than 1,000 different kinds, and there were more +than 200 kinds of fishes in the waters, and corals, shells, and small +crab-like animals innumerable. The fishes were fellows with terrible +teeth, and their bodies were covered with strong hard scales. One of +these fish was thirty feet long, and there were others of considerable +size. It is curious that the fishes of this time remind one of reptiles +(lizards and crocodiles), just as the birds of a future time seem to +have something of the reptile about them, as you will see by-and-by. + +I dare say you have remarked while reading that all the plants and +animals of the early ages of the world seem to be made on a simple +plan, and as the Earth grows older they become more perfect, and this +is just what I want you to take notice of all through. The plants +of the coal period, you have seen, were nothing like so perfect in +construction, beautiful as they were, as the forest trees of the +present time, neither were the animals so perfect as those living now. +There has been _progress_, step by step, throughout the vegetable and +animal creation; and, though many of the lower forms of the early ages +exist now, there are others far superior to them which did not exist +then: but all this will come in “The Animal Part.” + +About the middle of the Earth’s age came the wonderful period of +vegetation which gave us our coal, and after that there was a great and +busy time, when huge reptiles and reptile-like birds, and then true +birds, made their appearance. But that belongs to the next part of the +“puzzle of life.” + +If we look with astonishment at the coal forests, we may also well +think of them with thankfulness. Here is the sunshine of past ages +stored up for our use, and we bring it out again to warm ourselves, +cook our food, make all our iron things, and drive our steam-engines! +Can any romance be finer than this, that we are carried across to +America and India and Australia in steam-boats driven by the “fossil +sunlight” of ages and ages past, and whirled along at sixty miles an +hour over iron rails by the same stored-up strength? + +If you doubt this, think of living trees. Do they not live by the air +and sunlight? Will they grow without these? They spread their branches +and leaves to gather the warmth and light from the air, and when they +are cut down and dried, and you put a match to the wood, all the old +warmth and light come out again; and we know that the coal is only +fossil wood. Our Creator wastes nothing. Even when there were no people +living to rejoice in the sun, He thought of those people who _should_ +come in time, and not one of the fiery rays of the fierce sun was lost. +These mighty forests were sent to gather it, and when they had died +down they sank below the surface and were covered from the air, that +none of their light or heat should escape. + +In such forests it is strange that there were no birds, especially as +there were swarms of insects, and no doubt abundance of worms. But no +bone of bird or any trace of feathered songster of these lovely groves +has yet been found. Little lizards chased flies and beetles up and down +the stems of the club-mosses and ferns, and larger reptiles lurked in +the long damp grass under the shade. The pools and ponds were filled +with curious fishes, and reefs of beautiful white coral fringed all the +shores of the seas. + +But the Earth was not fit for the habitation of man. The fruits of the +trees were not such as he could have eaten, and their wood was not hard +enough to build houses of. Still it was being got ready for him, and +not a leaf waved uselessly in the bright, warm air, and not a tree fell +to the ground, but it was to be turned into coal, and to come forth +again one day a hard black lump, without any of its former beauty, but +to give back the light and heat it had gathered from the sun ages and +ages ago. + +Many periods in the Earth’s history have passed since the coal period, +and in every one of these the trees have been increasing in perfection, +though there have never since been such great numbers of a few kinds +growing. When we come to the more lately formed beds of earth we begin +to find the cypress, willow, ash, oak, elm, and other forest trees +which are living now. The trunks of these trees, blackened by age, lie +buried in peat bogs and swamps all over Europe. The mighty Mississippi +river brings down immense quantities of dead trees, and as these sink +to the bottom near its mouth they are forming future coal beds. Along +the coast of Norfolk and Suffolk, too, and stretching far away under +the German Ocean, is an old English forest. In some places the trunks +of the buried trees may be seen standing upright just where they grew. +The nets of the fishermen are continually bringing up pieces of wood, +roots, and seeds; and when the sea washes away the soft cliffs here the +bones, teeth, and tusks of the elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, and +other large animals which inhabited this forest, may be seen in great +numbers. + +Down below the waves of ocean have these woods sunk with all their once +living creatures, and though you may suppose that it must have been +very long ago that they grew, they are of the same kind as those which +now make the hills and valleys of England beautiful. + +Sometimes a forest must sink very fast, for travellers have told us how +they have sailed on rivers and lakes over the tops of sunken trees, +and, looking down into the clear water, have seen the branches waving +below—tall trees standing upright at the bottom, and the boats sailing +over their tops! + +We must now pass on to the living creatures which peopled the Earth, +and their story can be told with more certainty than that of the +perishable plants which clothed the surface of the ground, and, while +they rendered it beautiful, also served as food and shelter for +innumerable animals, and have become so useful to us as coal, lignite, +black-lead, and other productions of ancient forests. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Specimen in Table-case 15, Room V., North Gallery British Museum. + +[2] The name _Eophyton_ has also been suggested for the earliest +vegetable forms. + +[3] Divisions A and B of Case 1, Room I., North Gallery, contain some +of the oldest known fossil plants. + +[4] Fossil insects in Table-case No. 14, Room V. + +[5] In 81° 44′ N. latitude. + +[6] Specimens of plants from the coal in Cases No. 2, 3, 4, in Room I. + + + + +_THE ANIMAL PART._ + + +We must now go back and collect the smaller pieces of “the puzzle” +which make up the animal part. The great periods of vegetation ended in +our country with the coal forests, and there has been no such wonderful +growth of plants since the time when the New Red Sandstone, lying above +the coal, was formed; though no doubt trees and plants have since +flourished, as they do now on the Earth, but not in such quantities as +during the coal period. + +We remember that the eozöon, “the life-dawn animal,” is the oldest +animal we know of, and that it lived so long ago as when the Laurentian +rocks were laid down at the bottom of the seas of that time; then in +later rocks we find the burrows of sea worms in the stone, and later +still simple shells with two valves like the common mussel, and other +animals of a simple kind, like the corals, sponges, and star-fishes +which exist now. There must have been millions of these creatures in +the older limestone seas, for the rocks are almost entirely composed +of their fossil shells and bodies. By-and-by a rather superior animal +inhabited the seas of Wales, called a trilobite, of which you will see +a picture on the opposite page. This curious animal was of the same +family as the shrimps and prawns, but much larger, and he must have +been a giant among the others. None of these animals had any bones, you +must understand; but they had a hard shelly covering to support their +soft bodies inside, and no doubt the trilobites were able to swim about +very fast.[7] + +[Illustration: III. + +_Trilobite._] + +What I want you to take notice of now is the _progress_ that has been +going on from the almost motionless eozöon to the shell-fish and +star-fish, which could crawl along the bottom of the sea and over the +rocks, to this active, quick-moving trilobite, with his great paddles. +Then the next step is a very great one, when we come to animals with +bones. The first of these are fishes. All the other bones are joined to +the backbone, therefore all animals with bones are called _vertebrata_, +which is a Latin word meaning having a backbone with joints. Now +animals with bones are plainly superior to those with only shells, and +when we find fishes among the rocks of Wales and Devonshire we know +that we are beginning to pick up some important pieces of the “puzzle +of life.” These fishes were most of them related to the sturgeon, and +their bones and teeth are found in great quantities in the Old Red +Sandstone rocks, just below the coal.[8] + +It is not until we get above the coal into the oolite or egg-stone +rocks that still larger and altogether superior animals, both of sea +and land, began to increase, and this is called + + +THE AGE OF REPTILES. + +This has been called the reptile age because there were such numbers +of animals like crocodiles, lizards, and tortoises (which are all +reptiles), and some of them were of immense size. For instance, there +was a huge creature something like a frog, but as large as a Shetland +pony, called the _Labyrinthodon_, with a great many curious teeth, and +this animal has left footprints in the New Red Sandstone which have +been dried and buried, we can’t tell how long, and there are the cracks +made by the sun drying the place he walked over when that was soft +earth. There is a drawing of some of these footsteps in the picture on +the next page, and there are also the footprints of a large bird, and +you can see where he walked over the soft earth and made a long line of +footmarks; and if you look at the footprints of birds on the snow or +mud now you will notice marks just like these. Then there is another +picture of a single footprint of a large bird, and all those round dots +are where rain-drops fell and left their marks in the soft earth. + +[Illustration: IV. + +(1) _Footprints of Labyrinthodon._ + +(3) _Footprints of Birds_, (2) _with marks of Rain-drops_.] + +I dare say you will wonder how it is that these footprints have not +disappeared. Well, when the animals and birds that made them had +gone the marks became filled with dry sand, no doubt blown in by the +wind, and then the mud dried hard, and at last it became covered with +other earths and sank slowly down, just as the coal forests had done +before, and remained there until we dug it up with these tracks of +the birds and animals that lived then. Some of these birds must have +been larger than any living now, because their footmarks are so long. +None of their bones have been found yet, I believe, but plenty of the +teeth and some bones of the labyrinthodon have. The real footmarks, of +course, are very large, though they are small in the picture.[9] + +In the great beds of Lias there are many other strange animals, and +among them are two great fish-lizards called the _Ichthyosaurus_ +and _Plesiosaurus_. Both of these lived in the water and perhaps +came on land sometimes, and it is certain that they must have been +very ferocious creatures, from their great size and sharp teeth. The +plesiosaurus would be able to raise his long neck above the water and +snap at some of those curious birds rather like bats which lived at the +time, and of which I shall have something to say presently. Some of +these fish-lizards were as large as whales, and their bodies have been +so beautifully preserved in the limestone rocks that we can actually +sometimes find in their stomachs the food they lived on. + +[Illustration: V. + +_Ichthyosaurus._ + +_Plesiosaurus._ + +FISH-REPTILES.] + +Now we have got to a higher order of creation still, these +fish-lizards, and they remind one of the next step in progress—birds. +You know that all birds lay eggs, so do almost all reptiles, such as +crocodiles, lizards, and most snakes, so that they are alike in this. +Then the plesiosaurus with his long neck reminds us of such birds as +the heron and the swan, but he is altogether more like a reptile than +either a fish or a bird. There were also huge land reptiles, which +lived in the forests of the time, and must have been a terror to the +smaller animals. From the bones of one of these which have been found +in the oolite clays near Weymouth in Dorsetshire (the _Cetiosaurus_), +we see that it must have been nearly as large as an elephant, and +there are others called the _Megalosaurus_, _Dinosaurus_, &c. All these +names end with _saurus_, a name taken from the Greek word meaning +lizard; and you will see now why the oolite, or “Jurassic”[10] age, +as it is sometimes called, is well named the “reptile age,” for these +creatures swarmed on the land and in the sea. Specimens of these you +can see for yourselves in the cases on the walls of the third room in +the North Gallery of the British Museum, where all the fossils are +collected. + +But still more extraordinary animals than any of these lived at the +time, and we can scarcely tell whether they were birds or reptiles, as +they were something like both, but I suppose we must call them flying +reptiles, and they are the nearest approach to birds that had yet +existed. These creatures are called _Pterodactyles_, from two Greek +words which mean “wing-fingered.” Suppose the little fingers of both +your hands were a yard longer than the others, and suppose a thick +leathery skin was stretched from the tips of your long little fingers +to each of your feet, you would have wings something like a pterodactyl +and also something like the wings of a bat. But the pterodactyl had a +long neck and a long beak-like mouth, full of long sharp pointed teeth. +It could not walk much I think, but it could hang itself up by its hind +limbs to a tree or rock, head downwards like a bat, and must have been +able to fly very strongly, with its huge leathery wings, but it had no +feathers. There were swarms of these curious half lizard half bird-like +animals on the land, and they were of all sizes, some no bigger than a +crow, and some as large as the albatross, measuring twelve feet across +their outstretched wings. Their skeletons are some of the commonest +fossils in the oolite rocks, all through the great reptile age.[11] + +Now you see we have come to a reptile that can fly, but, excepting for +its wings and some of its bones, more like a crocodile than a bird. A +little further on we find another curious animal in the oolite rocks, +which is much more like a true bird than the pterodactyl, because it +had feathered wings. It is called the _Archæopteryx_, which means +“ancient wing,” and I have given a picture of it on the same page as +the pterodactyl, so that you may compare them together. The blade-bone +and “merry-thought” of this creature were exactly like those of a bird, +and so were the feet and legs, which would enable it to walk easily, or +perch on the branch of a tree, but the tail was long and many-jointed +like that of a lizard, with a fan of feathers growing on each side +of it, and short feathered wings. Then it most likely had teeth like +a lizard, and there were short claws at the bend of the wings. This +bird-reptile was about the size of a crow, and was the first we know of +with feathers, and the limestone rock has preserved it most beautifully +through all the long ages which have passed since it flitted over the +land of the oolite period.[12] Later still than these, there lived in +America, about the time the chalk was formed in England, two strange +birds called _Hesperornis_ and _Ichthyornis_, both of which had teeth +in the jaws. The former was an immense fellow like the penguin, with +short wings, and the latter was about the size of a pigeon with large +feathered wings. + +They are finding more of these curious creatures every now and then in +America. Some are without teeth, and have a horny bill like that of a +real bird, and in other ways more nearly resemble living birds; still +they have not lost the appearance of reptiles in their principal bones. + +[Illustration: VI. + +_Pterodactyl_ (_Wing-finger_). + +_Archæopteryx_ (_Ancient-wing_).] + +I have been particular in describing some of these fish-lizards +and bird-reptiles; because they, or their near relations, were the +principal inhabitants of land and sea from the end of the coal period +to the end of the chalk, though there were of course swarms of fishes +and shell-fish; but I ought to tell you that even so early as this +there was at least one animal known which suckled its young ones, and +this was a small insect-eating creature not larger than a rat, of the +same family (called _Marsupial_) as the kangaroo of Australia, which +carries its young ones in a pocket or pouch in its skin. + +All this time we have been hunting for parts of “the puzzle” in those +ancient oolite rocks between the coal and the chalk, and those we +have found are very important. We have seen the slow progress from +simple sea shells to simple fishes, and then onwards to fish-lizards +and bird-reptiles with one little marsupial animal, of a far higher +kind, in between, as if to tell us beforehand what more complete and +perfect animals we might expect by-and-by. After the fishes we have +found fish-lizards, then bird-reptiles with wings, but no feathers, and +later still a bird-reptile with wing and tail feathers. How different +the life of the Earth was at the end of the “reptile age” of the oolite +rocks, to the far back Laurentian time when one little creature, our +old friend eozöon, alone held possession of the seas! + + +THE CRETACEOUS PERIOD. + +Now let us look into the rocks next above, and see what is to be found +there. We have arrived in the Cretaceous period, or time when the +chalk was formed.[13] You remember I told you you might call this +“foraminifera earth” because so much of it was made up of the shells +of these tiny animals, thousands of which could be put into a thimble. +Whenever you make a mark with a piece of drawing chalk you rub off a +number of them, and you will see what pretty little creatures they +were if you look at the drawings of some of them on the next page as +they are seen under the microscope, magnified thousands of times their +natural size; but there are others of different shapes. On the same +page too there is a handsome shell, called an ammonite, and of its real +size, common in chalk rocks. The seas of the time must have been very +deep as I have explained before, and the chalk contains numbers of +bones of fishes everywhere, and many of the remains of the reptile-like +creatures of the time before. Corals, sea-urchins, crabs, &c., +abounded, and as you can scarcely ever see chalk without immense flint +stones in it, you may suppose what millions of sponges lived on the +rocks, for these flints are partly made up of their fossil bodies.[14] +Another Cretaceous period is beginning now at the bottom of the +Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, where it is deep enough to cover the Alps, +for these little foraminifera are living on the surface in countless +millions, and day by day their fossil shells are settling down to the +bottom and forming a soft grey mud, full of the carbonate of lime like +chalk. The climate of the Cretaceous age was mild and pleasant, as we +know from the kind of animals in the seas. Slowly the water began to +get shallower and shallower by the upheaval of the bed, and at last the +bottom of this mighty chalk ocean came up to the light and sun, to be +covered in some places with the drift and worn particles of older rocks +swept over it by rivers, and to receive new plants and new animals, and +in some places to remain almost bare, as it is on the downs of Brighton. + +[Illustration: VII. + +FOSSILS OF THE CHALK. + + 1 _Ammonite._ + 2 3 4 _Foraminifera_ (_Chalk-builders_).] + +Now we take one more step upwards into almost a new world—the world on +which mighty animals lived, and which man came to share with them. + + +THE TERTIARY PERIOD. + +The reign of the reptiles is now passed. The ichthyosaurus and +pterodactyl no longer inhabited the seas and continents. Great changes +had taken place in the shape of the land. A river larger than the Rhine +swept majestically through England from the borders of Wales right out +into the German Ocean, and its banks were covered with forests and +marshes, where the new animals which had come to take possession of +the earth lived and moved and had their being. The mountains of the +Pyrenees were raised above the sea, and parts of Surrey and Sussex +appeared too. It was most likely in the early part of the Tertiary +period that the stone was formed of which almost all Paris is built. +Fancy a great city built of the shells of dead animals! One can +scarcely believe it: but the microscope lets us into this secret of +Nature. If we take a piece of this stone and examine it in a powerful +microscope we see that it is made almost entirely of tiny shells, so +small that myriads of them could be packed in a nut-shell. How long +must they have been working to make all the stone beds of which Paris +is built? We cannot measure the time, we can only know it must have +been enormous! + +All kinds of animals both of sea and land increased in numbers and +perfection. The ammonites were dead, but their even more beautiful +relation, the nautilus, was living as it is now. The trilobite was +gone, but his next relation, the lobster and crab, appeared. Fishes +abounded. Whales which suckle their young ones appeared, and the +numbers of vertebrata, or animals with backbones, were more numerous +than they had ever been before. Just as animals with bones are more +perfect than those with only skins or shells, so animals which suckle +their young ones are more perfect than those which only lay eggs. +Thus the whale is a more perfect animal than the shark, though both +inhabit the water; and elephants and even rats and mice more perfect +still; and because there were so many of these “sucklers,” or mammalia +as they are called, in the Tertiary period, we know that all living +creatures were becoming more perfect. It will interest you too to learn +that monkeys began to appear now, and that they were common in France, +while at the present time the only part of Europe where they are to be +found is on the rock of Gibraltar. + +But I want particularly to tell you of the giant animals—the Mammoth, +Mastodon, Megatherium, Dinotherium, and others, and first let us see +what the mammoth was like. + +In former times, when people accidentally found the bones of these +animals, they actually thought they had belonged to giant _men_, and +we can scarcely wonder at that: but we know better. If only one small +bone is shown to Professor Owen or Professor Huxley, he can tell at +once whether it belonged to a man or an animal, a fish or a bird, and +very often the particular animal too. Well, the bones of the mammoth +were found in the north of Russia on the banks of the river Lena in +1800: but the Russians knew of them before that, and the name they +gave the animal means “earth,” because they supposed it burrowed in the +earth like a mole. This one is now in the Museum at St. Petersburg, and +its brownish coat and long black hairs, and even the hoofs and some of +the flesh, can be distinctly seen. The drawing in the frontispiece is +taken from it. It was strange that any people could have supposed that +this huge creature, larger than an elephant and with great curved tusks +ten feet long and weighing 160 lbs., could have got underground of its +own accord: but that was the only way in which they could account for +finding it buried in the earth on the banks of the rivers. Look at +the picture in the frontispiece; what a splendid animal he was, this +old elephant; larger and stronger than any living elephants! Immense +quantities of their bones are found in Siberia, and the tusks and teeth +are brought in ship-loads to England, where they are sold for their +ivory. Their skeletons have been found in most countries of Europe, in +many parts of Asia, and in North America, and these animals must have +been common at one time near London, for their bones have been dug up +in the brick earth at Ilford in Essex and other places near the Thames. +There is a skull with tusks set up with iron supports in the British +Museum.[15] + +There was besides another animal very much like this called the +Mastodon; but it had tusks in the lower jaws as well as the upper, +four in all, and the lower tusks dropped out when the animal grew old. +The whole skeleton of one of these is also put up in the Museum, which +you ought to go and see.[16] Mastodons’ bones have been discovered in +England and other parts of Europe, and in North and South America and +India, so that they were spread pretty well all over the world. They +had very curious pointed teeth rather like a lot of fir cones piled +together, not flat grinders like those of the mammoth and all living +elephants, and perhaps they fed upon fruits and nuts, and boughs, as +I do not think they could have managed well to chew grass and leaves +with such pointed teeth. The teeth in their old dead jaws are still +beautifully white and look like china. Both the mammoth and the +mastodon had long trunks of course, and they must have been grand +looking creatures marching about in the English forests. We should be +very much startled if we were to meet one of them now in an English +wood: but there is no chance of that, they have all passed away, and +the only relations they have living are the elephants of Africa and +Asia. + +During this Tertiary period, or at least the early part of it, besides +the mammoth and mastodon, the hippopotamus and rhinoceros were +plentiful about the Thames. Those same Ilford marshes in Essex have +been a complete storehouse of the remains of these animals. The bones +of a hundred different mammoths and eighty rhinoceroses have been dug +up lately from the damp, black soil, as well as many belonging to the +hippopotamus, and we can have no doubt that all the swamps along the +north side of the river were inhabited by large herds of these huge +beasts, or so many of their skeletons could not have been collected in +one place. It is very likely they were overtaken in a flood of the +river and drowned, and their bodies sank down in the mud of the river +bank: but anyhow, there they are to tell us that they lived and died +almost within sight of the Tower of London, if it had been built then, +as of course it was not. + +[Illustration: VIII. + +_Gigantic Irish Stag_ (_Cervus Megaceros_).] + +Long long ago too, before there was a single brick where London stands, +and when the few human beings who were living were obliged to hide +themselves in caves, great lions might have been heard roaring at night +in the forests of the Thames Valley. The bones of this lion have been +found in many different parts of England, and a terrible fellow he +must have been, for some of his canine teeth (the long sharp teeth in +cats and dogs) were more than six inches long. Indeed they were like +small swords, and this is why he has been called the “sabre-toothed” +lion. There were also bears, like the great grisly bear of America, and +leopards, hyenas, and wolves, and besides two kinds of ox far larger +than those we have now. But one of the handsomest animals was the great +Irish stag. When standing upright the top of his horns would be as +high as two tall men. He was indeed a fine fellow with his immense +spreading antlers. The deer in our parks would look dwarfs beside him. +He inhabited both England and Ireland: but, being found more often in +Ireland, he has got the name of the _Irish_ stag. As many as thirty of +the skeletons of these stags have been found together under a bog in +Ireland, and in some of the bones the marrow is still preserved, and +they burn well. Fences have been made of these bones in Ireland, and +when the people of a small village in the county of Antrim heard of the +battle of Waterloo they made a great bonfire of the bones and horns +of the Irish stag to rejoice over the victory. I dare say these stags +were hunted by wolves, and perhaps driven on to the ice of ancient +lakes, where they broke through and got drowned, for so many of their +skeletons are found together. I could not pass this magnificent stag by +without giving you a picture of him.[17] He was a much nobler looking +animal than the reindeer, which lived along with him at the time in +England, and from his appearance I should say he was a swift runner and +great fighter. Some antlers have been found locked together, just as +these stags died in mortal combat, and I never see Sir Edwin Landseer’s +beautiful picture of two red-deer stags fighting without thinking what +a grand sight it would have been to see two of these great Irish stags +rushing at each other with their powerful horns. + +Not one of those animals is living now, and none of them is mentioned +in any history or tradition whatever, and though there is no doubt that +men living in Europe saw the mammoth alive (as you will find in the +next chapter), they knew of no kind of writing in which to tell us of +them; these fossils are the only records left, but they speak plainly +enough of the time when England and the whole of Europe were inhabited +by these races of huge animals. + +[Illustration: IX. + +_The Megatherium._] + +Now I must carry you away to South America, where there are more +wonders. If I were to tell you of all the singular monsters people +have found in the beds of the rivers there it would make a book of +itself. You know what large rivers there are in that country, and how +they run for thousands of miles through almost flat plains called +“Pampas.” Well, these rivers have often changed their beds by cutting +new channels in the soft soil. The old dry beds of the rivers are +the burying-places of some most curious animals, but I have not room +to tell you about more than one of them at present. He is called the +_Megatherium_, which means “great beast.” His size and strength were +enormous. The largest hippopotamus looks small by his side. His leg +bones are bigger than your body. He was more like the sloth than any +other living animal, but he could not climb. He stood on those huge, +broad hind feet, with his strong tail as a sort of third leg, and tore +down the branches of the trees to feed on, or even rooted them up to +get at the leaves. Standing by his skeleton in the British Museum[18] +one feels quite a shrimp, and he looks strong enough to walk away +comfortably with an elephant on his back. + +Another immense animal inhabited South America at the time, which +geologists have called _Dinotherium_, or “dreadful beast.”[19] He was a +relation of the mastodon, but his tusks were very curious. Instead of +being in the upper jaw and turned upwards they stuck out from the lower +jaw and curved downwards, giving him a very odd appearance. He most +probably had a trunk like the mammoth or mastodon, but perhaps not so +long. All these of course were vegetable feeders. + +The Tertiary period is so remarkable for the numbers of animals more +or less related to elephants and spread all over the world, that we +might almost call it the “elephant age,” as the oolite has been named +the “reptile age.” These elephantine animals abounded in Europe, Asia, +and North and South America, and though none of this kind have yet been +found in Australia and Africa, I cannot help thinking they will be +discovered in Africa at all events, for there is no doubt that Africa +and Europe were once joined. + +Australia you know possesses that animal so unlike all others that when +we first see it we are quite astonished—the kangaroo. The bones of a +huge fossil kangaroo have been found in Australia which must have stood +fourteen or fifteen feet high I should think when on its hind legs, or +more than twice as large as any living now.[20] Then there were giant +birds in New Zealand (something like the ostrich) called _dinornis_ or +“dreadful bird.” These fellows had no wings, and they must have been +very much taller than the ostrich or emu. To look at their leg bones +you would think they were the bones of oxen instead of birds, they are +so immensely thick and strong. I do not think any of these are living +now, because they have been sought for carefully, and none of the +natives even can say that they have seen one. But their skeletons are +common in the surface earth, and their bones, cracked to get the marrow +out of them, are often dug out of the heaps of refuse collected about +ancient cooking places. So that they were used for food, and perhaps +they have not been extinct—that is to say, died out—more than a few +hundred years; and this is more likely because feathers are sometimes +attached to the remains, and undecayed sinews on the feet. A human +skeleton has been found in a grave in New Zealand, too, with the egg +of one between its arms, and little piles of pebbles are often seen +among their bones, where the stomach would be, which the bird swallowed +to digest its food, just as many birds do now. The natives called +it the Moa, and they have some traditions about it, and, all things +considered, it is probably one of the most recent fossil animals, and +that is the reason why I have left it to the last.[21] + +Now I dare say you will wish to know when the animals living now took +the place of those I have described, and which have all passed away. +This cannot be told with certainty, but you will see in the “Human +Part” that Men were living when the mammoth, mastodon, and some other +extinct animals, inhabited the Earth, and that the reindeer, ox, bear, +wolf, hyena, &c., have survived to the present day. + +Throughout these immense periods of time there are gaps which we cannot +yet fill up. No one can yet say, for instance, when the last of the +mammoths disappeared, and the first of their near relations, the Indian +and African elephants, took their place. These are the missing parts +of “the puzzle of life” which you may perhaps one of these days find +when you come to study the subject, and when you have learned all that +is known at present. But you may be sure of this, that throughout all +time there has been _progress_, the lower forms of animal life have +been followed by more perfect forms as the Earth grew older. It is true +the lower forms of life have not all died out. These imperfect animals +have run through all the ages—the chalk builder of the Cretaceous age +lives in the ocean now—and there are many other simple animals which +lived in Old Red Sandstone times, and are not extinct yet, but wherever +a superior kind of animal has passed away another more perfect has +taken its place. This will be seen at once if we compare the “Reptile +Age” with the Tertiary. The great ichthyosaurus, plesiosaurus, and +pterodactyl are gone, but now we have the more perfect crocodiles +and birds. The mammoth is gone, but we have the elephant. There are +no giant mosses or towering tree ferns, but our forest trees are more +perfect and more varied. The plants which formed the coal forests and +once clothed the Earth with beauty have dwindled away to the lowly +forms which we must stoop to examine in swamps, and these humble plants +are all the surviving relatives of their once noble family. The lordly +oaks and elms, stronger, and even more lovely in the sweet drapery of +their foliage, and much better fitted for our use, have succeeded all +those soft-stemmed plants which grew so fast and were the best possible +kind for forming coal. + +When you are able to study what is called comparative anatomy you will +see how wonderful the _plan_ of creation is, and how beautifully it +has been worked out by its great Designer. You will see in the bones +of the reptiles of the oolite rocks a prophecy as it were of the birds +and animals which were to come. What could be more prophetic of animals +with the power of perfect flight than the leather-winged pterodactyl, +half lizard and half bird? In some of these animals you will see bones +only half formed, and useless to that creature, which were brought to +perfection in later times, and became the most important part of the +body. + +It is very difficult for me to make all this plain to you, but if you +are really interested in it you will go to a museum where the fossils +are collected, and then I am very much mistaken if you do not find a +new and strange world opened to you. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[7] Numerous specimens in Case No. 7, Room V. + +[8] Specimens of fossil fishes from various rocks in Wall-case No. 1, +Room II. + +[9] See examples in the large Wall-cases in Rooms I., II., and III., +North Gallery. + +[10] So called because the mountain chain of the Jura Alps was raised +during this period. + +[11] Several specimens in Room III., and in Table-case No. 16, Room IV. + +[12] Wall-case No. 11 in Room III., several specimens, imperfect. + +[13] From the Latin word “creta,” meaning chalk. + +[14] Ammonites in the Table-cases in Rooms V. and VI. For enlarged +models of foraminifera, see Case No. 15 in Room V. + +[15] Room VI., North Gallery. + +[16] In the same room. + +[17] Complete specimens of male and female in the middle of Room V. + +[18] Room VI. + +[19] Head and tusks in Wall-case No. 2, Room VI. + +[20] Skull in Wall-case No. 1, Room VI. + +[21] Several specimens in Wall-case No. 11, Room III. + + + + +_THE HUMAN PART._ + + +The history of the human race is of course even more interesting than +that of the plants and animals which lived so long before man and +prepared the way for him, because man is the “crown of creation.” + +When first placed on this Earth he must have been but little superior +to the animals in his outward life, though he had very different powers +within him. He could gather the fruits of the Earth like them, and +perhaps used some of the smaller creatures as food, but he could do +little more. He scarcely knew that he possessed the faculties which +would in time make him lord of the Earth and the creatures inhabiting +it. By slow and painful experience he was to gather those stores of +knowledge that were to enable him to overcome difficulties, to provide +him with shelter from the weather and protection from dangerous +animals, give increasing comfort and power, and set him so far above +all other created things. He found plants and animals for his use, and +the dwellings in caves and holes ready made by Nature. He could neither +build houses nor make weapons. The first weapon he ever used probably +was a stone, which he could throw at small animals. Then he would find +out that long, sharp-pointed sticks could be thrown like spears, and +he also found that a long pliant piece of wood when bent would fly +back, and in this he would see a means of throwing smaller pointed +sticks like arrows, and I dare say the discovery of the way of making +a bow with a string of twisted animal skin was a great invention, and +it certainly would be a very valuable one. Many generations must have +passed away before he got even as far as this. It is very easy for us, +who see bows and arrows from our childhood, to understand their use at +once: but the first human inhabitants of the world had to find them out +for themselves. They began with _no_ knowledge at all. The beasts of +the field and the fruits of the Earth were given them, but they could +MAKE nothing. They had not even the natural covering of hair, or wool, +or feathers, which animals and birds have, and they must first have +clothed themselves with skins of these. The wants of their daily life +were so great that they had no time to think of anything else, but +when it became easier to satisfy these bodily wants their minds turned +to other things. They must have seen that when the seeds and fruits +of plants fall upon the ground they grow and produce the same kind of +plant, but they did not at first think of gathering a great number of +these seeds and sowing them in one place and making a garden. They +could wander about and gather all they needed as they became ripe, for +there were few people then. Their life was like that of the lilies of +the field, they “toiled not neither did they spin,” as Christ says of +the flowers, but when they began to increase in number something more +was wanted. People began to feel something within them which we call +“intellect,” and this must be satisfied. It was not enough to live as +if they were no nobler than the animals. Something stirred in their +minds which told them they must not stand still. + +The Creator has made both us and the wood and stone and metals, and +has given to us the power to make other things out of them. Thus we +are nearer to Him in power than any of the animals who cannot change +the rough materials into other forms. We admire the simple and really +beautiful nest of the bird, but we feel that our power is greater +when we consider our splendid buildings and steam-engines, our ships, +and our many conquests over difficulties. But if we did not use these +greater powers of mind and hand well, we should find them grow weaker +and weaker until we might almost lose them. + +You may easily suppose that there was a time when men could not write, +and there were no books of any kind, nor any other means of exchanging +thoughts except through spoken language. The earliest histories about +the human race always speak of men who lived before those histories +were written. We have nothing about the earliest men written by +_themselves_. It is always someone else who writes of them, referring +to their deeds, and to events which happened long before. + +The art of writing has grown up gradually and very slowly, for when the +inhabitants of the Earth became numerous they felt the need of some +way of expressing themselves to those at a distance from them, and for +making a record of things that happened and might be forgotten. Some +of the earliest means of writing were by pictures, like the picture +writings of Mexico[22] found by the Spanish conquerors, and something +of the same kind is even now used by the Chinese and Japanese. Their +writing is made up partly of pictures and partly of queer signs which +stand for the names of things, as you know if you have ever seen +one of their books. One of the oldest forms of writing known is the +hieroglyphic, which is said to have been first used by the Egyptians +about 2,100 years before Christ, and another is the arrow-shaped +writing of the Assyrians. These were cut on stone and metal tablets, +and most of them are the histories of their kings. But there are some +writings on stone in India which are thought to be older still. The +Egyptians made great progress in writing afterwards when _papyrus_ +was invented.[23] This is a kind of paper made from a reed which grows +abundantly in the river Nile, and many of these papyrus writings are +preserved in the British Museum, as well as the writings on stone of +the Egyptians and Assyrians, and learned men have spelled out a great +deal of the history of these nations from them, though the language is +quite different from any spoken or written now. + +Picture writing was most likely one of the earliest inventions in this +way: but it was so troublesome that signs were used to express the same +things as the picture. For instance, suppose a history of a king was to +be written. The word “king” would be shown by something he always wore, +such as his crown, and this sign would become more simple until at last +it might not be anything like a crown; but it would be remembered that +the sign stood for a king all the same. The first letter of the Hebrew +alphabet, _aleph_, means an ox, and the letter is something like the +shape of the head of that animal with its horns; and another letter, +called _shin_, which in Hebrew means a tooth, is actually very like a +tooth with three points. In many languages these signs have become so +altered that they do not now resemble the things they at first stood +for; but the first steps in the invention of written language were +certainly made by signs representing the thing of which the person +wished to give an idea. But you will learn all about these ancient +writings from other books. + +The men whose lives I am going to describe lived long before any of +these writings were invented. They _spoke_ a language of course, though +there is nothing left to show that they knew of any kind of writing, +and they are called Pre-historic men because they lived before there +were any histories either written by themselves or about them. But they +could draw a little, as we know from the pictures of animals, birds, +and fishes scratched upon pieces of slate, and bone, and stone found in +their graves. Perhaps these pictures were memorials of their great or +wise men, or showed that they were clever hunters, or fishermen. + +They knew the use of fire. Half burnt bones and wood and ashes are +plentiful in the caves where they lived. They had none of the means we +possess for kindling fire, and there are only two ways by which they +could have got it. They might have rubbed two pieces of very dry wood +together until the heat lighted them, as many savages do at the present +time; or they might have struck sparks from flint upon rotten wood and +blown the spark into a flame. We may be sure that when once a fire was +lighted they would take care it did not go out, and if they wanted to +travel they would carry with them a piece of smouldering wood to light +the fire again. I do not suppose that these pre-historic men were any +more civilized than the savages of Australia and other countries, and +I have often thought when looking at these savages that they live in +almost exactly the same way as the earliest inhabitants of Europe did. +They have the same shaped weapons and tools made of stone, and these +are fixed to the handles in the same way. They have the same kinds of +needles and fish-hooks made of bone, and they sew skins together with +threads made from the sinews of animals. Thus we see men living now +in many parts of the world who are quite as uncivilized as the old +inhabitants of Europe, who lived perhaps thousands of years before the +Egyptians and Assyrians. + +These very ancient men knew nothing about metals. All their tools were +made of flint, or bone, or stone, and they were of the rough shape you +see in the pictures on the next page, and it is for this reason that +this has been called the _Stone Age_. These were chipped out with great +trouble and labour, and most of them were not even polished. With these +they had to kill animals for food, to cut down trees, and fight against +their enemies. The skeleton of a mastodon was found in the state of +Missouri in America about thirty-five years ago with numbers of these +flint arrow-heads underneath and near it. Perhaps it had been shot at +with arrows, and when it died the flint points fell out of its decaying +flesh. But it is not likely that these pre-historic men could have +killed many such large animals, unless they caught them in pits covered +over with branches of trees and earth, into which they might fall, +as elephants are sometimes caught in Africa. + +[Illustration: X. + + 1. _Flint Arrow-head._ + 2. _Stone Axe in handle._ + 3. _Flint Knife._ + 4. _Bone Harpoon._ + 5. _Bone Needles._ + 6. _Sceptre made of Horn._ + 7. _Marrow Spoon._] + +Nothing shows us so well the immense time which must have passed since +the men of the stone age lived as that these flint weapons and tools +are found nearly all over the world, in Northern Europe, including +our own country, in Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Palestine, Africa, +Japan, America, &c.; and yet none of the present inhabitants of these +countries have any history or tradition of the time when they were +used. Metals are now used instead, and there is no record of the time +when flint only was known. We are quite certain however that the stone +age men lived at the same period as the great animals of the Tertiary +age, the mammoth, the mastodon, the woolly rhinoceros, the Irish stag, +the cave bear, and others you have read of in former chapters, because +flint and stone weapons are found in the same beds of earth with these +animals.[24] + +Suppose one of the present Indian or African elephants with his rider +were to fall into a river and they were to sink to the bottom and be +covered with mud, and suppose his rider had in his pocket some of our +sovereigns. If that elephant should be accidentally dug up thousands of +years to come, when most likely all elephants will have died off the +earth, people would know for certain, from the date and figure of the +Queen on the money, that elephants were used by the English in this +reign, even if all our books and monuments had perished, and a new +people inhabited the Earth. Something of the same kind has happened to +prove to us that the stone-age men saw the mammoth alive. In one of +their graves there is a slice of a mammoth’s great back tooth with a +beautiful picture of the animal, with his bristly hair, scratched on +the ivory, and there are also many of the flint and stone weapons which +show that the skeleton in the grave was that of a primeval man. This +little picture tells its tale more faithfully than any history. It is +all the more certain to tell it truly because it was never _meant_ to +tell one. When that man was buried with this sign that he was a mighty +hunter of the mammoth, or an artist, no one could imagine that he would +ever be dug up to show us, who come so long afterwards, that he saw the +mammoth roaming through the forests of the far away past. There can be +no doubt that it is a very good drawing of the mammoth with its long +turned-up tusks, like those in the picture at the beginning of the book. + +In another place a picture of a fight between some reindeer scratched +upon a piece of slate has been found. This was in a cave in France, +and it, as well as the numbers of bones of these animals in the caves, +shows that the reindeer, which now only inhabits the Arctic regions, +must have been common then in France. You will see drawings of both +these on page 135. + +These primeval people built no houses. They lived in natural caves, and +scattered the remains of their food about the floor, so that we know +what they ate. Among the animals they used for food were the horse, +the reindeer, the ox, the cave-lion and bear, the wolf, the hyena, the +goat, the hare and several others, besides salmon and other fish. They +were very fond of the marrow of the bones, which they cracked with +stone hammers, and had little spoons made of bone with which to pick it +out. + +They had places for making flint weapons too. At Cissbury Camp, near +Worthing, there is one of their old workshops. There are galleries dug +into the chalk where they got the flints, and there are thousands of +chips of flint lying about, with half finished arrow-heads, and some +of the tools they dug with. They had no spades or pickaxes; but they +used the broad, flat, shoulder-blade bone of the ox as a spade, and the +sharp brow antler of a deer’s horn for a pickaxe, to get these flints +out with. It must have been very hard work for them, because bone +spades and horn pickaxes would soon wear out, and would not be nearly +so useful as ours made of iron. + +[Illustration: XI. + +_Picture of Mammoth Scratched on Ivory._ + +_Fight between Reindeer Scratched on Slate._] + +It is difficult to be certain how these stone-age people cooked their +food. Of course they could have roasted it, and the half-burnt bones in +some caves show that they did so; but in some caves in France there is +not a single burnt bone to be found. In these French cave dwellings, +too, there are no pieces of earthenware, as there are in some +others; so that the people could not have boiled it, unless they had +wooden pots and dropped red-hot stones into the water in them until the +meat got boiled, as some savages do now. Or they might have cooked it +under the hot ashes. + +The people who used earthenware must have made more progress. It is +easy to understand how they made this useful discovery. Suppose they +had lighted a fire upon a damp clay soil, the earth would get baked +hard and crack off in pieces, and they would see that this soil could +be worked in the hands while soft into the shape of pans and dishes, +which could be dried quite hard in the sun or baked in hot ashes, just +as boys make clay marbles now. They could live much more comfortably +even with these rough earthenware things, and cook their food more +conveniently; but they still used the stone and flint tools and +weapons, and iron was still unknown to them. + +The people of whom I have been speaking are principally the men of the +First Stone Age, when the art of polishing tools and weapons had not +been found out. They simply chipped these things out of the flints and +left them very rough; but the men of the next, or Second Stone Age, +made great improvements. They ground their flint knives and axes with +other stones, and rubbed them down to sharp edges and points, so that +they must have been much more useful for killing and cutting up the +animals they hunted. All their bone and horn tools are much better +made, and sometimes ornamented prettily with marks cut upon them. The +Second Stone Age men evidently wore clothing, most probably made of the +skins of animals—for the long strips of bone with a hole at one end +which you see in the picture could not have been used for any other +purpose, except to draw threads through something. The threads were +very likely either the sinews of animals pulled out of the flesh, or +thin strips of their skins, or perhaps the inner bark of a tree twisted +into a kind of string. In the colder parts of Europe and America these +ancient people would need some protection from the weather. How then +did the people of the First Stone Age manage, if they had no bone +needles, as I think they had not, with which to make clothing? They +must have wrapped themselves in the skins just as they came from the +backs of the animals. + +It is not easy to be always sure, when we find a cave and all these +relics of pre-historic man, whether the inhabitants belonged to the +First or the Second Stone Age. Sometimes there are signs of polishing +and grinding on the tools, and then we may suppose that men were +gradually getting more skilful, until they finished off all their +weapons beautifully. But there is such a very great difference in the +perfection of these useful articles found in some places and those +found in others that we have no doubt men made slow progress, from the +rough or First Stone Age, to the polished or Second Stone Age. + +In neither the first nor second stone period had men yet learned to +build any kind of habitations. They lived in caves simply, like wild +animals. On the banks of the river Vezère in France, which has cut +its way deeply through the rock, there are some celebrated caves once +inhabited by pre-historic men, and some of them are very large. +They were most likely hollowed out in the cliff by water, and many +generations of men lived here. In one of them four human skeletons were +found, with plenty of stone and flint tools, besides the bones of the +mammoth and lion, reindeer and other animals. The mammoth then as well +as the reindeer lived at that time in the valley of the Vezère. There +is no doubt that these caves were inhabited at separate times by people +who used only the roughest and simplest stone tools, and by others +who had made some progress and could polish their tools and make them +of bone and could scratch pictures of animals upon slips of bone and +slate. It is curious that all these drawings are side-view drawings, +and they are only outlines, just like the drawings of children now, +and the Esquimaux of the Arctic regions; because these people, +although they were grown up, had not discovered the art of drawing in +perspective and shading the figures. Still the pictures are wonderfully +true to nature, and must have been copied from living animals. There is +no earthenware in any of these caves, so that the useful art of making +pottery had not been discovered, neither is there any in the caves in +Switzerland, where the bones of the mammoth, lion, and rhinoceros are +also found, and the tools and weapons are much the same as those in the +French caverns. It is impossible to say whether the cave-dwellers of +France and Switzerland lived at the same time exactly, but they were in +about the same condition of civilization, and they must both have been +quite familiar with the appearance of the mammoth and lion, and other +animals, which are not mentioned in any history, however old it may be, +as inhabitants of these countries. + +A discovery has lately been made in France of a large cavern near +Belfort, in the limestone rock, which has been covered up for ages. The +quarrymen while cutting out the stone came upon a small opening leading +into a very large cave, in which there was a great quantity of human +skeletons and bones and some beautifully ornamented vases, polished +stone bracelets, and a mat of plaited rushes. To these people, then, +the arts of pottery and weaving were known, and this was probably one +of their burying-places. They were evidently much more civilized than +the ancient people of the valley of the Vezère; but this cave must also +be of a great age, and its inhabitants have left no record of their +history in any kind of writing. + +Quite lately, too, we have learned something of the early races of man +in Colorado. Many of the caves in that country have been altered and +made more like regular houses, and some appear even to have been cut +out of the rock entirely by human hands; and in the plains there are +ruins of large cities. + +Though still in the stone age, for all the weapons yet found among +these ruins are of stone, the Colorado people were more civilized than +the stone-age people of the Vezère caverns, because they had begun +to build and knew how to make pottery. It is strange, too, that the +present natives of Colorado are not so civilized as the early people, +and if they have descended from them they have not improved, but rather +the contrary. There are other caverns in various parts of the world +containing these curious relics of races long since passed away, but +some of the principal have been mentioned, enough perhaps to interest +you and show you that men were living in Europe together with the large +animals of the Tertiary period, and that they had made very little +progress in the arts and manufactures, and had not even begun to build +the roughest houses. + +In many parts of the world even now there are savages nearly as +uncivilized as the cave-dwellers of Europe were then. When Captain +Cook visited New Zealand, more than a hundred years ago, the natives +there had nothing but stone and bone tools, very like those found in +the European caverns, and the inhabitants of some of the islands in the +Pacific Ocean still use stone axes and hammers and bone needles.[25] +Captain Moresby, too, who made a voyage to the south-east coast of New +Guinea a few years ago, tells us that the natives have beautiful stone +axes, but they were so ignorant of the use of iron that they refused +to give him one of their stone axes for a new iron hatchet which he +offered them. No doubt the stone weapon cost a great deal of labour and +patience to make, and perhaps the iron one was made by machinery in a +few minutes, and was really more useful, but the native had proved his +own axe and knew nothing of the iron one, so that it is no wonder that +he refused it. But what a history these two axes tell—the stone and the +iron! The stone shows us man in his childhood, and the iron man in his +manhood, and what an immensely long time there is between the two. How +much thought, and trial and failure, and patience and industry, were +spent by mankind before the stone axe grew into the iron! + +In Europe man has long since grown out of his childhood, but in many +parts of the world he is no more civilized than the men who saw the +mammoth crashing through the forests of England and France, and heard +the lion roar at night on the banks of the Thames, and watched the +hippopotamus swimming across the river at Westminster. It is most +likely, then, that Europe and parts of Asia and America were inhabited +long before those places where men are even now in the stone age—such +as the islands in the Pacific Ocean, New Guinea, Australia, &c. + +What a life the pre-historic men of Europe must have lived! Here +they were surrounded by huge dangerous animals, and had no means of +protecting themselves against them but with these rough stone weapons. +Where London now stands with its miles of streets and busy life there +was a mighty forest, and the mammoth and rhinoceros tramped through +it by day, and the lion and hyena hunted the deer at night. When the +pre-historic men came down to the banks of the Thames in the day-time +to spear salmon, they saw the hippopotamus plunging about in the water +among the rushes, sweeping the long grass into their wide mouths, and +swimming from side to side with their young ones perched upon their +necks. It must have been a grand sight, but a fearful one too, and it +is no wonder that men thought the caves the only safe places to live in. + +Sometimes in India the elephants come into the villages at night and +throw down wooden houses and kill people, and they are very much +feared, so that we can suppose how much more terrible the mammoth might +have been to the uncivilized cave-dwellers. If they shot at him with +the flint-pointed arrows they could scarcely hurt him, and it is more +likely that they got out of his way as quickly as possible whenever +they met him, and took good care never to interfere with the lion and +rhinoceros. + + +THE LAKE-DWELLERS. + +Among the earliest inhabitants of Europe, there were some who did not +live in caves; but I think they must have lived a long time after the +cave-dwellers, when they built their houses out in the middle of the +lakes. These houses were built in a very curious way, and the remains +of them have been discovered in Ireland and Scotland, Switzerland and +other countries. The people carried quantities of stones, and earth, +and sticks out into the lake and let them sink to the bottom. Then +when they had piled up enough to make an island, they laid wood across +and set up their huts, and lived there surrounded by water. These were +very poor houses of course; but when men had begun to build for +themselves, they would find how much more comfortable they were than in +damp and dark caves. They must have had some kind of boats or canoes, +or they could not have passed between their lake-dwellings and the land +unless they swam to them; but I do not think that any of these boats +have been found. Perhaps they were made of the dried skins of animals +stretched over wooden frames, as I have seen savages make boats. + +[Illustration: XII. + +_Lake-Dwellings._] + +There was another way of building these lake-dwellings, and a better +way too. Long poles were driven into the earth at the bottom of the +water, and when the builders had got enough of these together they +laid other poles across them, and built their huts on this floor above +the water. People are living now in much the same way near the Orinoco +river in South America, in New Guinea, and in Central Africa.[26] +The land all round is covered with water from the overflowing of the +rivers, which are very large, and the huts are built up on these poles +out of the way of it. The lake-dwellers of Europe would thus be safer +in their houses from dangerous animals than if they were on land. They +were more civilized than the cave-dwellers, but still a great many of +their tools and weapons were of stone and bone; yet we know that they +had made wonderful progress, because they had learned to make pottery, +and even to weave cloths out of hemp or flax. They had most likely +begun to plant and cultivate the land, too, for corn is found about +these dwellings, and the bones of domestic animals are very numerous. +They had left the cave-dwellers a long way behind in many things, in +wearing artificial clothing, in cultivating the land, and in keeping +domestic animals; but their implements—that is, their weapons and +tools—were not much improved, and were very much like those of the +cave-dwellers, though better finished and more polished than some of +theirs. + +But not all the articles used by the lake people were of stone and +bone. Some of those who lived in the Swiss lakes had ornaments, such +as bracelets and hair-pins, made of the metal called bronze, and no +doubt they made spear-heads of the metal, because they would look to +usefulness before ornament. + +Now you see how these people seem to have lived: first the old stone +age men, then those of the newer or polished stone age, and lastly +the lake-dwellers. The people of both the first and second stone ages +certainly saw the mammoth, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, lion, and reindeer +alive in France, Switzerland, and England; but when the lake-dwellings +were built, all these animals, except perhaps the reindeer, had died, +and most of the animals were the same as they are now. None of these +people have left us any kind of history whatever, except that which +their simple works tell us, their flint and bone weapons, and their +dwellings. They have set up no gigantic monuments like the Egyptians or +the Druids. They thought of no men to come after them who would take an +interest in their ways; but it is fortunate that what they did make was +of such lasting materials as stone and flint, or we should have known +next to nothing about their lives. + +It is impossible to say how many thousands of years may have passed +before the rough stone weapons were replaced by the polished stone, or +the cave was exchanged for an artificial house in a lake; but you must +feel in your minds that the time was immense, and the more we study the +ways and works of pre-historic man, the more certain we become that it +is longer than the whole time that has passed since men first began to +use any kind of writing. + + +KITCHEN-MIDDENS. + +I dare say you have seen untidy people in country places, and even in +towns, throw oyster-shells and broken dishes and dirt outside their +doors until quite a heap is formed. This is called a “midden,” and the +habit of doing this is a very old one. We learn just a little more of +the history of man from great middens made by ancient people in several +countries. They were first discovered in Denmark, and since then +they have been found in Scotland, Brazil, and New Zealand. They are +sometimes very large, and must have been used by the whole village as +places to throw the refuse of their cookery in. When these heaps have +been dug into all sorts of things have been found in them—the shells +of oysters and mussels, bones of fishes, birds, and animals, pieces +of broken earthenware, little ornaments, stone axes, arrow-heads, wood +ashes, burnt bones, and other odds and ends. In Brazil many of these +kitchen-middens are on the sea shore, and it seems as if the people +who made them came there to live on the shell-fish, for the shells +are the same as those living in the sea close by now. In New Zealand +the middens contain many of the bones of the Moa, which was described +in “The Animal Part,” and has now perished, and these are cracked in +such a manner that the people evidently wanted to get at the marrow +in them, and it shows too that this gigantic bird was common in New +Zealand then. The midden makers seemed to have lived in the open air, +and wherever food was most plentiful. Perhaps they built huts of the +bark and small branches of trees like the Australian savages, but such +houses would not last. We only know of the life of the midden makers +from these heaps. Their weapons are of the same kind and pattern as +those of the Second Stone Age, but they had learned to make rough +earthenware dishes and basins, and some pieces of a woven material +have been found, and pieces of wood and bone worked with a little +skill. Whether they lived after or before the lake-dwellers I cannot +say, but I should think about the same time. + +These pre-historic people, nevertheless, were not always thinking of +making things which were useful. They thought too of making ornaments, +many of which are found in their dwellings and graves. Like ourselves, +they had an idea that little trinkets improved their appearance. In +one grave a skeleton was found with a small pile of shells under its +neck, which no doubt had been strung together as a necklace, and when +the string rotted the shells parted and fell in a heap under the head, +to be a memorial of that ancient man or woman’s possession of the same +feelings as our own. Various little articles, too, found about the +lake-dwellings show that people liked to decorate themselves. + +We shall never know what language they spoke, but they must have been +able to tell their thoughts to one another. It was most likely a simple +language with few words as names for things and a simple grammar, like +the language of savages, because they had not so many things to talk +about as we have. The names of animals would perhaps be imitated from +their cries and the noises they made. These cries would be among the +most familiar sounds to them, and when they wished to speak of some +animal the simplest way would be to imitate the noise it generally +makes. If we think of our own language, we shall see how very likely +this was. We have many such words. We teach our children the names of +animals by the sounds they make. The dog we call “bow-wow,” the cow +“moo-moo,” the duck “quack-quack,” and many other names of the same +kind which you will think of yourselves. At the present time even the +name by which the Egyptians call the donkey has almost exactly the +same sound as our “hee-haw.” This trick of doubling or repeating the +sound, too, is very common among savages, who are as far behind us as +the pre-historic men were. The natives of Australia give these double +names to a great many animals and things, and sometimes do the same +with English words. They call fish “ningy-ningy,” and a certain tree +the “bunya-bunya,” and their language is full of such words. But it is +not only the names of things which have been made in this way. Verbs as +well as nouns have grown up thus. When we whisper to one another, that +word imitates the low sound we make. + +I shall leave you to trace the natural origin of the following words, +and think how much of man’s spoken language is taken from common +sounds. Thus we have roar, shriek, whistle, hiss, sigh, sing, ring, +thump, bump, clash, clang, bang, twang, clap, smack, slap, smash, +swish, swirl, gong, thong, boom, bellow, batter, chatter, clatter, +snap, snip, whip, gurgle, shiver, quiver, rumble, roll, rattle, +prattle, and a hundred more. Words thus derived from familiar sounds +abound in all languages, and they, no doubt, are the easy steps by +which men climbed to a more complicated speech. The earliest men must +have been obliged to pay great attention to animals and birds, which +have voices of their own; for to hunt and catch them was the principal +occupation of their lives; therefore, when speaking of them to one +another, they would naturally call them by names resembling the sounds +they made. Our verbs “to squeak” and “to squeal” are certainly taken +from the cries of animals when in pain; but I have said enough to show +you how language grew up among pre-historic people. + +We do not know for certain that they had any musical instruments, but +they would hear the sighing of the wind among the trees, and it would +almost certainly be found out that blowing down a hollow stick or reed, +open at one end and closed at the other, would make a whistle; but if +they used any of these things they would not last like the stone tools, +and have decayed away; and we do know that they had begun to draw upon +such imperishable materials as bone and slate. + +There is a very interesting specimen of a human fossil in the British +Museum, which you ought to go and see, if you can; but in case you are +not able there is a drawing of it on page 159.[27] This specimen was +brought to England about the year 1814. Others like it have since been +found imbedded in the hard breccia limestone rock at the same place on +the shore of the island of Guadaloupe. The skeleton most likely was +that of a woman, from the shape of some of the bones, and most probably +was of the race of Caribs, of whom there are none living now. Perhaps +this was originally a burying place of the ancient inhabitants of the +island, and when the sea washed the small broken pieces of shells and +corals over it (all of which contain lime) they hardened into breccia +rock, and the skeleton became completely imbedded in it. This must +have taken a very long time, at all events; but I do not think the +Guadaloupe fossils are as old as the people who lived in the caves in +France. Some little ornaments and articles of human workmanship are +found with these skeletons, which show that the people to whom they +belonged were still in the Stone Age. There is very little to judge +from when we wish to get some idea of the time these fossils have been +in this breccia: but at this particular place the rock is formed pretty +quickly, as we can see; and it is quite likely that these skeletons +were buried there long after the mammoth, rhinoceros, and hippopotamus +died out of Europe. However, they are the most complete specimens +we have of any fossil human beings. In looking at the drawing you will +see the leg bones and hips, part of the backbone, the ribs of one side, +and an arm bone; but you see no skull, because the bones of the skull +are very thin, and have become crushed down into the limestone. In one +of these fossils, which they have in Paris, taken from near the same +place, the bones are much more distinct, and part of the lower jaw with +some teeth in it can be seen. These fossil men no doubt lived before +the period of written human history began; but they are not considered +to be at all the oldest of pre-historic men. + +[Illustration: XIII. + +_The Guadaloupe Human Fossil._] + +Two periods in the life of mankind followed all these long-lost and +forgotten people, and they are called the Bronze Age and the Iron +Age; but now _history_ comes in, and there are plenty of old records +and books to tell you about these. Bronze is a mixed metal of copper +and tin, and it was used by the oldest nations who have left any +histories—the Egyptians, Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans. It was better +than stone because it could be made sharper and would not chip, and +swords and armour, vases, axes, hammers, needles, &c., were made of +it.[28] + +The Stone Age is beyond all history, the Bronze begins with it, and +the Iron Age began at some distant time before the dawn of authentic +history. Thus we are told, in Genesis iv. 22, that Tubal Cain taught +people to make it. It was used also by the Egyptians for perhaps 2,000 +years before the Christian era; but the real Iron Age is that in which +we are living now. We can, indeed, make all metals much better than any +of the older nations. + +But there is a wide gap between the time when people left off using +stone and discovered bronze and iron; and if one of the Druids could +come to life he might help us to fill it up, because those old +British priests had many secrets, which they told to one another from +generation to generation. + +If the Spanish conquerors had not destroyed the civilization of Mexico +and Peru, we might know something of the discovery of the metals there, +and the people of India and China must have used them long ago; but +the first use of metal in any country where it was found out would +most likely be before the people had begun to put their language into +any kind of writing, so that the time would be forgotten among the +many scraps of lost knowledge which we have tried to collect from the +remains of the industry of pre-historic man. + +We have seen how much these ancient people differed from us in their +civilization, and how far they were behind us in everything; but we +must not suppose that they were very different in bodily size and +shape. Some of their skulls might have belonged to a philosopher, or +they might have contained the thoughtless brains of a savage. The +skulls from the Cromagnon and Engis caves are quite equal in size and +shape to those of several uncivilized, and even of some civilized +races of the present time, and there are people in all large cities +whose heads are not better formed. Though the outward signs of their +civilization then were so different from ours, it is not certain that +their mental capacity was much less. + +A race possessing considerable civilization may, we know, pass away, +as the Assyrians and the Pyramid builders have. In one of the Pacific +islands—Easter Island—a thousand miles from the nearest land, there +are hundreds of carved images of stone, fifty or sixty feet high, and +weighing perhaps a hundred tons each. The people who made these must +have been very numerous and must have had considerable skill. Yet they +have passed away. The arts of Nineveh and Babylon have only lately +become known, so that, you see, the works of a race may easily become +hidden from us who follow. Quite lately, too, the works of a partly +civilized people have been discovered in Ohio in America. There are +there hundreds of mounds and earth embankments forming fortified camps. +Some of them are several miles round, and they could only have been +made by a very numerous and intelligent people who knew something about +geometry; for the circles, squares, and angles of these earthworks are +quite as correct as we could make them. Among the multitude of things +found here are copper tools made by hammering, ornamental pottery, +silver beads, plates of mica with scrolls and designs engraved on +them, and carefully carved pieces of stone. These carvings are most +curious and excellently finished. They represent human heads and +many animals, such as the bear, otter, wolf, beaver, raccoon, frog, +rattlesnake, heron, crow, &c. A people, then, who could do these things +and took pleasure in doing them must have possessed great intelligence +and a knowledge of things far beyond a simple state. They even had +religious ideas, such as they were, for they had places for sacrifice. +All their works are now overgrown by forests, but it is impossible to +mistake them; yet the native Indians of Ohio living now have no idea +that such a people lived in their country before them, and no tradition +at all about a people whose civilization was so far superior to their +own. + +We may come nearer to our own times, and look at the Assyrians and +Egyptians. Until quite recently nothing was known about the Assyrians +except what could be learned from the few references made to them in +Scripture and some ancient writers; but Mr. Layard dug up their cities, +and found that they possessed the arts of building, sculpture, working +in metals, and a written language. All this was buried under the sand +of a desert! Then there is the great Pyramid of Egypt, built in a way +that we could not surpass, and with much knowledge of geometry and +other sciences.[29] The men who designed and constructed these works +could not have lived among a half-barbarous people; and as these are +the highest works of the people, how much there must have been that +went before, of which there is no trace now, when Assyria and Egypt +were in _their_ age of stone axes and flint arrow-heads. + +I do not think that the Stone-Age men of Europe were nearly so +civilized. At all events, they have not left any such imperishable +monuments as the gigantic images of Easter Island, the earthworks of +the Ohio people, or the sculptures, writings, and buildings of the +Assyrians and Egyptians; but they might have been more civilized than +they seem to have been from their simple weapons and tools. They might +have made many things which were perishable, and have been destroyed +by time—things which would have given us a higher belief in their +intelligence and civilization. + +The past history of the human race may be compared to the rise and +fall of the tide. Wave after wave has risen higher and higher on the +everlasting shore of Time, and when the tide was at its highest it has +fallen again slowly, to rise again and again in the same way through +many ages. We know that man may rise slowly from a simple condition +to much civilization and power, and may again sink back almost to +barbarism, as has been the case with the people of whom we have been +speaking, and then again a new civilization may grow up. It is possible +that all now savage nations are the sinking descendants of some, in +comparison, once civilized people. Modern nations are taking up the +ground of savages all over the world, and soon there will be no trace +of these simple people. Thus it may have been with mankind throughout +all the time during which they have occupied the earth, and so it may +be perhaps again. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[22] A fine Mexican MS. on diapered cloth, with figures and mystical +signs, has lately been added to the MS. department of the British +Museum. + +[23] Some fine examples of papyrus writings on the North-west +Staircase, Upper Floor. + +[24] British Antiquities Room, upper floor, Middle and Upper +Shelf-cases, Nos. 1, 2, and 5-12, flint and stone implements. +Table-case B, horn implements from French caves and Swiss +lake-dwellings. + +[25] Examples of stone implements of New Zealanders in Ethnographical +Room, Cases No. 45-48, upper floor. + +[26] In Lake Mohrya. _Across Africa_, by V. L. Cameron. + +[27] At the end of Room VI., opposite the door, North Gallery. + +[28] See examples in the Bronze Room, upper floor, British Museum. + +[29] Built of nummulitic limestone, composed of shells of foraminifera. +See Case 15, Room V., North Gallery. + + + + +_CONCLUSION._ + + +I have now put “The Puzzle of Life” together as well as I can, and +there is not much more to say. You must do the rest for yourselves by +going to the Museums, where all the pieces are collected, and seeing +them with your own eyes. When you stand before these silent witnesses +to the great age of our Earth, and all that is on it, you will feel how +wonderful the story they tell is. They have no words to speak to you, +but there is a power in your own minds which interprets their history +through your own thoughts. They are only lumps of rock and lifeless +bones, but they seem to say to you, “We are living again now, because +we are teaching you a lesson which the great Builder of this Universe +wishes you to learn from us. There is not a stone or fossil among us +but it has its tale to tell—a tale of time and tide, and long past +ages, and innumerable changes, and a life that was, and progress from +a lower to a higher existence. We have obeyed the same eternal laws +of one Creator from the beginning, as all things will to the end of +time. We have opened the great Book of Nature from the first page of +the ‘life-dawn animal’ to the last, on which the hand of the Almighty +has written the name of Man—his most perfect work. We, you, and all +things which have lived and will live, have bodies made of particles +which will be returned to the Earth, no single atom of which has been +destroyed since the first, but has been fashioned over and over again +into innumerable forms of tree and flower, of gossamer-winged insect +and towering mammoth, throughout the long ages in which our Globe has +known day and night, cold and heat, summer and winter.” + +There is nothing sad, if we look at it rightly, in this constant +succession of life and death. It is + + A moulding + Of forms, and a wondrous birth, + And a growing and fair unfolding + Of life from life, and life from death. + For death, a mother benign, + Transformeth but destroyeth not, + And the new thing fair of the old is wrought. + + G. F. ARMSTRONG. + +Is it not worth while then to listen to these stories of the Earth—to +spell them out for ourselves? They are written everywhere,—in the +mountains and valleys, the rivers and seas, on the hard faces of +granite cliffs, on the rounded pebbles of the sea beach, and even in +the finest dust of the roads. We have not to go far to hear them: +every foot-step on the ground covers a chapter great or small in the +universal history, and the stone walls of our houses could speak with +ten thousand tongues of all they witnessed in their long life on the +floor of an ancient ocean. + +We can scarcely have a more pleasant occupation and greater interest +than in searching for and putting together the pieces of this wonderful +and beautiful puzzle, and in doing our utmost to “Summon from the +shadowy Past the forms that once have been.” + + + + +INDEX. + + + Age of bronze, 161; + of iron, 161; + of reptiles, 81 + + Aleph, 125 + + Amber, 69 + + Ammonites, 90, 97 + + Animal Part, the, 77; + animals of coal period, 71 + + Ants, white, 61 + + Arctic climate, 67; + expedition, 67 + + Archæopteryx, 91, 93 + + Australian savages, 127 + + + Babylon and Nineveh, 164, 165 + + Bear, grisly, 106 + + Beginning of life, 58 + + Bird forms, earliest, 89; + reptiles, 85 + + Blacklead, 58 + + Boulders carried by ice, 48 + + Bogwood, 70 + + Boiling springs, 54 + + Bronze, age of, 161, 162; + implements in British Museum, 162 + + Brighton Downs, 99 + + Burning mountains, 19 + + + Calamites, 42, 68 + + Cañons of Colorado, 8 + + Caves of Engis and Cromagnon, 163; + near Belfort and of Switzerland, 141; + of the Vezère, 139 + + Cetiosaurus, 86 + + Chalk, nature of, 26; + pits, 20; + ammonites and foraminifera in, 27; + period, 95; + under the ocean, 29, 99 + + “Challenger” expedition, 27 + + Changes have been gradual, 43 + + Cissbury camp, 134 + + Clay, London, 21, 22; + and mud, 33 + + Climate, Arctic, and of coal formations, 67 + + Club-mosses, 61 + + Clothing, 138 + + Coal beds, 31; + in Arctic regions, 67; + plants of the, 63; + is fossil wood, 73; + is sunlight compressed, 30 + + Colorado, the people in, 142 + + Compressed plants, 15 + + Conclusion, 168 + + Cookery, 137 + + Corals, 78 + + Creation, the plan of, 117 + + Cretaceous period, 96 + + Cromagnon and Engis, caves of, 163 + + + Dawn of life, 56; + plant, 59 + + Denudation, 49, 50 + + Dinornis, specimens of, in British Museum, 116 + + Dinosaurus, 89 + + Dinotherium, 114 + + Drawings, pre-historic, 135 + + Dwellings and food of men, 137 + + + Early histories, 123; + plant life, 59 + + Earth, early history of, 1, 2, 3; + interior of, 18; + intense heat of, 24; + climate of, 48; + not yet fit for man, 75; + ‘foraminifera earth’, 30 + + Earthquakes, 18, 19 + + Earthworks of Ohio, 165 + + Easter island monuments, 164 + + Egypt, monuments of, 166 + + Eodendron, 59 + + Eophyton, 59 + + Eozöon, 57, 77 + + + First weapons, 121 + + Fish-lizards, 85 + + Fishes, fossil, 71 + + Flint, origin of, 14; + in chalk, 96; + weapons, where found, 131; + tool manufactory, 134 + + Foraminifera, 20; + ‘foraminifera earth’, 30; + drawings of, 97; + specimens of, in British Museum, 99 + + Forests under the sea, 75, 76 + + Fossil, derivation of, 10; + plants, 61; + sunlight, 73; + footprints, 83; + human, 157, 159 + + Food and dwellings, 137 + + Footprints, fossil, 83 + + Flying reptiles, 89 + + + Geological part, 17 + + Geology, derivation of, 19 + + Geysers, 54 + + Gigantic animals, 101; + birds, 115 + + Glaciers and icebergs, 47 + + Granite, raised, 23; + appearance of, 24 + + Gravel, &c., 35 + + Great Irish Stag, drawing, &c., of, 108 + + Guadaloupe human fossil, 157 + + + Heat of the Earth, 3, 18 + + Hebrew letters, 125 + + Hesperornis, 92 + + Hippopotamus in England, 105 + + Histories, early, 123 + + Human part, the, 120; + fossils, 157 + + + Ice age, 45; + more than one, 48 + + Icebergs and glaciers, 47 + + Ichthyornis, 92 + + Ichthyosaurus, 85 + + Implements, flint and stone, in British Museum, 131; + bronze, 162 + + India, elephants in, 145 + + Insects in coal forests, 64 + + Irish stag, 107 + + Islands appear and disappear, 39 + + + Jet, 69 + + Jurassic age, 89 + + + Kangaroo, fossil, 115 + + Kitchen-middens, 152 + + + Labyrinthodon, 2 + + Lake-dwellers, 146; + dwellings in Europe, Africa, Asia, and New Guinea, 149 + + Language, origin of; and of pre-historic man, 155 + + Laurentian rocks, 57 + + Lena river, mammoth found, 102 + + Life, the dawn of, 56; + ‘life-dawn animal’, 57 + + Lignite, 69 + + Lion, English sabre-toothed, 106 + + + Mammalia, 102 + + Mammoth, 49, 102-3; + bones of, in Siberia, Asia, North America, &c.; + drawing of, on ivory, 135; + in Essex, 104; + skull of, in British Museum, 104 + + Man and his works, 121; + his earliest inventions, 122; + mammoth, mastodon, reindeer, &c., contemporary with, 116; + pre-historic, 127, 131; + dwellings and food of, 137 + + Marsupial animal, 95 + + Mastodon, 102; + in Europe, America, India, &c., 104; + in Missouri, 128; + skeleton of, in British Museum, 104 + + Megalosaurus, 89 + + Megatherium, in South America, 110; + drawing of, 112; + account of, 113; + skeleton of, in British Museum, 113 + + Mexican writings, 124 + + Middens, kitchen, 152-4; + makers, life of, 153 + + Moa, 115-16 + + Monkeys, fossil, 102; + at Gibraltar, 102 + + Monuments of Easter Island, 164; + of Egypt and Assyria, 166 + + Mountains, burning, and covered with snow, 19 + + Moresby, Captain, in New Guinea, 143 + + + New Guinea, stone age of, 143 + + New Zealand dinornis, 115; + moa, 116; + stone age of, 143 + + Nineveh and Babylon, ruins, &c., of, 164, 165 + + Norway, raised terraces of, 38 + + + Ohio, earthworks of, 165 + + Oolite, 41, 86 + + Origin of language, 155 + + + Papyrus writings, 125 + + Paris, built of shells, 100 + + Parts, the, are called fossils, 11 + + Past life, the signs of, 13 + + Peat, 70 + + Plan of creation, 117 + + Plants of coal forests, 63 + + Plesiosaurus, 85 + + Pottery, 141, 142 + + Pre-historic art, 133; + drawings, 135; + man, 127, 131; + weapons and tools, 129 + + Pterodactyl, derivation of, 89; + description of, 90 + + Puzzle, the framework of, 1-16; + parts of, where found, 5 + + Pyrenees, when raised, 100 + + + Rain-drops, marks of, 84 + + Reindeer, drawing of, on slate, 135 + + Reptiles, the age of, 81 + + Rhinoceros in England, 105 + + Rocks, raising of the; + how placed, 21, 25; + carried by ice, 48 + + + Sandstone, formation of, 25, 26; + Old Red, 62, 81; + New Red, 77 + + Slate hardened mud, 15 + + Sponges, 15, 78 + + Star-fish, 78 + + Stone age, 128; + first stone age, 137; + second, 138; + of New Guinea and New Zealand, 143, 145 + + Subsidence, 37 + + Succession of formations, 41, 42 + + Sucklers, 102 + + Sunlight, fossil, 73 + + + Tertiary period, 34, 100 + + Time, the work of, 167 + + Tools, polished and rough, 139 + + Trilobite, 78 + + + Upheaval and depression, 36, 38 + + + Vegetable part, the, 56 + + Vertebrata, 101 + + Volcanoes and earthquakes, 19 + + + Water, a powerful tool of Nature, 34, 45; + thrown out of the earth, 54 + + Weapons, early, 121; + and tools, where found, 131 + + Whales, 101 + + World, early history of the, 3, 4; + size and shape, 17; + materials of, 17; + heat of, 18 + + Work, the, of time, 167 + + Writing, origin of, 123; + Mexican, Egyptian, and Assyrian, 124, 125; + on papyrus, 125; + by signs, 125 + + + LONDON: PRINTED BY + SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE + AND PARLIAMENT STREET + + + + +OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. + + +‘The present little work, which is specially addressed to children, +is written in so pleasant and easy a style, and its descriptions of +life on the earth are on the whole so simple and accurate, that we can +heartily recommend it to the attention of those who seek such a guide. +The illustrations are good, and the general appearance of the book such +that it may compare most favourably with other primers of geology.’ + + GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. + +‘Written in clear and simple style, especially attractive to children. +It includes an account of pre-historic man, and shows in many other +ways that the writer is familiar with some of the latest phases of +geological thought.’ + + ACADEMY. + +‘The avowed object of this charming little book is to place the results +of these researches within the grasp of children, by presenting them +in language at once clear, simple, and winning.... In this hard +task Mr. NICOLS has succeeded admirably, without resorting to that +base subterfuge—the attempt to clothe instruction in the guise of +fiction.... This is true education, for it teaches children first to +observe and then to reason.... Though the style of this delightful book +is simple and childlike, it is as far as possible removed from being +childish.’ + + PALL MALL GAZETTE. + +‘The language is plain, the descriptions are lucid, the illustrations +apt, and the broad facts of the science are very correctly stated. The +work, too, is free from all attempts at fine writing.... We wish the +book success as at any rate an attempt to lay before the young fact +instead of fiction.’ + + QUARTERLY JOURNAL of SCIENCE. + +‘The book is a successful attempt to explain the simplest facts of +geology, and of the succession of life on the earth.’ + + WESTMINSTER REVIEW. + +‘The idea is a happy one, and will recommend itself to children; and we +are bound to say that Mr. NICOLS has carried out his idea remarkably +well, and produced a work which will do much to spread sound notions +upon the gradual development of our earth and its inhabitants to the +condition in which we now see them.... We can safely recommend Mr. +NICOLS’ little book as one that will have a most beneficial effect in +opening the minds of its young readers.’ + + POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. + +‘This is a good little book, cleverly written by an able geologist, and +well adapted for children. We can recommend the volume as a present to +any intelligent boy or girl.’ + + LANCET. + +‘This book appears to be, in style, language, and scope, eminently +adapted for its purpose, which is to awaken among the little folks an +interest “in the history of life upon the earth,” and “give them the +taste for more extended study in after years.”’ + + ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS. + +‘“Though these pages are designed for young persons,” says the Author, +“other readers, perhaps, who are not familiar with the subject, may +find some interest in them, if they are not deterred by the necessarily +simple style,”—which, we venture to say, they most assuredly will +not be.... To many grown persons, therefore, as well as their +descendants, will this book be a great boon, which, if they are at all +liberal-minded, they will advocate as well as appreciate.... Like the +Science Primers of Professors Huxley, Roscoe, Balfour Stewart, &c., if +duly read and weighed, it will tend to unravel and sweep away a deal of +baneful superstition.’ + + LAND and WATER. + +‘That Mr. NICOLS has succeeded in the object he proposed to himself +may be safely affirmed. He has done his work briefly and lucidly, and +has produced a book capable of arresting the attention, not only of +children, but of those from whom they receive their earlier lessons.’ + + The COUNTRY. + +‘A perfect “Open Sesame” for young scientific students, and so +cleverly composed as to make students of those who are not scientific: +not merely the young, but older people too. Mr. NICOLS thoroughly +understands his work.’ + + NOTES and QUERIES. + +‘Easily and attractively written for young people.... The treatment of +so wide a subject, and the condensing it into a volume of 150 pages is +no light task. We can, however, congratulate Mr. NICOLS upon having +accomplished it in so judicious, perhaps, better still, so suggestive +a manner; and we have no doubt that his little book will become a +well-worn favourite in the hands of all thoughtful and intelligent +children who may be so fortunate as to possess it.’ + + ENGINEER. + +‘The manner in which the pieces of the puzzle—fossils—are found, put +together, and interpreted, is related in language readily understood +by children; the description of the vegetable, animal, and human parts +being peculiarly interesting. The illustrations are the best of the +kind with which we are acquainted.... We strongly recommend it.’ + + SCHOOLMASTER. + +‘It is the puzzle as to the history of life on the earth unravelled +in a manner to interest and enlighten the minds, and to develop the +observing and reflecting faculties of children.... The results of +costly and laborious investigations in many different branches of +science are concentrated in these free and easy lessons or colloquial +lectures to young children.... Calculated to arouse an interest in all +but the dullest and most indifferent juvenile minds.... Will be found +invaluable to teachers and a great help in the rational cultivation of +the intelligence of the rising generation.’ + + SCHOOL BOARD CHRONICLE. + +‘The statement of these facts, though made with all the sobriety due to +a scientific discourse, has all the interest of a story for the young; +and the narrative, if we mistake not, will interest other readers than +those for whom it is primarily written. A word of commendation must be +given to the illustrations, which are exceedingly well drawn.’ + + EDUCATIONAL TIMES. + +‘To place the “simple truths of science” in rivalry with fairy tales +and merry picture-books is not so hopeless as at first sight may seem; +and certainly the simple, attractive style in which the marvels of the +physical world are here set out must not only interest, but charm every +bright child of eager intellect. Simplicity is observed to the utmost, +but it is the simplicity of truth, so that the child is not interested +at the expense of having afterwards to unlearn what he has read or +listened to.’ + + LIVERPOOL WEEKLY ALBION. + +‘Mr. ARTHUR NICOLS has attempted a task which at first sight seems +extremely difficult, but which he has successfully achieved.... +Children can scarcely help understanding and being interested in the +wonderful story of the earth’s crust, and of past organic life upon it, +which he unfolds. There is nothing childish about his style, yet he +writes with perfect simplicity.... A better book to put into the hands +of thoughtful children, or for use as a text-book by persons engaged in +the private tuition of the young, it would be difficult to find.’ + + The SCOTSMAN. + +‘Facts are stranger than any fancies which emanate from the writers +of even fairy tales, and when they can be brought home to youthful +students by ocular demonstrations the facts are invariably preferred to +the fancies.... The illustrations which adorn the book are well drawn, +and sufficiently numerous for the purpose.... The Author is a genial +and reliable guide to a solution of the puzzle of life.’ + + ENGLISH MECHANIC. + + +London, LONGMANS & CO. + + + + + Transcriber’s Notes + + pg 29 Changed: For innumerable agest hese little creatures + to: For innumerable ages these little creatures + + pg 91 Changed: Footnote 1: Wall-case No. 11 in Room III., several + specimens, mperfect + to: Footnote 1: Wall-case No. 11 in Room III., several + specimens, imperfect + + pg 131 Changed: lived as that these flin weapons and tools + to: lived as that these flint weapons and tools + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75564 *** |