The Shasta courier. [volume] (Shasta, Calif.) 1852-1872, 1860-05-05
Recent Progress of science.


the annual Of Scientific Discovery for 1860:
OF all the subjects which have occupied the
attention of the scientific societies and journals
of Europe during the past year, none have excl
ted so much interest as the geological evidence
| lately adduced from various sources, tending to
prove that the period of mans existence upon
our planet has been vastly greater than that
hitherto assigned by Biblical and common
chronology.
Some two years ago or more. Mr.. Leonard
Horner, an English engineer of wealth, and a
member OF the Royal Society, undertook, in con-
nection with some French engineers in the en-
ploy Of the Pasha of Egypt, to determine the
/ depth of the alluvial deposits in the valley OF
the Nile. This river, as is well known, is re-
markable for its annual overflow, whereby a
great part of all the arabic land in Egypt is sub
merged for the period of several weeks, and
covered with a thin deposit ofmud, or sediment,
which in geological language is termed 'aliuri-
um." This action recurring with great regular
ity, year after year, has produced on both sides
of the Nile narrow strip Of land of unexampled
fertility, and Is also yearly extending the delta
or coast-line at the mouth of the river, farther
and farther into the Mediterranean In all
places in the valley of the Nile where the soil
has remained undsturbed by human agency,
the annual deposits of mud can be seen reposing
upon each other with great regularity
successive layer or strata of sediment represent
ing year in time, in the same manner as the
successive rings in the trunk of tree represent
the wood growth of successive seasons. By
counting, therefore, the numbers of layers in a
given thickness Of Nile deposit, we have an al
most certain measure of the time required for
its formation.
Mr.. Horner's researches were based upon
these facts, and were made by sinking series of
shafts, ninety-ive in all, across the Nile valley,
nearly in line with, and crossing the side of
the ancient city of Heiopos. In every case the
alluvium was found to be regularly divided into
layers, and the average of many careful meas
urements, indicated that the rate of vertical in
crease of sediment was about three and one half
inches per century. One of these shafts, in par
ticular was sunk close to the great monolithic
statue of Rameses II, at Memphis, and it was
found that there was nine feet four inches of
Nile sediment between eight inches below the
present surface of the ground and the lowest
part of the platforms on which the statue stands.
Now this statue has been determined by Lepsi-
Gus and other Egyptian scholars to have been
erected 1861 years before Christ, and this date
added to 1858, gives therefore 1919 years, dur
ing which the above mentioned depth of sedi-
ment accumulated, rate of increase in strict
accordance with the results of the measurements
above alluded to. Below the platform of stone
on which the statue rests, the shaft driven
thirty-two feet; but the lowest two feet consist
ed of sand, thus leaving thirty feet true Nile
sediment in an undisturbed condition below this
foundation. At the base of this sediment or at
depth of thirty-nine feet four inches from the
present surface of the ground, fragments of pot
terry were found in good state of preservation,
and exhibiting some considerable artistic skill.
covering these remains (beow the platform of
the statue) were deposited at the rate of three
and one half inches per century we have in the
fragments of pottery record of the existence of
man 1880 years before A. D. 1858, II 800
years before the Christian era, and 1900 years
before the commencement of the reign of Menes
as assigned by Lepsicus; of man, moreover, in a
state of civilization sufficiently advanced to be
able to fashion clay into vessels, and harden it
by heat.
The fragments in question are now deposited
in the British Museum, and Mr.. Horner in cx-
hibiting them to the Royal Society, expressed
confident opinion that their antiquity was at
least equal to the calculation given above. At
any rate, it seems certain that they were depos-
tied in the place from whence they were taken,
long anterior to the time when the workmen of
Rameses II laid the platform for the reception of
his statue, 5000 years ago
The results of Mr.. Horners investigations are,
however cast entirely in the shade by the dis
covery of flint weapons, spear heads, axes, ETC.,
associated with the remains of extinct animals
elephant rhinoceros bear, tiger, hyena, ETC.
in undsturbed beds of gravel, in the north of
France. The announcement of this discovery
was first made by Mr.. Evans, as English geoo-
gist, to the London Society of Antiquaries, in
June, 1859, and subsequent researches have
confirmed it. The weapons and bones occur in
what is geologically known the drift, in the
neighborhood of the town of Amiens, and pre-
sent unmistakable evidence of having been bu-
ried cotemporaneously. At the meeting of the
British Association in September, 1859, Sir
Chas. Lyell who has hitherto favored the re-
ceived chronology respecting mans existence as
race, said that he fully believed that the anti
guilty of these flint weapons was immensely
great as compared with the times of either his
tory or tradition y and it is conceded by all ge-
ologists that the continued existence of tropical
animals is not possible in Central Europe under
the present conditions of climate The conclu-
sion, therefore, seems unavoidable, that there
were races ofmen inhabiting Europe at period
when this temperature was altogether different
from what it now is, and when the country was
the natural habitaton of species of animals now
restricted to the tropics.