Beaufort Republican. [volume] (Beaufort, S.C.) 1871-1873, 1873-01-30
back as the pliocene period, if not far

| Detailed descriptions CT these various
evidences, Which are marvellous in num-
ber, may be found in the elaborate
works of Lyell, Lubbock, Wilson,
Evans and other English scholars, as
well as in numerous French and Ger
man writings or the evidences them
selves may be studied in situ, and in
numerous rich collections Of arch@o-
geological specimens, by any one dis
posed to do so. The purposes OF this
article admit but the briefest mention
Of few Of the most ancient of these
teaces of early man.
First, for our own country. Perhaps
the oldest skull yet discovered is the
one found in the pliocene strata OF Ca
BILE Mountain, California, Having no
companion in its almost incredible anti
auity, it was natural at the time of its
discovery for men to ridicule the age
accorded it, and to take refuge in the
assertion that it never came from the
place alleged, or if it did, it must have
come there by irregular means. But
when many corroborating evidences OF
human existence during the pliocene
period are found, as they have been, In
the same strata under conditions which
satify careful geologist that the strata
had not previously been disturbed, the
astonishing character of the testimony
is not sufficient ground for fatty reject
ing it. At a meeting Of the San Fran
cisco Academy of Science, in May last,
DR.. Blake presented the society with
number of perforated implements of
serpentine, which had been taken from
stratified rock near the summit OF the
coast range, 100 feet above the sea.
They were found. embedded in argyll.
laceous shales, in digging away the
side of hill for the foundation Of a
house, and, says DR.. Blake, were "evi-
IDENTIFY fashioned by the hand of man or
some animal capable Of using its anter-
ior extremities so as to fashion objects
to meet its wants, and apparently pos
sessed of sufficient intelligence to use
lines or nets for catching fish; as it
would seem that these instruments must
have been used as sinkers." DR.. Blake
pronounces the rock in which these in
teresting specimens of primitive manu-
facture were discovered, to be of an age
not later than the pliocene period; while
Professor Whitney, the State Geologist,
| is of opinion that it is still more ancient.
Anyhow, man appears to have antedated
the upheaaval of the coast range and the
attendant geological changes; remote
ness in time which makes the fossil
skeleton found at Natchez and New Or
leans, and the human fragments under
the Florida canals, seem comparatively
modern. Yet at that distant periodman
had existed long enough to overspread
considerable portion of the earth, if
not the whole Of it, since traces of such
primeval men have been found wher-
ever they have been diligently sought
for.
Scarcely a decade has passed since
geologists began to admit the posi-
bility of finding traces of men in glacial
or preglacial strait; yet already human
bones or unquestionable evidences Of
human handiwork have been found in
the deposits of those early times, in
connection with the remains of suppos-
ed prehuman animals, in England,
Scandinavia, Belgium, France, Spain,
Italy, Germany, India, Australia, and
South America, as we'll as in our own
country; and the more carefully the
search has been conducted, the farther
back the history of man has been push
ed int the distant past. Every inch
of the ground has been fought over, the
firm conviction of the early inve: tiga-
tors that man could not be so old u crea-
ture causing them to receive every dis
covery with downright disfavor.
Such IN upturning of all the reco-
gnized foundations Of history seemed
of necessity to involve some hidden
error. But it did not. The facts are
so numerous and Ineligible that the
most skeptical enquirers have been con-
vinced, and now not a few of them hold
high rank among the authorities OF the
young science of archaogeology. Among
these is the venerable Sir Charles Lyell,
whose caution is not less remarkable
than his courage. After studying
some of the earlier discoveries of human
fossils, he admitted their preglacial
origin and thought we might expect to
find the remains of man in the plioceno
strata. Writing after the discovery Of
such pliocene remains, Sir John Lub-
book set the time of the first beginning
Of the human race as far back as the
miocene, or middle tertiary period /;
while Alfred Wallace carries the date
still further back, into the eocene period;
this, however, on theoretical grounds,
since the traces OF men earlier than the
pliocene period are few and somewhat
questionable. In what is said to be
miocene strata near Pontlevoy, France,
NJ. Bourgeois has found numerous
wrought fints in the stratum contain
ing the remains OF long extinct animal
allied to the rhinoceros, and beneath q
bed which contains the mastodon, the
dinotherium and the rhinoceros. Simi-
lar evidences of mans presence and skill
have been found in the miocenc beds of
Aurillac, with the remains of animals
long since extinct and at Pouance, an
other observer, NJ. Delaunay, has dis
covered bone of aherbivorous cetacean
of the miocene period, which bears the
marks of cutting instruments, such rs
must have been made when the bone
was in green condition. Doubtless
these faint foreshadowings of mans
presence in the middle tertiary will be
strengthened by future discoveries, as
the first evidence of his existence in the
later tertiary and quarternary period
have been.
The time required for all the geologi-
cal changes which have take place since
man demonstrably entered upon the