Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1873-06-11

ular means. But when many corrob.
Grating evidences of human existence
during the pliocenc period are found,
as they have been, in tho same strata,
undor conditions which satisfy careful
gcologists that the strata had not pre-
viously becn disturbed, the astonish.
ing character Of the testimony is not
sufficient ground for fatty rejecting it.
At meeting of the San Francisco
Academy of Science, in May last, DIR.
Blake presented tho society with a
number Of perforated implements of
serpentine, which had been taken from
stratiicd rock near the summit of the
coast range, LOO feet above tho sea.
They were found embodied in ar.
gillaceous shalos, in digging away the
side of q hill for the foundation Of
house, "and," says DR.. Blake, "wore
evidently fashioned by tho hand Of
man or some animal capable of using
the anterior cxtremities so as to fash.
ion objects to meet its wants, and ap-
parontly possessed of sufficient intelli-
gence to use lines or nets for catching
fish as it would seem that these in
strumcnts must havo been used as
snkcrs," DR.. Blake pronounccs the
rock in which these interesting speci.
mems Of primitive manufacture wcro
discovered to be Of an age not later
than the pliocene period while Pro
fessor Whitney, the State Geologist, is
Of opinion that il is still more ancient.
Anyhow, man appears to have ante
dated the upheaval Of the coast range
and the attendant geological changes;
q remotcness in time which makes the
fossil skeleton found at Natchez and
New Orleans, and the human frag-
ments under the Florida canals, seem
comparatively modern. Yet at that
distant period man had existed long
enough TO overspread considerable
portion of the earth, if not tho whole
of it, since traces of such primeval
men have been found wherever they
have been diligently sought.
Scarcely a decade has passed since
geologists began to admit the posi-
blity of finding traces Of men in glacial
or preglacial strata; yet already hu.
man bones or unqucstionable evidences
OF human bandiwork have been found
in the deposit of those early times, in
connection with the romans of sup.
posed pre-human animals, in England,
Scandinavia, Belgium, France, Spain,
Italy, Germany, India, Australia, and
South America, as well as our own
country; and the moro CAREFUL
the search has been conducted the
farther back the history of man has
been pdsifaf into the distant past
Every inch of the groudG @es Oeen
fought over, the firm conviction of tho
early investigators that man could not
bo 50 old creature, causing them to
receive every discovery with down.
right disiavor
Such an upturning Of all the recog-
nized foundations Of history seemed
OF necessity to involve some hidden
error. But it did not. The facts arc
so numerous and ineligible, that tho
most skeptical inquircrs have been
convinced; and now few of them bold
high rank among the authorities of
the young science of archnogeology
Among these is the venerable Sir
Charles Lyell, whose caution is not
less remarkable than his courage
After studying some of the earlier dis
coveries Of human fossils, be admitted
their pre-glacial origin, and thought
we might expect to find the remains
OF man IN The piloccue strutu. Writ
ing after the discovery fsuch plocene
remains, Sir John Lubbock set the
time o. the first beginning of the hu.
man race as far back as the miocene,
or middle tertiary period while AL
fred Wallace carries the dato 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 some
what questionable. In what is said
to be miocene strata, near Pontlevoy,
France, NJ. Bourgeois has found
numerous wrought nintsi in the stratum
containing tho remains Of long ex-
tinct animal allied to the rhinoceros,
and beneath bed which contains the
mastodon, tho dinotherium and the
rhinoceros. Similarevidences ofman's
presence and skill have been found in
the mioccne beds of Aurllac, with tho
remains long since extinct and at
Pounanco, another observer, NJ. dc.
launay, thus discovered bone OF o
herbivorous cctacean OF the miocenc
period, which bears tho marks of cut.
ting instruments, such as must have
been made when the bono was in o
green condition. Doubtless these faint
foreshadowings Of mans presence in
the middle tertiary will be strength.
ened by future discoveries, as the first
evidence Of his existence in the later
tertiary and quarternary period have
/ C.sasy.G, A