Bristol news. [volume] (Bristol, Va. & Tenn.) 1867-189?, 1874-04-21

| OF climate 10 distant parts of the earth.
| The discovery of wrought stone
| implements, weapons and ornaments
under undisturbeG strata demonstra-
bly, belonging to periods reaching as
far back as the pliocene period, if not
| farther.
Detailed descriptions of the eviden-
| ces, which are as marvellous in num-
Der as in variety and interest, may be
found in the elaborate works of Lyell,
Lubbock, Wilson, EVens and other
| English scholars, as well as in numer-
| Gus French and German writings =; or
| the evidences themselves may be stud
| led IN Situ and in numerous rich col
| lectiOns 0farcheogeological specimens,
| by any one disposed to do so. The
| purposes of this article admit but the
| briefest mention of few of the most
| ancient of these traces of early mai,
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
antiquity, it was natural at the time
| OF its d 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 eviden-
| ces of human existence during the pli-
| Ocene period are found, as they have
been, in the same strata under con-
ditions which satisfy careful geolOgists
that the strata had not previously
been disturbed, the astonishing char
acter of the testimony is no sufficient
ground for fatty rejecting il More
recently, similar fossil evidences of
perhaps a still earlier presence OF man
on our Pacific coast have been discov-
cred. At meeting of the San Fran
| cisco Academy Of Science, in May last,
DR.. Blake presented the Society with
a number of perforated implements of
serpentine, which had been taken
from stratfied rock near the summit
of the range 100 ft above the sea. They
were found, embedded in argillaceous
shales, in digging away the side of a
hill for the foundation of house, and,
says DR.. Blake, were "evidently fash
iOnCd by the hand Of man or some
animal capable of using its anterior
eXtremeties 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 prOnOuLces the rock in which
these Interesting specimens of primi-
tive manufacture were discovered, to
he of an age not later than the pliO-
Gene period while Professor Whitney,
the State GeOlOgist, is of opinion that
it is still more ancieient. Anyhow,
| man appears to have anteGated the
uphelyal of the coast range and the
| attendant geological changes; reno
teness III time which makes the fossil
skeleton found at NatcheZ ard New
Orleans, and the human fragments
under the Florida canals. seem COM
parativeIy modern. Yet at that dis
| tant period man had existed long
| enough to Overspread considerable
I"bortiOn of the earth, if not the whole
of it, since traces of such primeval
men have bee found wherever they
have been diligently sought for.
| Scarcely decade has passed since
| geOlOgists began TO admit the posi-
| bility of finding traces of men in gla-
cial or preglacial STRATA; yet already
| human bones or unquestiunable eyi-
demccs of human handiwork have
been found III the deposits ofthOse ear
| " times. in connection with the re-
mains of supposed prehuman animals,
in England, Scandinavia, Belgium,
| France. Spain. Italy, Germany, India,
| Australia, and South America, as well
as in our own country; and the more
carefully the search has been conduc.
ted, the farther back the history OF
man has been pushed into the distant
past. Every inch of the ground has
been fought over, the firm conviction
of the early investigators that man
could not be so old creature causing
them to receive every discovery with
downright disfavor. Such an upturn
ing of all the recognized foundations O
history seemed of necessity to involve
some hidden error. But it did not,
The facts are so numerous and intel
ligible that the most skeptical enquir
ers have been convinced, and now no
few of them hold high rank among
the authorities of the young science o
archRogolOgy. Among these is The
venerable irCharles Lyell, whose eau
ton is not less remarkable than hi:
courage. After studying some of tht
| earlier discoveries of human fossils, ht
admitted their preglacial origin anC
thought we might expect to find the
remains, of man in the pliOcene STRAIT
Ia. Writing after the discovery o
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
| 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 b(
miocene STRATA near PontlevOy
France, NJ. Bourgeois has found nu
merous wrought flints in stratum
containing the remains of long eX
tinct animal allied to the rhinoceros
and beneath bed which contains tho
mastOdUn, the dinOtherium and the
rhinOcerous. Similar evidences Ol
mans presence and skill have been
found in the miOcene beds of Aurillac
with the remains of animal long since
extinct; and at the POuance, another
observer. NJ. Delaunay, has discovered
bone of a herbivorous cetacean Of
the miocene period, which bears the
marks of cutting instruments, such as
must have been made when the bone
! a
these faint foreshadowiDgs of mans
presence in the Tertiary will be
strengthened by future discoveries, as
the first evidence Of his existence in
the later tertiary and quarternary Pc
riods have been.
The time required for all the geolog-
ical changes which have taRen place
Esinee man domonstrably entered upon
the struggle for existence is simply
inconceivable The glacial limit late
ly set TO his history has been over
passed, aud his dominion extended
perhaps farther beyond it than it is
back of tire present. I'VE of the pres :
ent generation" says Sir Charlfs s
Lyell, when called upon to make
grants of thousands of centuries in or
der to explain the e:ents of what is
Called the n,ogiAJ1I period, shrink natu-
rally st first fro-:4 making what seems
so lavish AN expenditure of past time"
Yet, however much the imagination
may take alarm at the immensity OF
l y