Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1892-12-08
PRIMITIVE MAN.
types of the Human Family In Prehistori

The historian who depends upon his
.orlai or manuscript testimony for his
Facts can go back at the most but a few
hundred years into history. Events two
Thousand years before the Christian era
are recorded with great brevity, and
even these limited records are so mixed
with myth and tradition that they can
not De relied upon with any degree of
certainty. In fact, no connected his
tory of such remote times can be writ
ten- Vast intervals are left entirely
barren of recorded events, and so only
fragmentary account at best can be
wrltten OF these early epochs- But the
geolcgist begins where the historian
ieaVes on Modern geology, by the rec
ords inperishably preserved in the very
rocks OF the earth itself. tells us that
the world has existed for an incalcula-
bic period of time
the nebular hypothesis is accepted
as the true theory of the universe, this
world and all the planets and stars first
existed in the form of diffused gases,
which gradually formed into mists and
cloud forms, then hardened into nebulse,
and then into vast molten stars like our
sum- The sun, according to this theory,
Is the mother of the planets, from which
they We're hurled by the force of the
SUMS revolutions, and into which, in
the course of uncounted ages, they will
again fall The earth must have re-
NAMED in the molten state for an in
conceivable period of time, and even af-
ter an outer crust was formed immeasur-
able epochs must have elapsed before
this planet was ready for even the low
est forms of life.
Sir William Thompson believes that
the crust of the earth has existed in the
solid state for a period not exceeding
four hundred million years. These are
easy figures to write, but it is utterly
impossible to conceive and appreciate
them. Compared with the historians
limit of Investigations, which can not
exceed four thousand years. they are as
the planet compared with grain of
sand 1t is probable that it can not be
determined within n hundred million OF
years when life first appeared upon this
planet Biologists are fairly well
agreed, however. that it appeared
not more than two hundred million
years ago. and not less than one hun
dred millions.
At first animal life upon this planet
was of the very simplest forms, so sim
pie, indeed. that it is hard for geolo-
gists to distinguish it from vegetable life.
Then came moliusks and cruStaceans
and then fishes and insects. Next came
frogs, reptiles. and after that birds.
Later still. niaGnmals-animalS which
suciSle their young-came upon the
earth: and finally man himself made
his appearance. 1t can not be definite
~ ascertained when man first arrived.
But it was probably not much over
eighty thousand years ago
The first men OF whom fossil remains
testify were called the ''River-Drift"
men. for the reason that the evidences
of their existence are found in the drift
of rivers These were succeeded by
what are known to biologists as
the cave-men. These early races
of men We're exceedingly low in stage
of DEVELOPMENT They used only stone
implements, which were roughly
Clipped and awllwardly shaped for the
purposes for which they were designed.
These implements, according to Mr..
Dawkins, consist of the flake: the
chopper or pebble roughly Clipped to
an edge on one side; the hache or oval
pointed implement, intended for use
without 4 handle; an oval or rounded
form with cutting edge all round,
which may have been used in 4 handle:
a scraper for preparing skins, and
pointed fints used for boring"
These early men had no pottery
of any kind, and no domestic ami
mails. They did not till the ground.
and probably maintained an existence
by hunting. For some time it was
thought no representatives of these old
cave-men now existed upon the earth.
But that view has now been modified.
Says John Fiske in his Excursions OF
an Evolutionist:" among uncivilized
races OF men now living there are none
which possess this remarkable artistic
talent (which was possessed by cave
menl save the Eskimos. and in this re-
spect there is complete similarity be-
tween the Esximos and the ave-men."
But this is by no means the only point
of agreement between the ESkimOs and
the cave-mcn. Between the sets of
tools and weapons used by the one and
by the other the agreement is complete.
The stone spears and arrow heads, the
sewing needles and silin-scrapers use by
the Eskimos are exactly like the SINH
lar implements found in the Pleisto-
Gene caves of France and England.
The necklaces and amulets of cut
teeth. and the daggers made from
antler show an equally close CORE
spoudence The resemblances are not
merely general, but extend so far into
details that if modern Eskimo remains
were to be put into European caves,
they would be indistinguishabls in APP
pearanoe from the remains of the cave
men which are now found there. SO IL
we wish to obtain an idea of how the
earliest race of men lived upon this
planet upwards of seventy thousand
wears ago. we have only to study the
modern Eskimo. Ford, in
Yankee Blade.
BACTERIA Bank Notes.
Some singular facts concerning the
danger of infection by paper money
have been educed by meteorological