River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1892-12-22
PRIMITIVE MAN.
Types Of the Human Family In Prehistoric



Times.
The historian who depends upon his
torial or manuscript testimony for his
facts can go back at the most but 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 be 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
written of these early epochs. But the
geologist begins where the historian
leaves off. Modern geology, by the rec
ords imperishably preserved in the very
rocks of the earth itself, tells us that
the world has existed for an incalcula-
BILE period of time.
IL 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 nebula,
anu lliCfi INTO vast luOllcn stars ike our
sun. The sun, according to this theory.
is the mother of the planets, from which
they were hurled by the force of the
suns revolutions, and into which, in
the course of uncounted ages, they will
again fall The earth must have re-
manned 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 period not exceeding
four hundred million years. These are
easy figures to write, but it is utterly
impossible to con ceive 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 a 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 hum
bred 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 mollusks and crustaceans,
and then fishes and insects. Next came
frogs. reptiles. and after that birds
Lot Gill alS mi lie iol,
suclSle their young-came upon the
earth; and finally man himself made
his appearance. 1t can not be definite
ly 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 arc known to biologists as
the cave-men. These early races
of men were exceedingly low in stage
of development. They used only stone
implements, which were roughly
Clipped and awlwardly 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 handle: an oval or rounded
form with a cutting edge all round,
which may have been used in handle;
a scraper for preparing skins, and
pointed fiints 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
men1 save the Eskimos. and in this re-
spect there is complete similarity be-
tween the Eshimos and the cavern
But this is by no means the only point |
of agreement between the Eskimos and |
the cave-men. 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 skin-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
spondence. The resemblances are not /
merely general, but extend so far into |
details that if modern Eskimo remains 4
were to be put into European caves,
they would be indistinguishable in APP
pearance 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
years ago, we have only to study the
modern Eskimo. -Watterson Ford, in
Yankee Blade