The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1893-06-09
. HOW OLD Is MANI
Evidence that the Pacific Coast Pro-
duces the oldest Remains.
written for the eHR0NIcrn.


Written for the eCHRoNIcEE.
In some articles in former issues of
the CHRONICLE, I have endeavored in
my own way to give you faint idea of
the generally accepted theories regard
ing the formation of our fossil beds and
the preservation of their contents, the
only records left to us of life in the past
ages of our world. In speaking of ages
in this connection, we cannot doubt but
that the age of man is now only in it's
infancy, when we compare it with
these past times, when even the SEM
blance of a creature like man did not
exist on all the earth. Wehave abund-
ant evidence all around us of the long,
and now quiet past, gone so long that
we cannot comprehend the time that
has flown. The great Question now is,
when did man appear on the earth to
wonder at the strange things that all
these ages upon ages, under the direc-
tion of Mighty Power, have brought
forth? There is no question but that
man first existed in condition, with
regard to intellect, very slightly re-
moved from the brute creation. and in
that condition he appeared but few
centuries ago, when compared with the
awful lapse of time passed before he
appeared upon the scene.
When we require food, Nature
tells us by making US hungry. When
we are in danger Nature causes us to
fear. Self preservation is the first law
of nature, therefore it is most natural to
suppose that the first action of man
after being endowed with reason was
toward obeying these imperative de-
mands of nature. He did this by max
ing rude implements, and the remains
of these implements are the first evil
dences found of his existence. The era
in which these first remains are found,
therefore indicate the time of the true
birth of man, for before that time ar
rived he could not have been classed
with the true man endowed with reason.
Archaeology teaches US that mans
existence is divided into three epochs,
named the stone age, the bronze age
and the iron age. The stone age is the
only one with which we will deal, as
history tells almost all about the age of
bronze, and we are now living in the
iron age. The stone age has been di-
vided into the paleolithic, or old stone
age, but this so called old stone age is
only as old as the mammoth, which
also existed in the newer stone age.
These divisions in the epoch of man
have been fully established in Europe,
but in other countries they have not
been. The South sea islanders are still
in the stone age, and this continent was
likewise three hundred years ago.
Science has had very much unreliable
evidence to contend with in arriving at
the proper conclusions regarding mans
antiquity. The very earliest of even
this class of evidence takes us back to
the miocene period, or the middle ter
tiary. This consists only of flint chip
pings and some scratchings on pieces
of bone, which might have been done
through some agency other than by the
hand of man. The pliocine mans exis-
tence is not SO doubtful, but that man
existed in both Europe and America as
early. as the middle of the quaternary
period, there is abundant evidence.
There was found in the terraces of the
river Somne in France, some years
since, chipped flint implements, with
the bones of the horse, mammoth, rhi-
noceros, hippopotamus and hyena.
These relics were found in a gravel de-
posit beneath the river loan, thirty feet
below the surface, where they could
never have been disturbed. There are
many other instances that might be
noted in England. Germany, Belgium,
Denmark and France, as well as in
America, that show Enthusiastically that
man existed at that time. There was
found in cave at Engis, on the Meuse
river, near Liege, Belgium, human
skull, the great antiquity of which could
never be questioned. It was found as
sociated with bones of quarternary ex-
tinct species and of those now living.
This skull is well shaped and evidently
of human being of considerable intel
ligence. Tt was found beneath heavy
crust of stalagmite at the bottom of the
cave.
There was found in the celebrated
cave of Mentone, near Nice, a lew years