The Yellowstone journal. [volume] (Miles City, Mont.) 1893-1901, 1894-02-12
BEGINNING OF MAN.
Or. BRtNTON FURNISHES INTEREST
ING DATA ON THE SUBJECT.

lN0 ORlA YIN lite oOOSCS'' |
General Agreement ON the Discoveries In
the Drift" The Glacial Age Sand
WICKED In Between Warm Periods.
where Man Opened His Eyes.
s'The Beginning of Man and the Age of
The Race is the subject of an article in
The Forum by Dr.. Daniel G. Brinton,
one of the foremost anthropologists OF
the time. The very earliest deposit in
which there may be said to be a general
agreement that mans remains are found
is tha called the Drift, a series of gravel
beds in the valley of the Thames in Eng
land, Somme in France and the Mama
mares in Spain, and elsewhere in western
Europe. In these beds his stone tools and
weapons are found lying in undisturbed
relations with bones of animals long since
extinct, and which under the present con-
ditions of the climate could not exist in
that locality. these animals belonging to
q tropical or subtropical tauna. From
this one is led to believe that nan lived
there at an early date when the climate
was much warmer thar now, and that
he had lived there for q long time, for
thousands of his imple nents have been
found in various stra a and scattered
over a wide area.
After this warm pei ID a period OF ex-
treme cold descende from the north
over central md Yves rn Europe. Huge
glaciers covered Sc Land. Scandinavia
and Switzerland, nd the forests OF
France We're the | unts of arctic qua
drupeds and birds. # musk OK. relndeer
and the white fox. Man, however,
weathered this cold period and contln-
ued 10 roam the woods and fish the
streams. transferring his habltations to
natural caves. where evidence OF his
hunts and his battles are still TO be
found. This period of cold is what is
called the glacial period" and by some
of our most learned biologists the length
of this ''icy age has been placed from
%, 900 to 30. 600 years.
Adding this to the former calculation,
and sllowinga reasonable time for prime
val man to develop and spread over the
area in which he lived. we have as the
APPROXIMATE time since man has ap-
peared in Europe-where. up to date, We
nave found the earliest trace of mis- ex-
istence-about $1,000 years. This Mr..
Brinton regards as the minimum allow
ance for him. Some writers Of emlnence
have required 200 600 year. 10 explain
all these changes III climate. III organic
life and III geological deposition. INT Ar.
Brinton points out that the tendency of
late wears mas been toward d reduction
of these figures. especially 10y field SeUl-
oeists. who seem To be more Impressed
with the rapidity of natural actions than
heretofore. .
Coming next to the consideration of
the origin of man, DIR. Brinton declares
that There is no trace anywhere Of the
missing link. no evidence that man de-
veleped out of solne lower animal by
long series of slow changes" Nor does
he accept the doctrine OF specific crea-
ton as a scientific explanation. There
is a third possible theory of the origin Of
man which DIR. Brinton holds is as good
as another-namely, that called ''evolu-
ton per saltum," OF with a jump.
1T is that process. whatever 1t may
be. which produces sports in plants and
'cranks' and 'geniuses' III respectable
families. No doctrine of 'heredity' or
.a6avism' or 'reversion' can explain these
prsdigies OF monsters, as they happen to
be. A family of we know not which of
the higher mammals, perhaps the great
tree ape which then lived in the warm
regions of central France, may nave pro-
daced . few sports widely different
physically and mentally from their par
ents, and these sports were the ances-
toys of mankind. This isa theory which
asks for its acceptance no blind faith in
the dogmatic assertions either of science
or religious tradition"
As to where man first appeared DIR.
Brinton says: In fact, we are limited by
q series of exclusions to the southern
slope of that great mountain chain which
begins in western Europe and Africa
with the Atlas mountains, the Cantabri-
an Alps and the Pyrenees and continues
TO the Himalayas and their eastern ex-
tensions in farther India. Somewhere
along this line in southern Asia or in
southern Europe or in northern Africa
we may confidently say man first opened
his eyes upon the world about him. Up
to the present time his earliest vestiges
have been exhumed in the extreme west
of this region, but that may be because
there search has been more diligently
made. but the fact remains that, speak
ing from present knowledge, we know of
man nowhere earlier than in England,
xGknc6 and the Iberian peninsula."-Re-
vipw e Reviews.