The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-06-06

~ 49,, 80 WY ~
perched atop and the parents trudging
arm in arm behind. the exiles left their
Eden and faced the world again. All,
me. my happy dream! How much I
leave behind that can never be mine
again. said Abel. looking back at the
lost paradise lying white and chill in
Its shroud Of snow. Yes. dear: but
how much we bring away answered
brave hearted Hope t"Marmee'l.
Elancing from husband to children.
Poor Frultlands! The name was as
great a failure as the rest continued
Abe with a sigh AZ a frost bitten
apple fell from a leafess bough at his
feet. But the sigh changed to a smile
rs his wife added. In a half tender,
half satirical tone. Don't you think
Apple Slump would be a better name
for It. dear?'" She was the true
philosopher. We bet she could make
good apple slump.
Hunters Of seventy Centnrses Ago.
How old Is man? Go back 500
years. says Prof. w. J.. SoLLAs Of Ok
lord University in his remade volume
Ancient Hunters (Macmillans). and
you have got beyond the age of coal
generated energy but are still In ia
miliar history. Another 500 years and
you are in the cloudy beginnings Of
English history. though still far short
Of Europe's youth. The second re-
traced millennium carries you back
to the birth OF Christ: a third, and
the glory and grandeur that were
Greece and Rome give way to the
Egyptian n Assyrian dominion. A
.d1ousand more-once started, the thou
sands come easy-and you leave the
z OF iron for hat Of bronze. Five
thousand. and mankind has not yet
conquered the metals but IL working
In stone and wood. With the sixth
millennium on the backward trail the
professor has us In a simple age Of
agricultural and pastoral existence.
and with the next long step we are
in the hunting age
These are easygoing divisions Of the
human record. but sufficiently precise
for the purpose. 1t Is not 80 easy
to measure the processes OF planetary
history. Through historic time the
changes in conformation Of the earth
and in climate have not been marked:
hut In the Neolithic age temperatures
were higher and before that much
lower. and when We reach the
Azilians We look across the great de-
preston OF the last glacial episode"
the snow line comes 1000 meters
nearer sea level than 1t is now:
In the more favored lands man survived
this inhospitable climate along with Its
cold fauna. Afterward. when the snow
had Withdrawn to gather itself once more
about the mountain heights and a warm
fauna had replaced the cold. W. again
meet with him. but changed. he IL armed
not only with weapons OF his own inven-
ton but with the formidable teeth that
were among the last vestiges OF his In.
heritance from the ape.
Would antiquarian reconstructions
OF the past OF genus homo be more or
less fascinating II 1t were more GER
tain? 1t is kind Of the cultured mob
to give to scientists so much Of Gre
dence as they do. They measure aud
weigh the stars for us, and We politely
accept the figures in millions OF miles
or tons. They tell us OF a time when
the British Isles were part OF the
mainland; when the Atlantic coast lay
well to the west Of London's site,
along a line where now the plummet
drops 100 fathom sheer through the
salt seas; when the Irish Sea. the
English Channel and the North Sea
were Wide valley plains we'll watered.
and the Rhine. fed by such tribu-
taries as the E..be and the Thames.
swung wide tn meet the ocean not
far south Of the Fsroes. and the
Seine. gathering the waters OF the
south OF England and the north of
France in its fiow. continued its course
through the fertile plains OF the Eng
lish Channel till it entered the Allan
tic 100 miles west Of the farthest point
OF Brittany and Cornwall The Adri-
attic Is not. The Mediterranean. two
lakes separated by an isthmus. Italy
extended. Asia is shackled to North
America: the Aleutian islands are sur
viving piers OF the bridge. as perhaps
Iceland and the Faroes are OF another.
hitching Europe up to Greenland. On
the other hand. large areas now dry
were then deeply submerged.
How 1t all fits in together: earth
changing IN growth and leaving its
record indelibly scored (albeit open TO
variant readings) In the trail of the
glacier and the strata OF rock: man on
his slow ascent. leaving relics to be
dug up by the curious descendant
crude implements. drawings on rave
walls that record his customs. beliefs
and iterialistic triumphs. the inven-
tion OF bone pins. OF buttons, of
wheels. OF the horses bride, the tam
ing of fire, he growth OF language
and social constitution. While Prof.
Sollas's book pretends TO be nothing
more than a picture OF man in the
hunting age, II collects and
in order 40 great n catalogue Of an
tiQuit!es that. void OF laboratory tech
nologN, Il satisfies the common cray
ing for knowledge Of the ancestor.
The record, laboriously pleced to-
gether from a chaos OF evidential
tata, may he as a rope woven of sand;
the most convinced scientist would
not claim certainty for his logical
structure, But knowledge OF the an
Gent hunter, ~paleolithic man. has
been immensely forwarded in the last
twenty years by discoveries of fossil
relies. especially in France. The hunt
ing man. the first man we are sure
If, had made two great conquests of
nature to establish his supremacy
over the rest OF the animal world, the
transformation Of energy into fire.
and the concentration Of power by
means of an edge given to a stone.
lt,l ts.. "