March, 1880.
THE WEST SHORE.
79
MAN'S PREHISTORIC PROGRESS.
Tho caves, tombi and gravol drifta of the
earth, which are of all objeoU the most uniii
tcrstiu lu llju casual observer, have m our
days become strangely eloquent At the touoh
of acience they have lent a voico to the dumb
past. Railing tho voil of antiquity, they have
unrolled page after page of ancient history,
written neither with pen, nor pencil, but
atamped on the rude implement of war or the
chase, imprinted on the few threads of decaying
tissue that iuwrap tho crumbling skeleton, en
graved on the bracelet of bronze or silver that
encircled tho slender wrist of some prehistoric
beauty, or chased on the brooch of gold that
clasped the mantle of some renowned but for
gotten chieftain.
So exact are the deductions to bo drawn from
these mute records of the past that they have been
dividod into four well-denned ages -thodrift age,
the age of polishod stone, the age of bronze aud the
age of iron; each of these marking an advance in
knowledge and civilization which amounted to
a revolution in the then existiug manners and
customs of the world. The drift age or paleo
lithic period is marked by deiwsita of rude stouo
implements ; to it succeeds the neolithic, or age
of polished stono, in which the Bame stono im-
Elements were in use, but of a superior class,
ighly polished and well tinished.
The wandoring savage who lived by tho chase
and out up his prey with the rude, unpolished
Hint knives of the paleolithic ago was coeval
with many extinct animals whioh then ranged
over the forests that in thoso oarly times quite
generally covered the earth. In the eaves tho
rudest occupy tho lowest strata ; showing that
even in that remote age man had the same ten
dency to improve as now. Somo of the remains
of tho ancient Nimrods have been found in caves
and sepulchral tumuli; and of all the living races
of men they rosomble the Esquimaux most
closely. With them are found the remains of
such extinct animals as the cave bear, mammoth
and woolly rhinooeros.
The neolithic era marked the dawn of a now
and higher civilization. In many parts of Eng
land, collections of polished stone implement
have been found, such as stone axes and adzes,
chisels, gouges, small saws, hammers, awls fur
boring, stone picks for turning up tho soil,
pestles, mortars, querns anil spindle-whorls.
Needles have also leeu found, which imply a
knowledge of the art of sewing ; ami vesnoli of
rude earthenware, which show that these old
world folks oould ply the potter's orsft with a
considerable degree of deftuess. They pos
sesaed the horse, a small short-horned ox, two
kinds of swine, goats and horned sheep, with
dogs of a large breed. Their dwellings seem
to have consisted of pits roofed with wattle.
They were all built, or, rather, soooiiod out
upon one plan. There was a circular shaft for
an entrance, going down to a depth of from seven
to eight feet, five to seven feet wide at the bot
tom, and narrowing to three at the top ; and
rouud this was a chamber or cluster of chambers.
In these huts are found a variety of polished
.ton,, imulauieuta. bone of the domesticated
animals and shred! of pottery. The Hint of
which these stone implement are made was ob
tained by quarrying for the Hint nodules in the
chalk. Many of these mine with the mining
tool still remain.
In some instances, caves seem to have lieen
imed as dwellings; and, where not employed a
a shelter for the living, have been frequently
selected as a rating-placo for the dead. lu
these cave mausoleums, numerous skeletons of
both sexes and of all age are found, Prom the
quantities of oalcined bone found in some of
these grave, it is lielived that, in the case of a
chief, human sacrifice may have been offered.
Kroni the number of the tomb and dwellings,
we are led to the conclusion that Europe had in
those days a somewhat huge and tolerably civil
ised population, who bad llock and nerd, who
practiced agriculture, and who were hunters and
fishermen. ,
la the lak dwelling! of Switzerland, which
are assigned to this era, many interesting dit
coveries have been made. Three kind of
wheat have been found; also two kinds of bar
ley, two kinds of millet, the remains of fruit
IQOh oppiua aud pears, pea, Max and weeds.
For their oattle and swine the lake dwellers
seem to have laid up winter fodder in tho shape
of aoorns and lieechouts. They mado oloth of
tho flax, and oould even weave it into au orna
mental pattern.
However aciiuired, the possession of brnnxo
marks an era of advancement. Tho dwellings
of tho people who used it woro better, and their
circumstances more comfortable than the
tribes they suoceoded. They hail axes and
sickles of brouze, gouges, chisels, hammers and
knives; aud, as a natural consequence, all
the products of their labor were superior and hot
tor finished. They could weave well a tough and
strong fabrio, and their olothes were formed of
several pieces sowed together. Their cloth is
almost invariably of linen no woolen oloth be
longing to this period having been found either
in Franco or Switzerland; but In a wooded cof
fin discovered in Im;i at Itibe, in Jutland, the
remains of a body was found inclosed in a uloak
of coarse woolen cloth; a woolen cap covered
the head, tho lower limbs wrapped in woolen
loggings. Another 00 An oontained tho par
phernalia of an ancient hollo, a brooch, a knife, a
double-pointed awl, and a pair of tweezers all
of bronze, two studs, one of bronie and one of
tin, and a javelin head of flint, liodio wrapHl
in woolen cloth have also lieen found in llritain.
It is, however, worthy of remark that it is only
in the exceptional cases in which the body is
turned into adipoooro (an unctuous, waxy sub
stance), that woolen oloth is found; in normal
circumstances that fabriu would disapioar far
more rapidly than linon.
Tho bronze remains found in the Rhono val
ley prove that the art of iiietal-working, once
acquired, was earned by theao early raoea to
great perfection. They were aeqiiainted with
mo processes in coming, tempering, mumping
and engraviug metal. With this discovery of a
new art came a simultaneous improvement lu
the potter's craft; tho rude cuia of the neo
lithic age disapiear, and are succeeded by ves
sels of an ondluaa variety of form and ornamen
tation, some of which aro extremely lieautiful.
Some of the vases are inlaid with tin, others aro
marked with the same patterns employed to dec
orate the Etruscan vases of Italy; while other,
found in the pilo dwellings of the Lake of Hour
get, have representations of men ami animals.
The oolleotinus of bronze jewelry sre also abun
dant and curious. They consist of hraeolota,
armlets, long hairpins with decorated heads,
riugs, ear-rings, uirdlrs adorned with pendant.
bronchos, buttons, studs aud torques for the
neck.
In primeval times, many animals were abun
dant all over Europe, which seem gradually to
have disappeared, such a the cave-hyena, the
cave-lion, the mammoth, the woolly-haired rhi
noceros, the hipMipntamus, the musk -ox, the
Irish elk, the wild horse, the glutton, the rein
deer, the auroch, ami the urus or wild ox.
With n giid to the antiquity of man, Sir
John Lubbock comes to the conclusion that
man certainly oxisted in Western Europe dur
ing the period of the mammoth, and the pre
sumption is that he alto existed iu pliocene and
even in miooen time; but tho proofs of that
sre to be sought, he thinks, in warm, almost in
tropical climate.
Prom the manners and customs of modern
lavages much light msy lie thrown upon the
early condition of prehistoric man. After con
sidering the condition and progress of the Hot
tentot, South He Islander, Esquimaux and
other, Sir Johu l.uhbnck remarks that, " It ia
imprawible not to admire the skill with whioh
they use their weapons and implements, their
ingenuity in hunting and fishing, and their elisx
and accurate powers of observation." My all
these qualities wa msy suppn prehistoric man
to have been distinguished in at least an equal
degree.
It is evident that man whan h drat spread
over the surface of the earth most have been in
a oondition represented by the low est t vpe of
savage. Then by alow degrees, by imitation,
and by tho leaching of experience, the capacity
of Infffrinir and elothln. hfaloif, ... sj lase.! .
ing his simple implement, would develop and
expand, until man, physically one of the weak
est and moat unprotected of all animals, would,
by dint of that subtile force whioh we term
mind, make himself independent of nature, and
at last, "monarch of all he surveyed," and able
to cope in his native coverts with the shaggy
lion, and overtake in the chase the fleet stag or
hounding antelope.
The wild man, like the wild beast, la always
timid, always auspicious, always on the watch ;
and the condition of the sago woman Is still
more cruel, " She sharaa," says Sir John I.uh
bock, "all the sufferings of her mat, and haa
also to bear his ill humor and ill-usage, Eveu
the possession of beauty, far from being an a!
leviation, is only an aggravation of tho evil of
her lot, by securing tor her a hanl thralldom to
many maatare."
With growing civilization, on the other hand,
come security and eoiilldonoe, and that sense of
justice and honor which ia the liest pmteotinu
of the weak ; and with the increasing and ame
liorating inlliienuea of soienoe, a great improve
ment may still be looked (or In the condition of
our race. We stand, ierohance, upon the
threshold of a future, brighter than vo the
brightest dreams of our past; on the verge of a
Utopia long deemed impossible, when the moral
nature, uuvitiated by an erring will, shall no
longer fetter the eager soul to ha aims and un
worthy aspirations, but shall leave It to it fre
seop,. and native regality of birthright and
not inn. Then to the human race, still in its
vsst masses so inettalily degurded, a new and
mora mighty civilisation may unlock houndla
store of knowledge nd power, and unseal fresb
fountains of pure and unfailing enjoyment,
Vmulrnrit from ( ViiiwirVrV Journal,
Y.tmt or Plants on tiik Hiai.th. -Th
popular belief that plants kept In th house or
injurious to the inmate, is purely fanciful.
Under the inlluence of sunlight th leave of
plants absorb carbonlaacid from the atmosphere
ami deoompoM It, yielding hack th life sup
porting oxygen, from whioh the inference might
lie justified that they were rather wholesome
than otherwise. On the other hand, It ha hn
shown that when the Influence of light I with
drawn, this actum of the plant is temporarily
suspended - the plant sleeps, and th I0M of
carbonic acid gas taken up during th day la
given off tt night ; aud lieuaue of tins action,
tha presence of plant in sleeping apartmenta
has been thought to lie unwholoaom or injuri
ous. The law) effects to b attributed to plwiU
from thia oaus are too trilling to b worth
serious oonsiderstioii, Tha inhabiting of sitting
and sleeping apartmenta warmed by baked air
drawu from foul cellars, the neglect nf mean to
secure pmper ventilation, ep tally in limping
apartments, and th poison, og of th atmosphere
of dwelling house by th entrance of sewer
gases through leaky traps, aro vary real aud
common dangers, compared to which th on
alluded to sinks into utter in.ignlll, am . if
indeed it lie worthy to lie considered ot ill
(fmlHfathnr owl HuUdrr.
A MauNrr '.u-aiii.z or Lirrimi TitMiToN.
Mr. C. Helly, of Indianapolia, ha laUly made
an H00 pound electro-megnrt. The two Iron
oora are four Inch thick by 30 Inch long,
and sb lo along a yoke g inch in length, to
as to vary th alatano of th pola. Th two
colls around tha two cure consist of eight layers
of isolated No, fl oopptr wire, ami tha terminals
aro o arranged that tha ehwtrical current may
b sent la virion wsys. Pol extension for
diamagnatiam I provided, and the various i
perimeota (or which it la adapted aro almost
nomberl. Thia magnet was mad for Prof.
Jahu, of one ol the school In Indianapolia.