The Antiquity of Man Part 12

(FIGURE 17. Cyrena fluminalis, O.F. Muller, sp.*

(* For synonyms, see S. Woodward "Tibet Sh.e.l.ls" "Proceedings of the Zoological Society" July 8, 1856.)

a. Interior of left valve, from Gray's Thurrock, Ess.e.x.

b. Hinge of the same magnified.

c. Interior of right valve of a small specimen, from Shacklewell, London.

d. Outer surface of right valve, from Erith, Kent.)

TABLE 8/1. DATES OF SPECIFIC NAMES.

COLUMN 1: SPECIES.

COLUMN 2: DATE.

LIVING:

Tellina fluminalis, O.F. Muller: 1774.

Venus fluminalis Euphratis, Chemnitz: 1782.

Cyclas Euphratica, Lam.: 1806.

Cyrena cor, Lam. (Nile): 1818.

Cyrena consobrina, Caillaud (Nile): 1823.

Cyrena Cashmiriensis, Desh.: Corbicuia fluminalis, Muhlfeldt.: 1811.

FOSSIL:

Cyrena trigonula, S. Woodward: 1834.

Cyrena Gemmellarii, Philippi: 1836.

Cyrena Duchastelii, Nyst: 1838.

The following marine sh.e.l.ls occur mixed with the freshwater species above enumerated:--Buccinum undatum, Littorina littorea, Na.s.sa reticulata, Purpura lapillus, Tellina solidula, Cardium edule, and fragments of some others. Several of these I have myself collected entire, though in a state of great decomposition, lying in the white sand called "sable aigre" by the workmen. They are all littoral species now proper to the contiguous coast of France. Their occurrence in a fossil state a.s.sociated with freshwater sh.e.l.ls at Menchecourt had been noticed as long ago as 1836 by MM. Ravin and Baillon, before M. Boucher de Perthes commenced the researches which have since made the locality so celebrated.*

(* D'Archiac, "Histoire des Progres" etc. volume 2 page 154.)

The numbers since collected preclude all idea of their having been brought inland as eatable sh.e.l.ls by the fabricators of the flint hatchets found at the bottom of the fluvio-marine sands. From the same beds, and in marls alternating with the sands, remains of the elephant, rhinoceros, and other mammalia have been exhumed.

Above the fluvio-marine strata are those designated Number 2 in the section (Figure 16), which are almost devoid of stratification, and probably formed of mud or sediment thrown down by the waters of the river when they overflowed the ancient alluvial plain of that day. Some land sh.e.l.ls, a few river sh.e.l.ls, and bones of mammalia, some of them extinct, occur in Number 2. Its upper surface has been deeply furrowed and cut into by the action of water, at the time when the earthy matter of Number 1 was superimposed. The materials of this uppermost deposit are arranged as if they had been the result of land floods, taking place after the formations 2 and 3 had been raised, or had become exposed to denudation.

The fluvio-marine strata and overlying loam of Menchecourt recur on the opposite or left bank of the alluvial plain of the Somme, at a distance of 2 or 3 miles. They are found at Mautort, among other places, and I obtained there the flint hatchet shown in Figure 9, of an oval form. It was extracted from gravel, above which were strata containing a mixture of marine and freshwater sh.e.l.ls, precisely like those of Menchecourt.

In the alluvium of all parts of the valley, both at high and low levels, rolled bones are sometimes met with in the gravel. Some of the flint tools in the gravel of Abbeville have their angles very perfect, others have been much triturated, as if in the bed of the main river or some of its tributaries.

The mammalia most frequently cited as having been found in the deposits Numbers 2 and 3 at Menchecourt, are the following:--

Elephas primigenius.

Rhinoceros tichorhinus.

Equus fossilis, Owen.

Bos primigenius.

Cervus somonensis, Cuvier.

C. tarandus priscus, Cuvier.

Felis spelaea.

Hyaena spelaea.

The Ursus spelaeus has also been mentioned by some writers; but M. Lartet says he has sought in vain for it among the osteological treasures sent from Abbeville to Cuvier at Paris, and in other collections. The same palaeontologist, after a close scrutiny of the bones sent formerly to the Paris Museum from the valley of the Somme, observed that some of them bore the evident marks of an instrument, agreeing well with incisions such as a rude flint-saw would produce.

Among other bones mentioned as having been thus artificially cut, are those of a Rhinoceros tichorhinus, and the antlers of Cervus somonensis.*

(* "Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society" volume 16 1860 page 471.)

The evidence obtained by naturalists that some of the extinct mammalia of Menchecourt really lived and died in this part of France, at the time of the embedding of the flint tools in fluviatile strata, is most satisfactory; and not the less so for having been put on record long before any suspicion was entertained that works of art would ever be detected in the same beds. Thus M. Baillon, writing in 1834 to M. Ravin, says: "They begin to meet with fossil bones at the depth of 10 or 12 feet in the Menchecourt sand-pits, but they find a much greater quant.i.ty at the depth of 18 and 20 feet. Some of them were evidently broken before they were embedded, others are rounded, having, without doubt, been rolled by running water. It is at the bottom of the sand-pits that the most entire bones occur. Here they lie without having undergone fracture or friction, and seem to have been articulated together at the time when they were covered up. I found in one place a whole hind limb of a rhinoceros, the bones of which were still in their true relative position. They must have been joined together by ligaments, and even surrounded by muscles at the time of their interment. The entire skeleton of the same species was lying at a short distance from the spot."*

(* "Societe Roy. d'Emulation d'Abbeville" 1834 page 197.)

If we suppose that the greater number of the flint implements occurring in the neighbourhood of Abbeville and Amiens were brought by river action into their present position, we can at once explain why so large a proportion of them are found at considerable depths from the surface, for they would naturally be buried in gravel and not in fine sediment, or what may be termed "inundation mud," such as Number 2 (Figure 16), a deposit from tranquil water, or where the stream had not sufficient force or velocity to sweep along Chalk flints, whether wrought or unwrought. Hence we have almost always to pa.s.s down through a ma.s.s of inc.u.mbent loam with land sh.e.l.ls, or through fine sand with freshwater molluscs, before we get into the beds of gravel containing hatchets.

Occasionally a weapon used as a projectile may have fallen into quiet water, or may have dropped from a canoe to the bottom of the river, or may have been floated by ice, as are some stones occasionally by the Thames in severe winters, and carried over the meadows bordering its banks; but such cases are exceptional, though helping to explain how isolated flint tools or pebbles and angular stones are now and then to be seen in the midst of the finest loams.

The endless variety in the sections of the alluvium of the valley of the Somme, may be ascribed to the frequent silting up of the main stream and its tributaries during different stages of the excavation of the valley, probably also during changes in the level of the land. As a rule, when a river attacks and undermines one bank, it throws down gravel and sand on the opposite side of its channel, which is growing somewhere shallower, and is soon destined to be raised so high as to form an addition to the alluvial plain, and to be only occasionally inundated. In this way, after much encroachment on cliff or meadow at certain points, we find at the end of centuries that the width of the channel has not been enlarged, for the new made ground is raised after a time to the average height of the older alluvial tract. Sometimes an island is formed in midstream, the current flowing for a while on both sides of it, and at length scooping out a deeper channel on one side so as to leave the other to be gradually filled up during freshets and afterwards elevated by inundation mud, or "brick-earth." During the levelling up of these old channels, a flood sometimes cuts into and partially removes portions of the previously stratified matter, causing those repeated signs of furrowing and filling up of cavities, those memorials of doing and undoing, of which the tool-bearing sands and gravels of Abbeville and Amiens afford such reiterated ill.u.s.trations, and of which a parallel is furnished by the ancient alluvium of the Thames valley, where similar bones of extinct mammalia and sh.e.l.ls, including Cyrena fluminalis, are found.

Professor Noeggerath, of Bonn, informs me that, about the year 1845, when the bed of the Rhine was deepened artificially by the blasting and removal of rock in the narrows at Bingerloch, not far from Bingen, several flint hatchets and an extraordinary number of iron weapons of the Roman period were brought up by the dredge from the bed of the great river. The decomposition of the iron had caused much of the gravel to be cemented together into a conglomerate. In such a case we have only to suppose the Rhine to deviate slightly from its course, changing its position, as it has often done in various parts of its plain in historical times, and then tools of the stone and iron periods would be found in gravel at the bottom with a great thickness of sand and overlying loam deposited above them.

Changes in a river plain, such as those above alluded to, give rise frequently to ponds, swamps, and marshes, marking the course of old beds or branches of the river not yet filled up, and in these depressions sh.e.l.ls proper both to running and stagnant water may be preserved, and quadrupeds may be mired. The latest and uppermost deposit of the series will be loam or brick-earth, with land and amphibious sh.e.l.ls (Helix and Succinea), while below will follow strata containing freshwater sh.e.l.ls, implying continuous submergence; and lowest of all in most sections will be the coa.r.s.e gravel acc.u.mulated by a current of considerable strength and velocity.

When the St. Katharine docks were excavated at London, and similar works executed on the banks of the Mersey, old s.h.i.+ps were dug out, as I have elsewhere noticed,* showing how the Thames and Mersey have in modern times been s.h.i.+fting their channels.

(* "Principles of Geology" 10th edition volume 2 page 547.)

Recently, an old silted-up bed of the Thames has been discovered by boring at s...o...b..ryness at the mouth of the river opposite Sheerness, as I learn from Mr. Mylne. The old deserted branch is separated from the new or present channel of the Thames, by a ma.s.s of London Clay which has escaped denudation. The depth of the old branch, or the thickness of fluviatile strata with which it has been filled up, is 75 feet. The actual channel in the neighbourhood is now 60 feet deep, but there is probably 10 or 15 feet of stratified sand and gravel at the bottom; so that, should the river deviate again from its course, its present bed might be the receptacle of a fluvio-marine formation 75 feet thick, equal to the former one of s...o...b..ryness, and more considerable than that of Abbeville. It would consist both of freshwater and marine strata, as the salt water is carried by the tide far up above Sheerness; but in order that such deposits should resemble, in geological position, the Menchecourt beds, they must be raised 10 or 15 feet above their present level, and be partially eroded. Such erosion they would not fail to suffer during the process of upheaval, because the Thames would scour out its bed, and not alter its position relatively to the sea, while the land was gradually rising.

Before the ca.n.a.l was made at Abbeville, the tide was perceptible in the Somme for some distance above that city. It would only require, therefore, a slight subsidence to allow the salt water to reach Menchecourt, as it did in the Pleistocene period. As a stratum containing exclusively land and freshwater sh.e.l.ls usually underlies the fluvio-marine sands at Menchecourt, it seems that the river first prevailed there, after which the land subsided; and then there was an upheaval which raised the country to a greater height than that at which it now stands, after which there was a second sinking, indicated by the position of the peat, as already explained. All these changes happened since Man first inhabited this region.

At several places in the environs of Abbeville there are fluviatile deposits at a higher level by 50 feet than the uppermost beds at Menchecourt, resting in like manner on the Chalk. One of these occurs in the suburbs of the city at Moulin Quignon, 100 feet above the Somme and on the same side of the valley as Menchecourt, and containing flint implements of the same antique type and the bones of elephants; but no marine sh.e.l.ls have been found there, nor in any gravel or sand at higher elevations than the Menchecourt marine sh.e.l.ls.

It has been a matter of discussion among geologists whether the higher or the lower sands and gravels of the Somme valley are the more ancient.

As a general rule, when there are alluvial formations of different ages in the same valley, those which occupy a more elevated position above the river plain are the oldest. In Auvergne and Velay, in Central France, where the bones of fossil quadrupeds occur at all heights above the present rivers from 10 to 1000 feet, we observe the terrestrial fauna to depart in character from that now living in proportion as we ascend to higher terraces and platforms. We pa.s.s from the lower alluvium, containing the mammoth, tichorhine rhinoceros, and reindeer, to various older groups of fossils, till, on a tableland 1000 feet high (near Le Puy, for example), the abrupt termination of which overlooks the present valley, we discover an old extinct river-bed covered by a current of ancient lava, showing where the lowest level was once situated. In that elevated alluvium the remains of a Tertiary mastodon and other quadrupeds of like antiquity are embedded.

If the Menchecourt beds had been first formed, and the valley, after being nearly as deep and wide as it is now, had subsided, the sea must have advanced inland, causing small delta-like acc.u.mulations at successive heights, wherever the main river and its tributaries met the sea. Such a movement, especially if it were intermittent, and interrupted occasionally by long pauses, would very well account for the acc.u.mulation of stratified debris which we encounter at certain points in the valley, especially around Abbeville and Amiens. But we are precluded from adopting this theory by the entire absence of marine sh.e.l.ls, and the presence of freshwater and land species, and mammalian bones, in considerable abundance, in the drift both of higher and lower levels above Abbeville. Had there been a total absence of all organic remains, we might have imagined the former presence of the sea, and the destruction of such remains might have been ascribed to carbonic acid or other decomposing causes; but the Pleistocene and implement-bearing strata can be shown by their fossils to be of fluviatile origin.

FLINT IMPLEMENTS IN GRAVEL NEAR AMIENS. GRAVEL OF ST. ACHEUL.

When we ascend the valley of the Somme, from Abbeville to Amiens, a distance of about 25 miles, we observe a repet.i.tion of all the same alluvial phenomena which we have seen exhibited at Menchecourt and its neighbourhood, with the single exception of the absence of marine sh.e.l.ls and of Cyrena fluminalis. We find lower-level gravel, such as Number 2, Figure 7, and higher-level alluvium, such as Number 3, the latter rising to 100 feet above the plain, which at Amiens is about 50 feet above the level of the river at Abbeville. In both the upper and lower gravels, as Dr. Rigollot stated in 1854, flint tools and the bones of extinct animals, together with river sh.e.l.ls and land sh.e.l.ls of living species, abound.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figures 18, 19 and 20. Elephas]

(FIGURE 18.* Elephas primigenius.

Penultimate molar, lower jaw, right side, one-third of natural size, Pleistocene. Co-existed with Man.)

(FIGURE 19.* Elephas antiquus, Falconer.

Penultimate molar, lower jaw, right side, one-third of natural size, Pleistocene and Newer Pliocene. Co-existed with Man.)

(FIGURE 20.* Elephas meridionalis, Nesti.