Photograph from Osborn's "Men of The Old Stone Age" the Tertiary, or so-called Age of Mammals, came to a close with what is known as the Pliocene period. The earth then already bore substantial resemblance to what it is today, although with a warmer climate, and the mammalian life, although infinitely richer than at present, included creatures substantially kin to most of those now existing. Laymen must remember that these different ages or periods merged gradually into one another, and that the names we give them are merely necessary terms of convenience. The Pleistocene Age followed the Pliocene. It is sometimes called the Quaternary. Throughout its duration the world went through many physical changes. Continents rose and fell, became connected and again disconnected; mountain chains were worn down and others thrust upward; lakes filled and vanished; periods of great cold were followed by periods of warmth. Because of these changes the waves of life flowed hither and thither. During its early stages this age could appropriately be called the Age of the Horse, the Lion, and the Elephant, for these three beasts in many forms abounded on every continent of the globe except Australia. But man was slowly developing from the half-human to the wholly human throughout this immense period of time, and at its close the Age of Man may fairly be said to have begun. THE RECORDS SHOW THAT MAN HAS LIVED IN FRANCE FOR AT LEAST 100,000 YEARS It is in France that the most complete records of prehistoric man are found 3 AN OUTLINE MAP OF EUROPE AT A PERIOD WHEN THE BRITISH ISLES AND SCANDINAVIAN PENINSULA WERE A PART OF THE MAINLAND Europe was then in the period of maximum continental elevation, in which the coast-lines were widely extended, connecting Africa and Europe in a single vast peninsula and affording free migration routes for animal and human races north and south, as well as east and west. records which show a continuous human occupation of the region for at least a hundred thousand years; and French archæologists have taken the lead in deciphering these records. The countries of Europe immediately surrounding France also yield invaluable records; and in consequence our knowledge of the prehistory of man is almost, but not quite, confined to his development in Europe. All the earlier divisions of this prehistory, stretching over an immeasurable period of time, are included in the culture stage known as paleolithic, so called because during these many hundreds of centuries the successive races of men used only chipped stone tools and implements. Following this immensely long Old Stone Age came in quick succession the relatively short ages known as those of New Stone, or polished stone, of Bronze, and of Iron. THE MOST IMPORTANT BOOK ON THE EVOLUTION OF MAN SINCE DARWIN'S "DESCENT OF MAN" The best book dealing in concise form with the hoary antiquity of man as he just appeared and is by one of our fellowwas up to the end of paleolithic times has countrymen. The author is Henry Fairfield Osborn, of the American Museum of Natural History. Dr. Osborn's book covers in masterly manner the Old Stone Age of Europe. It therefore covers substantially all that we now know of the development of hu From a drawing by Charles R. Knight THE IRISH ELK OF PLEISTOCENE EUROPE This magnificent deer (found fossil in the Irish peat-bogs) was not a true elk, but an enormous fallow deer (recent examples of which still exist in Europe). The spread of the antlers was very great, as much as 10 feet in some cases. The animal stood 7 feet at the shoulder, and the head and feet were small in proportion to the general bulk. The females had no antlers. This deer first appeared in western Europe during the first inter-Glacial age, before the advent of man in western Europe. manity* from the days of the ape-man of Java, through the hundreds of thousands of years during which the chinless pre-men dwelt in Europe, to the time when men of substantially the present type hunted the mammoth and the bison north and south of the Pyrenees, and drew and painted the great beasts on the walls of their home caverns. This is the crucial period in the evolution of man from a strong and cunning brute into a being having dominion over all brutes and kinship with worlds lying outside and beyond our own. In Mr. Osborn's book this period is for the first time covered as a whole and treated as fully as our present knowledge permits. It is the most important work on the "Men of the Old Stone Age: Their Environment, Life, and Art," by Henry Fairfield Osborn. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. evolution of our own species that has appeared since Darwin's "Descent of Man." Many works of high, merit have dealt with phases of what is here covered, and some suggestive books of larger scope have been written. The whole subject has now been covered by a writer whose exhaustive and many-sided knowledge, whose long scientific training, whose natural insight, and whose singularly just and fair temper enable him to give us the first full, clear, and critical presentation and interpretation of all that has been discovered and soundly determined since Darwin wrote that one of his masterpieces which especially dealt with man. This is a strong statement. Yet it is verified by an examination of the multitudinous works treating of the matter. There are books of the highest value MAP OF EUROPE, SHOWING THE GREAT SHEET OF ICE THAT COVERED THE BRITISH The ice fields and glaciers, shown in white on this map, then reached their greatest extension, and eastern Europe was depressed to such an extent that the Black and Caspian and Aral seas formed one continuous body of water. After the ice retreated the Heidelberg man appeared, an immigrant from Asia, probably 250,000 years ago (see page 119). dealing with the archæological side, such as that of Dechelette, recently killed in battle (for, incidentally, the French archæologists do not permit their studies of the dead to shrivel their patriotic devotion to living duty), and the magnificent volumes of Cartaillac, Brenil, and Obermaier, which we owe to the_generous scientific enthusiasm of the Prince of Monaco. There are other books on the geological side of the period, such as the notable volumes of Chamberlin and Geikie, which could have been written only by specialized experts. There are many studies of human remains and of the remains of the accompanying beast faunas by French, English, and German writers. All of these are indispensable to the scholar; but each covers only one facet of the crystal. Finally, there are books dealing with the general subject-excellent booksbut none of them possessing all the qualities which are essential to the full understanding of the problem. Lord Avebury's "Prehistoric Times" was written when it was still necessary to argue with those who disbelieved in the antiquity of man, their reasons being substantially similar to those of the other conservatives who a couple of centuries earlier treated as impious the statement that the earth went round the sun. From a drawing by Charles R. Knight A CONTEMPORARY OF THE HEIDELBERG MAN, LONG SINCE EXTINCT: THE WOOLLY RHINOCEROS TICHORHINUS, PLEISTOCENE The woolly rhinoceros (Pleistocene), a European form found frozen in Siberian ice fields. This singular creature, like the mammoth, was covered with long reddish wool, which served as an effective protection against the bitter cold of its native home (see page 119). In Osborn's book for the first time everything is put together-geology, paleography, the known climatic changes, the plant life, including the succession and migrations of the various floras; the animal life, including the succession and migration of the various great mammalian faunas; and finally what is known of ancient man himself in these surroundings. WHEN THE BRITISHI ISLES WERE PART OF FRANCE AND THE BALTIC A FRESHWATER LAKE During the immense period of time when the Old Stone man dwelt in western Europe it was, as now, a peninsula of the huge Eurasiatic landmass. Again and again it was partially covered by ice-sheets from different centers of dispersal, chiefly the Alps and the region that includes what is now the Baltic Peninsula. Slowly the land rose and fell. It was connected and disconnected by narrow land bridges with Africa. When the land cncroached on the sea the British Islands became part of France and Flanders, and the Rhine and the Seine were huge rivers, compared to which the present-day Rhine and Seine look like brooks. The Baltic became a fresh-water lake. Then, again, the ocean recovered its own and extended far beyond its present limits. These changes were not cataclysms; probably changes as great are at this moment going on in the world. But to human perceptions such earth movements are so gradual as to be impossible of notice by any individual or generation. UNLIKE ASIA AND THE AMERICAS, EUROPE DID NOT ORIGINATE BEASTS OR MEN These climatic and geographic oscillations perhaps explain the apparent fact that Europe was not a center of origin |