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Article THE SAVANS IN SCOTLAND. ← Page 3 of 4 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Savans In Scotland.
rock broken up aud afterwards redeposited , or as the French say remand , and , therefore , of much newer date—an hypothesis which well deserves consideration ; but I feel that we are , at present , so ignorant of the precise circumstances ancl position under which these celebrated human fossils were found , that I ought not to waste time in speculating on their probable mode of interment , but simply state that , in my opinion , they afford no demonstration of
man having witnessed the last volcanic eruptions of central France . The skulls , according to the judgment of the most competent osteologists who have yet seen them , do not seem to depart in a larked manner from the modern European , or Caucasian , type , And the human bones arc in a fresher state than those of the Blephas meridioncdh and other quadrupeds found in any breccia of Denise which can be referred to the period even of the latest
volcanic eruptions . But , while I have thus failed to obtain satisfactory evidence in favour of the remote origin assigned to the human fossils of Le Puy , I am fully prepared to corroborate the conclusions ivhich have been recently laid before the Royal Society by Mr . Prestwich , in regard to the age of the flint implements associated in undisturbed gravel , in the north of France , with the holies of elephants , at Abbeville and Amiens . These wore first
noticed at Abbeville , and their true geological position assigned to them by M . Boucher de Perthes , " in 1849 , in his " Antiquites Celtiques , " AA'hile those of Amiens were afterwards described in 1855 , by the late Dr . Rigollot . For a clear statement of the facts I may refer you to the abstract of Mr . Prestwich ' s memoir in the Proceedings of the Eoyal Society for 1859 and have onlto add that I have myself obtained
abun-, y dance of flint implements ( some of which are laid upon the table ) during a short visit to Amiens and Abbeville . Two ofthe worked flints cf Amiens were discovered in the gravel jiits of St . Acheul —one at the depth often , and the other of seventeen feet below the surface , at the time of my visit ; and M . Georges Pouchet , of Rouen , author of a work on the Faces of Man , ivho has since visited the
spot , has extracted ivith his own hands one of these implements , as Messrs . Prestwich and Flower hacl done before him . The stratified gravel resting immediately on the chalk in which tiiese rudely fashioned instruments are buried , belongs to the post pliocene period , all the freshwater and land shells which accompany them being of existing species . The great number of the fossil instruments which have been likened to hatchets
, spear heads , and wedges , is truly wonderful . More than a thousand of them have already been met ivith in the hwt ten years , in the valley ofthe Somme , in an area fifteen miles m length . I infer that a tribe of savages , to whom the use of iron was unknown , made a long sojourn in this region ; and I am reminded of a large Indian mound which I saw in St . Simond ' s island , in Georgia—a mound ten acres iu area , and having an heiht of ive feetchiefl
average g ( , y composed of cast-away oyster shells , throughout ivhich arroAV heads , stone axes , and Indian pottery arc dispersed . If the nei ghbouring river , the Alatamaha , or the sea which is at hand , should invade , sweep away , and stratify th-2 contents of this mound , it might produce a very analogous accuni .. lation of human implements , unmixed perhaps ivith human bones . Although the accompanying shells are oflii'ing species , I believe the antiquity of the Abbeville and Amiens flint
instruments to be great indeed if compared to the times of history or tradition . 1 consider the gravel to be of fluviatilc origin ; but I could detect nothing in the structure of its several parts indicating Ciitaclysnial action , nothing that might not be clue to such river-Hoods as ive have witnessed in Scotland during the last half century . It must have required a long period for the wearing cloAA'ii ofthe chalk whicli supplied the broken flints for the formation of much
so gravel at various hei ghts , sometimes one hundred feet above the present level of the Somme , for the deposition of hue sediment , including entire shells , both terrestrial and aquatic , and also for the denudation ivhich the entire mass of stratified drift has undergone , portions having been swept away , so that what remains of it often terminates abruptly in old river cliffs , besides being covered by a newer unstrati ' ficd drift , To exlain these
p changes , I should infer considerable oscillations ni the level of the land in that part of France—slow movements of upheaval and subsidence , deranging , but not wholly displacing , the course of the ancient rivers . Lastly , the disappearance of the elephant , rhinoceros , and other genera of quadrupeds now foreign tn Europe implies , in like manner , a vast lapse of ages separating the era in whicli the fossil implements were framed and that of Hie iiiA-asion of Gaul by the Romans .
Among the problems of hi gh theoretical interest which the recent progress of geology and natural history has brought into notice , no one is more prominent , and , at the same time , more obscure , than that relating to the origin of species . On this
difficult and mysterious subject a work will very shortly appear , by Mr . Charles Darwin , the result of twenty years of observation ancl experiments in zoolog }' , botany , and geology , by which he has been led to the conclusion that those poivcrs of nature ivhich give rise to races and permanent varieties in animals aud plants arc the same as those whicli , in much longer periods , produce species , and , in a still longer series of ages , give rise to differof
ences generic rank . He appears to mc to have succeeded , I 13 ' his investigations and reasonings , to have thrown a flood of light on many classes of phenomena connected with the affinities , geographical distribution , and geological succession of organic beings , for which no other hypothesis has been able , or has even attempted , to account . Among the communications sent in to this sectionI have
, received from Dr . Dawson , of Montreal , one confirming the discovery ivhich he and I formerly announced of a land shell , or pupa , in the coal formation of Nova Scotia . "When we contemplate the vast scries of formations intervening between the tertiary and carboniferous strata , all destitute of air breathing mollusca—at least of the terrcstial class—such a discovery affords an important illustration of the extreme defectiveness of our
geological records , ft has ahvays appeared to me that the advocates of progressive development have too much overlooked the imperfection of these records , and that , consequent ! }' , a large part of the generalizations in which they have indulged in regard to the first appearance of the different classes of animals , especially of air breathers , ivill have to he modified or abandoned . Nevertheless , that the doctrine of progressive development may contain
in it the germs of a true theory , I am far from denying . The consideration of this question will come before you when the age of the white sandstone of Elgin is discussed—a rock hitherto referred to the old red , or Devonian formation , but now ascertained to contain several reptilian forms , of so high an organization as to raise a doubt in the minds of many geologists whether so old a place in the series can correctly be assigned to it .
ail ! . I . AUJIEXCK OI . U'lIAXV OX JAPAN . The three ports of the empire visited by the Mission , ancl AA'hich fell more immediately under our observation , were Nagasaki , situated in the Island of Kinsin ; Sowinda , a port opened by Commodore Perry on the Promontory of Idsa ; and Yedo , the capital city of the empire . Of these , Nagasaki is the one with which ive have been for the longest period familiar . In former times it was
a fishing village , situated in the principality of Omura ; it is IIOAV an imperial demesne , and the most flourishing port in the empire , ft OAi'es its origin to the establishment , at this advantageous point , of a Portuguese settlement in the year 15 G 9 , and its prosperity to the enlightened policy pursued by the Christian prince of Omnra , in Avhose territory it ivas situated , while its transference to the Crown was the result of political intrigues on the part of the
Portuguese settlers , in consequence of ivhich the celebrated Tageo Saina included it among the lands appertaining to the Crown . Situated almost at the westernmost extremity of the empire , at the head of a deep landlocked harbour , and in convenient proximity to some ofthe wealthiest and most productive principalities iii the empire , Nagasaki possesses great local advantages , and will doubtless continue an important commercial emporium , even when the trade of the empire at large is more fully developed ancl has found an outlet through other ports . The town is
pleasantly situated on a belt of level ground ivhich intervenes between the water ancl the swelling hills , forming an amphitheatre of great scenic beauty , their slopes tcrrnced with rice fields ; their valleys heavily timbered , and watered by gushing mountain streams ; their projecting points crowned ivith temples or frowning with batteries ; everywhere cottages buried in foliage reveal their existence by curling wreaths of blue smoke ; in the creeks and inlets
picturesque boats lie moored ; sacred groves , approached by rockcut steps , or pleasure gardens tastefully laid out , enchant the eye . The whole aspect of nature is such as cannot fail to produce a most favourable impression upon the mind of the stranger visiting Japan for the first time . The city itself contains a population of about 50 , 000 , and consists of between eighty and ninety streets , running at right ang les to each otherbroad h to admit of the wheeled
— enoug passage of vehicles , were any to be seen in them—and kept scrupulously clean . A canal intersects the city , spanned by thirty-five bridges , of which fifteen are handsomely constructed of stone , The Dutch factory is placed upon a small fan- shaped island about two hundred yards in length , ancl connected with the mainland by a bridge . Until recently , the members of the factory were confined exclusively to this limited area , and kept under a strict and rig id surveillance . The old regime is now . however , rapidly passing
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Savans In Scotland.
rock broken up aud afterwards redeposited , or as the French say remand , and , therefore , of much newer date—an hypothesis which well deserves consideration ; but I feel that we are , at present , so ignorant of the precise circumstances ancl position under which these celebrated human fossils were found , that I ought not to waste time in speculating on their probable mode of interment , but simply state that , in my opinion , they afford no demonstration of
man having witnessed the last volcanic eruptions of central France . The skulls , according to the judgment of the most competent osteologists who have yet seen them , do not seem to depart in a larked manner from the modern European , or Caucasian , type , And the human bones arc in a fresher state than those of the Blephas meridioncdh and other quadrupeds found in any breccia of Denise which can be referred to the period even of the latest
volcanic eruptions . But , while I have thus failed to obtain satisfactory evidence in favour of the remote origin assigned to the human fossils of Le Puy , I am fully prepared to corroborate the conclusions ivhich have been recently laid before the Royal Society by Mr . Prestwich , in regard to the age of the flint implements associated in undisturbed gravel , in the north of France , with the holies of elephants , at Abbeville and Amiens . These wore first
noticed at Abbeville , and their true geological position assigned to them by M . Boucher de Perthes , " in 1849 , in his " Antiquites Celtiques , " AA'hile those of Amiens were afterwards described in 1855 , by the late Dr . Rigollot . For a clear statement of the facts I may refer you to the abstract of Mr . Prestwich ' s memoir in the Proceedings of the Eoyal Society for 1859 and have onlto add that I have myself obtained
abun-, y dance of flint implements ( some of which are laid upon the table ) during a short visit to Amiens and Abbeville . Two ofthe worked flints cf Amiens were discovered in the gravel jiits of St . Acheul —one at the depth often , and the other of seventeen feet below the surface , at the time of my visit ; and M . Georges Pouchet , of Rouen , author of a work on the Faces of Man , ivho has since visited the
spot , has extracted ivith his own hands one of these implements , as Messrs . Prestwich and Flower hacl done before him . The stratified gravel resting immediately on the chalk in which tiiese rudely fashioned instruments are buried , belongs to the post pliocene period , all the freshwater and land shells which accompany them being of existing species . The great number of the fossil instruments which have been likened to hatchets
, spear heads , and wedges , is truly wonderful . More than a thousand of them have already been met ivith in the hwt ten years , in the valley ofthe Somme , in an area fifteen miles m length . I infer that a tribe of savages , to whom the use of iron was unknown , made a long sojourn in this region ; and I am reminded of a large Indian mound which I saw in St . Simond ' s island , in Georgia—a mound ten acres iu area , and having an heiht of ive feetchiefl
average g ( , y composed of cast-away oyster shells , throughout ivhich arroAV heads , stone axes , and Indian pottery arc dispersed . If the nei ghbouring river , the Alatamaha , or the sea which is at hand , should invade , sweep away , and stratify th-2 contents of this mound , it might produce a very analogous accuni .. lation of human implements , unmixed perhaps ivith human bones . Although the accompanying shells are oflii'ing species , I believe the antiquity of the Abbeville and Amiens flint
instruments to be great indeed if compared to the times of history or tradition . 1 consider the gravel to be of fluviatilc origin ; but I could detect nothing in the structure of its several parts indicating Ciitaclysnial action , nothing that might not be clue to such river-Hoods as ive have witnessed in Scotland during the last half century . It must have required a long period for the wearing cloAA'ii ofthe chalk whicli supplied the broken flints for the formation of much
so gravel at various hei ghts , sometimes one hundred feet above the present level of the Somme , for the deposition of hue sediment , including entire shells , both terrestrial and aquatic , and also for the denudation ivhich the entire mass of stratified drift has undergone , portions having been swept away , so that what remains of it often terminates abruptly in old river cliffs , besides being covered by a newer unstrati ' ficd drift , To exlain these
p changes , I should infer considerable oscillations ni the level of the land in that part of France—slow movements of upheaval and subsidence , deranging , but not wholly displacing , the course of the ancient rivers . Lastly , the disappearance of the elephant , rhinoceros , and other genera of quadrupeds now foreign tn Europe implies , in like manner , a vast lapse of ages separating the era in whicli the fossil implements were framed and that of Hie iiiA-asion of Gaul by the Romans .
Among the problems of hi gh theoretical interest which the recent progress of geology and natural history has brought into notice , no one is more prominent , and , at the same time , more obscure , than that relating to the origin of species . On this
difficult and mysterious subject a work will very shortly appear , by Mr . Charles Darwin , the result of twenty years of observation ancl experiments in zoolog }' , botany , and geology , by which he has been led to the conclusion that those poivcrs of nature ivhich give rise to races and permanent varieties in animals aud plants arc the same as those whicli , in much longer periods , produce species , and , in a still longer series of ages , give rise to differof
ences generic rank . He appears to mc to have succeeded , I 13 ' his investigations and reasonings , to have thrown a flood of light on many classes of phenomena connected with the affinities , geographical distribution , and geological succession of organic beings , for which no other hypothesis has been able , or has even attempted , to account . Among the communications sent in to this sectionI have
, received from Dr . Dawson , of Montreal , one confirming the discovery ivhich he and I formerly announced of a land shell , or pupa , in the coal formation of Nova Scotia . "When we contemplate the vast scries of formations intervening between the tertiary and carboniferous strata , all destitute of air breathing mollusca—at least of the terrcstial class—such a discovery affords an important illustration of the extreme defectiveness of our
geological records , ft has ahvays appeared to me that the advocates of progressive development have too much overlooked the imperfection of these records , and that , consequent ! }' , a large part of the generalizations in which they have indulged in regard to the first appearance of the different classes of animals , especially of air breathers , ivill have to he modified or abandoned . Nevertheless , that the doctrine of progressive development may contain
in it the germs of a true theory , I am far from denying . The consideration of this question will come before you when the age of the white sandstone of Elgin is discussed—a rock hitherto referred to the old red , or Devonian formation , but now ascertained to contain several reptilian forms , of so high an organization as to raise a doubt in the minds of many geologists whether so old a place in the series can correctly be assigned to it .
ail ! . I . AUJIEXCK OI . U'lIAXV OX JAPAN . The three ports of the empire visited by the Mission , ancl AA'hich fell more immediately under our observation , were Nagasaki , situated in the Island of Kinsin ; Sowinda , a port opened by Commodore Perry on the Promontory of Idsa ; and Yedo , the capital city of the empire . Of these , Nagasaki is the one with which ive have been for the longest period familiar . In former times it was
a fishing village , situated in the principality of Omura ; it is IIOAV an imperial demesne , and the most flourishing port in the empire , ft OAi'es its origin to the establishment , at this advantageous point , of a Portuguese settlement in the year 15 G 9 , and its prosperity to the enlightened policy pursued by the Christian prince of Omnra , in Avhose territory it ivas situated , while its transference to the Crown was the result of political intrigues on the part of the
Portuguese settlers , in consequence of ivhich the celebrated Tageo Saina included it among the lands appertaining to the Crown . Situated almost at the westernmost extremity of the empire , at the head of a deep landlocked harbour , and in convenient proximity to some ofthe wealthiest and most productive principalities iii the empire , Nagasaki possesses great local advantages , and will doubtless continue an important commercial emporium , even when the trade of the empire at large is more fully developed ancl has found an outlet through other ports . The town is
pleasantly situated on a belt of level ground ivhich intervenes between the water ancl the swelling hills , forming an amphitheatre of great scenic beauty , their slopes tcrrnced with rice fields ; their valleys heavily timbered , and watered by gushing mountain streams ; their projecting points crowned ivith temples or frowning with batteries ; everywhere cottages buried in foliage reveal their existence by curling wreaths of blue smoke ; in the creeks and inlets
picturesque boats lie moored ; sacred groves , approached by rockcut steps , or pleasure gardens tastefully laid out , enchant the eye . The whole aspect of nature is such as cannot fail to produce a most favourable impression upon the mind of the stranger visiting Japan for the first time . The city itself contains a population of about 50 , 000 , and consists of between eighty and ninety streets , running at right ang les to each otherbroad h to admit of the wheeled
— enoug passage of vehicles , were any to be seen in them—and kept scrupulously clean . A canal intersects the city , spanned by thirty-five bridges , of which fifteen are handsomely constructed of stone , The Dutch factory is placed upon a small fan- shaped island about two hundred yards in length , ancl connected with the mainland by a bridge . Until recently , the members of the factory were confined exclusively to this limited area , and kept under a strict and rig id surveillance . The old regime is now . however , rapidly passing