Page:Science vol. 5.djvu/438

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��it the time uf iis discovery by Europeans, Allbousli it Is only twciil; years since they begHn lo lunke cul- leclioDs of Lfae atone %ge in South Africa, so many specimfiis have been found, that an older and a younger atone nge inay be recognized. As yet have been found iiu objects of polished atone. For a few years paat an Enulisb railroail-ent;ineer residing al Natal, who had made many finds, haa uuderlaken to examine ail Soutli Africa. From liis researclies, it appears that there are large qitantilles of etone im- piemenrs. both In the sea near llie Ca[H-, In llie alluvial layers at Natal, and in the mounralus. It i« impos- sible to fix the time of tlie^e stone objeela, Ejiikken- ntoddings have also been found In many places, near SimODStown and Capetown, and mnssea where the HutteotoU had burned lime from oyster-slir'lis: these do not bt^iong to the present natives, a9 the Kaffirs never eut sliell-fisU, and rarely fish. A find has also been made in the caverns, but nothing is luiown about it yeL In BasutO'land have been found arrow- heads oC flint. From the older Iron age the above- named engineer bad found, In the layers of gravel near the rivers, and in iai'ge hills covered with forest, and In the diamond diggings at KImberley, imple- ments and chips at a deplh of forty feel, where the diamonds occur. It may be concluded ihat liie atone age dates very far back. This shows that the preliU- torlc ages are not l)erioda of time, but slates of de- Telopment, — In rbeciseof Africa there was a sudden rise from the stone to the iron age, without any In- tervening bronze period, — the result, not of develop- ment from within, but of commercial from without.

��PARADISE FOUXD.

The title of this book will nttrauL nlteuLion, and find for it a wide sale. The mode of Ircnt- meut, and the st^vle too, are such aa are inosl pleasing to the popular mind. The book is very ingGDioits and learned, but, as it seems to us, conceived and written in Ihc spiiit of tidvo- cacy ratliei' than in the trac Beiciitiflc spirit. It is true, Bdcnlidc, as well as every other kind of literature, is laid uudcr eoulriljulioD : hut Buthonties ai-c used — now a Huxley, and now a Winslow — with little discrimination ; and tliuB eoncluaiona arc reached which a cautious science would not accept. Yet we believe Die book may be read with pi-oBt, eieu l»y the BcienllBc anthropologist.

There are few qiiestions connected with man more deeply interesting than the place of his origin ; for that lie did originate in one place, and not in many places, is now generally ad- mitted. Afler giving (we think at too great length) the various baseless speculations on this subject, the aullior states bis own thesis ;

���Br Win

��I, ffouglitun, Migltn.

��viz., that the cradle of the human race was a north-polar continent, now submerged ; the submergence being coincident with what science calls the glacial epoch, and what universal tradition calls the deluge. This view, he con- tends, consistently explains and reconciles all traditions and all scientific facts.

He proceeds, first, to remove soitic obvious objections. The climate of polar regions is now unfavorable for human life, as witnesses the tnelancholy history' of polar expeditions : but in mioccno times, as shown by its luxuriant forests of temperate and subtropic species, it was wonderfully mild and equable. During this time, too, one or more large bodies of polar land, or perhaps a imlar continent, existed where now only the ocean reigns. Good scientific authorities are cited for tbis belief.

The long polar night may be thought an ob- jection : but he shows that this has been great- ly exaggerated ; that there is more day and less night at the |X)le than anywhere else, viz., six months fnli day, nearly four months twi- light, and only two months full night. Add to this the full moon (which would be above the horizon during the polar night) and the aui'oras, and the |»lar man would have no reason to complain.

But Ihc most important scientific contribution to his view is the probable polar origin of many existing siiccics. From miocene times until now, there has been apparently a gradual though not uniform relrigeration of climate; and 'as a couse(]uencc a streaming southwaitl, along all longitude^ of species successively originated by chauge of climate at the pole. This view, first brought forward by Professor Asa Gray, has been most distinctly' formulated by Marquis dc Kagiorta. Among the number thus originating and migrating, the author in- cludes man ; and he gives much good scientific authority showing that lie is not alone in this belief. Hut the author, we think, overatat«a the facts. He seems to think all s|K!cies origi- nated in |>olar regions; but this is far tram true. It is probably true that there bos been from mioceoe times a streaming southwaixl of si)ecie8 originating there, but undoubtceuds much on the time of his southward migration. If, aa the author thinks, this took place in the quater- nary*, then he probably loft his home as man, and the modillcations have since gone only so far as to foi'm races. This point rct|uire9m

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