第79章 Discovery upon Discovery(1)

IN order fully to understand the exclamation made by my uncle,and his allusions to these illustrious and learned men,it will be necessary to enter into certain explanations in regard to a circumstance of the highest importance to paleontology,or the science of fossil life,which had taken place a short time before our departure from the upper regions of the earth.

On the 28th of March,1863,some navigators under the direction of M.Boucher de Perthes,were at work in the great quarries of Moulin-Quignon,near Abbeville,in the department of the Somme,in France.While at work,they unexpectedly came upon a human jawbone buried fourteen feet below the surface of the soil.It was the first fossil of the kind that had ever been brought to the light of day.

Near this unexpected human relic were found stone hatchets and carved flints,colored and clothed by time in one uniform brilliant tint of verdigris.

The report of this extraordinary and unexpected discovery spread not only all over France,but over England and Germany.Many learned men belonging to various scientific bodies,and noteworthy among others,Messrs.Milne-Edwards and De Quatrefages,took the affair very much to heart,demonstrated the incontestable authenticity of the bone in question,and became-to use the phrase then recognized in England-the most ardent supporters of the "jawbone question."To the eminent geologists of the United Kingdom who looked upon the fact as certain-Messrs.Falconer,Buck,Carpenter,and others-were soon united the learned men of Germany,and among those in the first rank,the most eager,the most enthusiastic,was my worthy uncle,Professor Hardwigg.

The authenticity of a human fossil of the Quaternary period seemed then to be incontestably demonstrated,and even to be admitted by the most skeptical.

This system or theory,call it what you will,had,it is true,a bitter adversary in M.Elie de Beaumont.This learned man,who holds such a high place in the scientific world,holds that the soil of Moulin-Quignon does not belong to the diluvium but to a much less ancient stratum,and,in accordance with Cuvier in this respect,he would by no means admit that the human species was contemporary with the animals of the Quaternary epoch.My worthy uncle,Professor Hardwigg,in concert with the great majority of geologists,had held firm,had disputed,discussed,and finally,after considerable talking and writing,M.Elie de Beaumont had been pretty well left alone in his opinions.

We were familiar with all the details of this discussion,but were far from being aware then that since our departure the matter had entered upon a new phase.Other similar jawbones,though belonging to individuals of varied types and very different natures,had been found in the movable grey sands of certain grottoes in France,Switzerland,and Belgium;together with arms,utensils,tools,bones of children,of men in the prime of life,and of old men.The existence of men in the Quaternary period became,therefore,more positive every day.

But this was far from being all.New remains,dug up from the Pliocene or Tertiary deposits,had enabled the more far-seeing or audacious among learned men to assign even a far greater degree of antiquity to the human race.These remains,it is true,were not those of men;that is,were not the bones of men,but objects decidedly having served the human race:shinbones,thighbones of fossil animals,regularly scooped out,and in fact sculptured-bearing the unmistakable signs of human handiwork.

By means of these wondrous and unexpected discoveries,man ascended endless centuries in the scale of time;he,in fact,preceded the mastodon;became the contemporary of the Elephas meridionalis-the southern elephant;acquired an antiquity of over a hundred thousand years,since that is the date given by the most eminent geologists to the Pliocene period of the earth.Such was then the state of paleontologic science,and what we moreover knew sufficed to explain our attitude before this great cemetery of the plains of the Hardwigg Ocean.

It will now be easy to understand the Professor's mingled astonishment and joy when,on advancing about twenty yards,he found himself in the presence of,I may say face to face with,a specimen of the human race actually belonging to the Quaternary period!

It was indeed a human skull,perfectly recognizable.Had a soil of very peculiar nature,like that of the cemetery of St.Michel at Bordeaux,preserved it during countless ages?This was the question I asked myself,but which I was wholly unable to answer.But this head with stretched and parchmenty skin,with the teeth whole,the hair abundant,was before our eyes as in life!

I stood mute,almost paralyzed with wonder and awe before this dread apparition of another age.My uncle,who on almost every occasion was a great talker,remained for a time completely dumfounded.He was too full of emotion for speech to be possible.After a while,however,we raised up the body to which the skull belonged.We stood it on end.It seemed,to our excited imaginations,to look at us with its terrible hollow eyes.

After some minutes of silence,the man was vanquished by the Professor.Human instincts succumbed to scientific pride and exultation.Professor Hardwigg,carried away by his enthusiasm,forgot all the circumstances of our journey,the extraordinary position in which we were placed,the immense cavern which stretched far away over our heads.There can be no doubt that he thought himself at the Institution addressing his attentive pupils,for he put on his most doctorial style,waved his hand,and began: