The Prehistoric World; Or, Vanished Races

by Emory Adams Allen

The evidences on which we predicate an extreme antiquity for man are necessarily cumulative. It is not from one source alone that we obtain information, but from many. Eminent men in nearly every department of knowledge have lent their aid to the elucidation of this subject. It can only be understood by those who will fairly weigh the facts that modern discoveries have unrolled before their eyes. There are many who have not done this, and are consequently unable to project their mental vision so far back into the very night of time, as is now demanded for the beginning of man’s first appearance on the earth. And, indeed, so enormously has this period been extended—so far back does it require us to go—that even the most enlightened investigator may well recoil in dismay when he first perceives the almost infinite lapse of years that are required by his calculation since the creation of man.

At this day the scholar must be ready to explain the steps by which he reaches his conclusions. Not necessarily explaining the minutiæ of his journey hither, but the main outlines of his course. This seems to call for a slight outline of Geology. The animal and vegetable tribes which have come and gone upon the earth, following each other like the shadows of passing clouds on a Summer’s day, have left their remains in the rocks which at that time were forming. A close investigation of these remains shows that they form the record book of nature, wherein we are permitted to read somewhat of her secrets. This had long been a sealed book to man; but science, as we have seen, constantly extending her domain, at length taught him the alphabet.

And the Geologist now unfolds the past age of our world with a variety of detail, and a certainty of conclusion well calculated to inspire us with grateful admiration.

It is no longer a question that many ages must have rolled away, during which our world was totally unfit for life of any kind, either animal or vegetable.

The nebular theory of Laplace, as modified by the modern astronomers, so satisfactorily explains many of the phenomena of the solar system, that it takes rank almost as a demonstrated fact. According to the terms of this theory, our Earth, now so dependent on the sun for light and warmth, was itself a glowing orb, and as a bright star radiated its light and heat into space. Grand conception, and probably true. It is now useless to speculate as to how many cycles of almost infinite years had begun and ended, before Earth’s fading fires gave notice that they must soon expire in night.

The stages through which the Earth passed in turn await the sun, save that there is no further beneficent luminary to give him light and heat: when time shall have quenched his fiery glow, death and night shall reign supreme, where now is life and light.

Time is long, and nature never hurries. She builds for infinite years, and recks not the time of building. The human mind is far too feeble to comprehend the duration of time that sped away and was gone ere the slowly falling temperature of the Earth admitted the formation of a crust over her surface. When that came, the first great scene was closed. The star had expired, the planet rolled in her annual course around the still glowing central sun. Now came the formative age of the world, when the great continents were outlined.

The atmosphere gradually freed itself from its weight of water-vapor, the rains descended, and the ocean took form and contour. We are concerned only with the outlines of Geology, not with its details. It is full of the most interesting facts, but is foreign to our present purpose. We will only say, there is a marked progression in the scale and importance of life forms.

The lower forms of animals appear first to be followed in time by the higher. It is true that some forms have survived through all the changes of Geological time to the present: yet, speaking generally, some forms of life are peculiar to each age, and the general phase of animal life is different with each period. They thus form epochs in the history of the world as read from the rocks, and though the beginning and ending of each age may blend by insensible gradations with that of the preceding and following, yet, taken as a whole, we observe in each such singularities of form and structure as to give name to each particular age.

In the fullness of time man appears; and it is our pleasant task to trace the evidence of his primitive state, his growth in culture, and his advancement made before the dawn of history. Our inquiry, then, is as to his prehistoric state. We use this term in the same sense as Dr. Wilson uses it: that is, to express the whole period disclosed to us by means of archæological evidence, as distinguished from what is known through historical records. We can not doubt but that this includes by far the largest portion of man’s existence. The time embraced within historical records, though different in different portions of the world, is but a brief period in comparison to the duration of time since he first went forth to possess the Earth. If we can make plain to our readers that man has lived in the world an extremely long time, going back indeed to a former Geological age—that his first state was very low and rude—that he has risen to his present high estate by means of his own exertions continued through long ages—and from this form a prophecy of a golden age to come in the yet distant future, we shall feel that we have not written in vain.