Illogical Geology, the Weakest Point in the Evolution Theory

by George McCready Price

"Unfortunately the skull of the only perfect skeleton is said to have been of fair proportions and superior to those of the ruder types of post-Glacial men. This has cast a shade of suspicion on the discovery, especially on the part of evolutionists, who think it is not in accordance with theory that man should retrograde between the Pliocene and the early modern period instead of advancing."[89]

Lastly, we have the following about the Miocene:

"There are, however, in France two localities (Puy, Courney and Thenay), one in the Upper and the other in the Middle Miocene, which have afforded what are supposed to be worked flints."

He adds that "The geological age of the deposits seems in both cases beyond question;" but contents himself with a derisive answer about these chipped flints being possibly "the handiwork of Miocene apes."

This language, coming from such a source, would seem as good evidence as is needed to prove that Man was contemporary with, and that his remains are now found among the fossils of the Middle Miocene. For it must be remembered that these are reluctant admissions drawn from this illustrious scientist, who was one of the last champions of the old ideas about the "recent" origin of Man. As Pres. Asa Mahan of Cornell has said, "Admissions in favor of truth from the ranks of its enemies constitute the highest kind of evidence." At any rate, I shall treat this point as already proved, for whether this particular instance is accepted or not, practically all modern writers admit the fact of "Middle Tertiary Man."

I have already alluded to the recently discovered paintings on the cave walls of Southern France, where reindeer, aurochs, horses and mammoths have been reproduced with striking accuracy and skill, and of such an age that they have in places been covered by stalactites over two inches in thickness. The Marquis De Nadaillac,[90] who has given the best description of these interesting antiquities that I have been able to see, remarks that "the drawing is wonderful," and that "we are justly astonished to find such artistic performances in times so distant from ours, and in which we did not suppose a like civilization."

I have not seen the geological date to which these remains have been assigned, but doubtless it is the very "latest" part of the Pleistocene—they show far too high a development for "Miocene" or even "Pliocene times." But I should like to be shown some good and sufficient reason for saying that these men are not just as likely to have been contemporary with the Middle Tertiary fauna and flora as any others. Some men were as commonly admitted. And in the name of sacred common sense, if the human period is thus elastic enough to stretch out over the Pleistocene, the Pliocene, and clear back to the "Middle Miocene," why can't we do the same for all of man's strange companions, the mammoth and the Cape hyena, the reindeer and the hippopotamus, the lion and the musk-ox, etc.? The usual sneers about it being impossible for this apparently incongruous mixture to live side by side in the same district must now cease. They certainly did live side by side, as is shown by these companion pictures of the mammoth and the reindeer in the very southern part of sunny France, to say nothing of the numerous cases where the bones of the above mentioned animals are all mixed together indiscriminately. How is it unreasonable to suppose that these elephants, lions and hippopotami lived beneath the "early" Tertiary palms, cinnamons, and mimosas of the lower elevations, while the reindeer, musk-ox and glutton lived beneath the maples, birches and beeches of the high mountain sides? Some such conditions must have existed, for that magnificent world, whose ruins we now find buried beneath our feet, was a homogeneous and harmonious unit in its plant and animal life, in spite of the fables upon which we have so long been fed in the name of geological science. Things which are equal to the same thing must be equal to one another; hence the plants and animals which were contemporary with the same creature (Man) must have been contemporary with each other; and hence there is absolutely nothing to forbid the idea that Man and his Pleistocene companions were really contemporary with the flora and fauna of the Middle Tertiary.

Hence we may now proceed to inquire what geological changes have occurred since the "Middle of the Miocene," according to the accepted teachings of geology.

Our first point must be that of climate, and I have already given abundant evidence to show that at that "time" an abundant warm-climate vegetation mantled all the Arctic regions. As already quoted from Wallace, throughout the whole Arctic regions, and during the whole of geological time, "we find one uniform climatic aspect of the fossils," and "It is quite impossible to ignore or evade the force of the testimony as to the continuous warm climate of the North Temperate and Polar Zones throughout Tertiary times."

That this astonishingly mild and uniform climate prevailed over these regions until and during the time of the mammoth, we ought not to have a shadow of doubt. What single bit of positive evidence is there to show that it did not? That he must have had some such vegetation on which to feed is certain, and there is no proof of any previous interruption of these conditions save a series of hypotheses. He and his fellows browsed on semi-tropical and warm temperate plants far within the Arctic Circle, if there happened to be land there, doubtless over the very Pole itself; but suddenly!! lo, something caught him with the grip of death—