Part 28
The form of the teeth of the Mastodon shows that it fed, like the Elephant, on the roots and succulent parts of vegetables; and this is confirmed by the curious discovery made in America by Barton. It lived, no doubt, on the banks of rivers and on moist and marshy lands. Besides the great Mastodon of which we have spoken, there existed a Mastodon one-third smaller than the Elephant, and which inhabited nearly all Europe.
There are some curious historical facts in connection with the remains of the Mastodon which ought not to be passed over in silence. On the 11th of January, 1613, the workmen in a sand-pit situated near the Castle of Chaumont, in Dauphiny, between the cities of Montricourt and Saint-Antoine, on the left bank of the Rhône, found some bones, many of which were broken up by them. These bones belonged to some great fossil Mammal, but the existence of such animals was at that time wholly unknown. Informed of the discovery, a country surgeon named Mazuyer purchased the bones, and gave out that he had himself discovered them in a tomb, thirty feet long by fifteen broad, built of bricks, upon which he found the inscription TEUTOBOCCHUS REX. He added that, in the same tomb, he found half a hundred medals bearing the effigy of Marius. This Teutobocchus was a barbarian king, who invaded Gaul at the head of the Cimbri, and who was vanquished near _Aquæ Sextiæ_ (Aix in Provence) by Marius, who carried him to Rome to grace his triumphal procession. In the notice which he published in confirmation of this story, Mazuyer reminded the public that, according to the testimony of Roman authors, the head of the Teuton king exceeded in dimensions all the trophies borne upon the lances in the triumph. The skeleton which he exhibited was five-and-twenty feet in length and ten broad.
Mazuyer showed the skeleton of the pretended Teutobocchus in all the cities of France and Germany, and also to Louis XIII., who took great interest in contemplating this marvel. It gave rise to a long controversy, or rather an interminable dispute, in which the anatomist Riolan distinguished himself--arguing against Habicot, a physician, whose name is all but forgotten. Riolan attempted to prove that the bones of the pretended king were those of an Elephant. Numerous pamphlets were exchanged by the two adversaries, in support of their respective opinions. We learn also from Gassendi, that a Jesuit of Tournon, named Jacques Tissot, was the author of the notice published by Mazuyer. Gassendi also proves that the pretended medals of Marius were forgeries, on the ground that they bore Gothic characters. It seems very strange that these bones, which are still preserved in the cases of the Museum of Natural History in Paris, where anybody may see them, should ever have been mistaken, for a single moment, for human remains. The skeleton of Teutobocchus remained at Bordeaux till 1832, when it was sent to the Museum of Natural History in Paris, where M. de Blainville declared that it belonged to a Mastodon.
The Apes made their appearance at this period. In the ossiferous beds of Sansan M. Lartet discovered the _Dryopithecus_, as well as _Pithecus antiquus_, but only in imperfect fragments. M. Albert Gaudry was more fortunate: in the Miocene rocks of Pikermi, in Greece, he discovered the entire skeleton of _Mesopithecus_, which we present here (Fig. 166), together with the same animal restored (Fig. 167). In its general organisation it resembles the dog-faced baboon or ape, a piece of information which has guided the artist in the restoration of the animal.
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The seas of the Miocene period were inhabited by great numbers of beings altogether unknown in earlier formations; we may mention no less than ninety marine genera which appear here for the first time, and some of which have lived down to our epoch. Among these, the molluscous Gasteropods, such as _Conus_, _Turbinella_, _Ranella_, _Murex_ (Fig. 169), and _Dolium_ are the most abundant; with many Lamellibranchiata.
The Foraminifera are also represented by new genera, among which are the Bolivina, Polystomella, and Dentritina.
Finally, the Crustaceans include the genera _Pagurus_ (or the Hermit crabs); _Astacus_. (the lobster); and _Portunus_ (or paddling crabs). Of the first, it is doubtful if any fossil species have been found; of the last, species have been discovered bearing some resemblance to _Podophthalmus vigil_, as _P. Defrancii_, which only differs from it in the absence of the sharp spines which terminate the lateral angles of the carapace in the former; while _Portunus leucodon_ (Desmarest) bears some analogy to Lupea.
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An ideal landscape of the Miocene period, which is given on the opposite page (PLATE XXIV.), represents the Dinotherium lying in the marshy grass, the Rhinoceros, the Mastodon, and an Ape of great size, the _Dryopithecus_, hanging from the branches of a tree. The products of the vegetable kingdom are, for the greater part, analogous to those of the present time. They are remarkable for their abundance, and for their graceful and serried vegetation; and still remind us in some respects, of the vegetation of the Carboniferous period. It is, in fact, a continuation of the characteristics of that period, and from the same cause, namely, the submersion of land under marshy waters, which has given birth to a sort of coal which is often found in the Miocene formation, and which we call _lignite_. This imperfect coal does not quite resemble that of the Carboniferous, or true Coal-measure period, because it is of much more recent date, and because it has not been subjected to the same internal heat, accompanied by the same pressure of superincumbent strata, which produced the older coal-beds of the Primary epoch.
The _lignites_, which we find in the Miocene, as in the Eocene period, constitute, however, a combustible which is worked and utilised in many countries, especially in Germany, where it is made in many places to serve in place of coal. These beds sometimes attain a thickness of above twenty yards, but in the environs of Paris they form beds of a few inches only, which alternate with clays and sands. We cannot doubt that lignites, like true coal, are the remains of the buried forests of an ancient world; in fact, the substance of the woods of our forests, often in a state perfectly recognisable, is frequently found in the lignite beds; and the studies of modern botanists have demonstrated, that the species of which the lignites are formed, belong to a vegetation closely resembling that of Europe in the present day.
Another very curious substance is found with the lignite--yellow amber. It is the mineralised resin, which flowed from certain extinct pine-trees of the Tertiary epoch; the waves of the Baltic Sea, washing the amber out of the deposits of sand and clay in which it lies buried, this substance, being very little heavier than water, is thrown by the waves upon the shore. For ages the Baltic coast has supplied commerce with amber. The Phœnicians ascended its banks to collect this beautiful fossil resin, which is now chiefly found between Dantzic and Memel, where it is a government monopoly in the hands of contractors, who are protected by a law making it theft to gather or conceal it.
Amber,[91] while it has lost none of its former commercial value, is, besides, of much palæontological interest; fossil insects, and other extraneous bodies, are often found enclosed in the nodules, where they have been preserved in all their original colouring and integrity of form. As the poet says--
[91] See Bristow’s “Glossary of Mineralogy,” p. 11.
“The things themselves are neither rich nor rare, The wonder’s how the devil they got there.”
The natural aromatic qualities of the amber combined with exclusion of air, &c., have embalmed them, and thus transmitted to our times the smaller beings and the most delicate organisms of earlier ages.
The Miocene rocks, of marine origin, are very imperfectly represented in the Paris basin, and their composition changes with the localities. They are divided into two groups of beds: 1. _Molasse_, or soft clay; 2. _Faluns_, or shelly marl.
In the Paris basin the _Molasse_ presents, at its base, quartzose sands of great thickness, sometimes pure, sometimes a little argillaceous or micaceous. They include beds of sandstone (with some limestone), which are worked in the quarries of Fontainebleau, d’Orsay, and Montmorency, for paving-stone for the streets of Paris and the neighbouring towns. This last formation is altogether marine. To these sands and sandstones succeeds a fresh-water deposit, formed of a whitish and partly siliceous limestone, which forms the ground of the plateau of La Beauce, between the valleys of the Seine and the Loire: this is called the _Calcaire de la Beauce_. It is there mixed with a reddish and more or less sandy clay, containing small blocks of burrh-stone used for millstones, easily recognised by their yellow-ochreous colour, and the numerous cavities or hollows with which their texture is honeycombed.
This grit, or _silex meulier_, is much used in Paris for the arches of cellars, underground conduits, sewers, &c.
The _Faluns_ in the Paris basin consist of divers beds formed of shells and Corals, almost entirely broken up. In many parts of the country, and especially in the environs of Tours and Bordeaux, they are dug out for manuring the land. To the Falun series belong the fresh-water marl, limestone, and sand, which composed the celebrated mound of Sansan, near Auch, in the Department of Gers, in which M. Lartet found a considerable number of bones of Turtles, Birds, and especially Mammals, such as _Mastodon_ and _Dinotherium_, together with a species of long-armed ape, which he named _Pithecus antiquus_, from the circumstance of its affording the earliest instance of the discovery of the remains of the quadrumana, or monkey-tribe, in Europe. Isolated masses of Faluns occur, also, near the mouth of the Loire and to the south of Tours, and in Brittany.
PLIOCENE PERIOD.
This last period of the Tertiary epoch was marked, in some parts of Europe, by great movements of the terrestrial crust, always due to the same cause--namely, the continual and gradual cooling of the globe. This leads us to recall what we have repeatedly stated, that this cooling, during which the outer zone of the fluid mass passed to the solid state, produced irregularities and inequalities in the external surface, sometimes accompanied by fractures through which the semi-fluid or pasty matter poured itself; leading afterwards to the upheaval of mountain ranges through these gaping chasms. Thus, during the Pliocene period, many mountains and mountain-chains were formed in Europe by basaltic and volcanic eruptions. These upheavals were preceded by sudden and irregular movements of the elastic mass of the crust--by earthquakes, in short--phenomena which have been already sufficiently explained.
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In order to understand the nature of the vegetation of the period, as compared with that with which we are familiar, let us listen to M. Lecoq: “Arrived, finally,” says that author, “at the last period which preceded our own epoch--the epoch in which the temperate zones were still embellished by tropical forms of vegetation, which were, however, slowly declining, driven out as it were by a cooling climate and by the invasion of more vigorous species--great terrestrial commotions took place: mountains are covered with eternal snow; continents now take their present forms; but many great lakes, now dried up, still existed; great rivers flowed majestically through smiling countries, whose surface man had not yet come to modify.
“Two hundred and twelve species compose this rich flora, in which the Ferns of the earlier ages of the world are scarcely indicated, where the Palms seem to have quite disappeared, and we see forms much more like those which are constantly under our observation. The _Culmites arundinaceus_ (Unger) abounds near the water, where also grows the _Cyperites tertiarius_ (Unger), where floats _Dotamogeton geniculatus_ (Braun), and where we see submerged _Isoctites Brunnii_ (Unger). Great Conifers still form the forests. This fine family has, as we have seen, passed through every epoch, and still presents us with its elegant forms and persistent evergreen foliage; _Taxodites_, _Thuyoxylum_, _Abietites_, _Pinites_, _Eleoxylon_, and _Taxites_ being still the forms most abundant in these old natural forests.
“The predominating character of this period is the abundance of the group of the Amentaceæ; whilst the Conifers are thirty-two in number, of the other we reckon fifty-two species, among which are many European genera, such as _Alnus_; _Quercus_, the oak; _Salix_, the willow; _Fagus_, the beech; _Betula_, the birch, &c.
“The following families constitute the arborescent flora of the period besides those already mentioned:--Balsaminaceæ, Lauraceæ, Thymelæaceæ, Santalaceæ, Cornaceæ, Myrtaceæ, Calycanthaceæ, Pomaceæ, Rosaceæ, Amygdaleæ, Leguminosæ, Anacardiaceæ, Juglandaceæ, Rhamnaceæ, Celastrinaceæ, Sapindaceæ, Meliaceæ, Aceraceæ, Tiliaceæ, Magnoliaceæ, Capparidaceæ, Sapoteaceæ, Styracaceæ, Oleaceæ, Juncaceæ, Ericaceæ.
“In all these families great numbers of European genera are found, often even more abundant in species than now. Thus, as Brongniart observes, in this flora we reckon fourteen species of Maple; three species of Oak; and these species proceed from two or three very circumscribed localities, which would not probably, at the present time, represent in a radius of several leagues more than three or four species of these genera.”
An important difference distinguishes the Pliocene flora, as compared with those of preceding epochs, it is the absence of the family of Palms in the European flora, as noted by Lecoq, which forms such an essential botanical feature in the Miocene period. We mention this, because, in spite of the general analogy which exists between the vegetation of the Pliocene period and that of temperate regions in the present day, it does not appear that there is a single species of the former period absolutely identical with any one now growing in Europe. Thus, the European vegetation, even at the most recent geological epoch, differs specifically from the vegetation of our age, although a general resemblance is observable between the two.
The terrestrial animals of the Pliocene period present us with a great number of creatures alike remarkable from their proportions and from their structure. The Mammals and the batrachian Reptiles are alike deserving of our attention in this epoch. Among the former the Mastodon, which makes its first appearance in the Miocene formations, continues to be found, but becomes extinct apparently before we reach the upper beds. Others present themselves of genera totally unknown till now, some of them, such as the _Hippopotamus_, the _Camel_, the _Horse_, the _Ox_, and the _Deer_, surviving to the present day. The fossil horse, of all animals, is perhaps that which presents the greatest resemblance to existing individuals; but it was small, not exceeding the ass in size.
The _Mastodon_, which we have considered in our description of the preceding period, still existed in Pliocene times; in Fig. 174 the species living in this latter age is represented--it is called the Mastodon of Turin. As we see, it has only two projecting tusks or defences in the upper jaw, instead of four, like the American species, which is described in page 343. Other species belonging to this period are not uncommon; the portion of an upper jaw-bone with a tooth which was found in the Norwich Crag at Postwick, near Norwich, Dr. Falconer has shown to be a Pliocene species, first observed in Auvergne, and named by Messrs. Croizet and Jobert, its discoverers, _Mastodon Arvernensis_.
The _Hippopotamus_, _Tapir_, and _Camel_, which appear during the Pliocene period, present no peculiar characteristics to arrest our attention.
The Apes begin to abound in species; the Stags were already numerous.
The _Rhinoceros_, which made its appearance in the Miocene period, appears in greater numbers in the Pliocene deposits. The species peculiar to the Tertiary epoch is _R. tichorhinus_, which is descriptive of the bony partition which separated its two nostrils, an anatomical arrangement which is not found in our existing species. Two horns surmount the nose of this animal, as represented in Fig. 175. Two living species, namely, the Rhinoceros of Africa and Sumatra, have two horns, but they are much smaller than those of _R. tichorhinus_. The existing Indian Rhinoceros has only one horn.
The body of _R. tichorhinus_ was covered with very thick hair, and its skin was without the rough and callous scales which we remark on the skin of the living African species.
Contemporaneously with this gigantic species there existed a dwarf species about the size of our Hog; and along with it several intermediate species, whose bones are found in sufficient numbers to enable us to reconstruct the skeleton. The curvature of the nasal bone of the fossil Rhinoceros and its gigantic horn have given rise to many tales and popular legends. The famous bird, the _Roc_, which played so great a part in the fabulous myths of the people of Asia, originated in the discovery in the bosom of the earth of the cranium and horns of a fossil Rhinoceros. The famous dragons of western tradition have a similar origin.
In the city of Klagenfurth, in Carinthia, is a fountain on which is sculptured the head of a monstrous dragon with six feet, and a head surmounted by a stout horn. According to the popular tradition still prevalent at Klagenfurth, this dragon lived in a cave, whence it issued from time to time to frighten and ravage the country. A bold cavalier kills the dragon, paying with his life for this proof of his courage. It is the same legend which is current in every country, from that of the valiant St. George and the Dragon and of St. Martha, who nearly about the same age conquered the fabulous _Tarasque_ of the city of Languedoc, which bears the name of Tarascon.
But at Klagenfurth the popular legend has happily found a mouth-piece--the head of the pretended dragon, killed by the valorous knight, is preserved in the Hôtel de Ville, and this head has furnished the sculptor for his fountain with a model for the head of his statue. Herr Unger, of Vienna, recognised at a glance the cranium of the fossil Rhinoceros; its discovery in some cave had probably originated the fable of the knight and the dragon. And all legends are capable of some such explanation when we can trace them back to their sources, and reason upon the circumstances on which they are founded.
The traveller Pallas gives a very interesting account of a _Rhinoceros tichorhinus_ which he saw, with his own eyes, taken out of the ice in which its skin, hair, and flesh had been preserved. It was in December, 1771, that the body of the Rhinoceros was observed buried in the frozen sand upon the banks of the Viloui, a river which discharges itself into the Lena below Yakutsk, in Siberia, in 64° north latitude. “I ought to speak,” the learned naturalist says, “of an interesting discovery which I owe to the Chevalier de Bril. Some Yakouts hunting this winter near the Viloui found the body of a large unknown animal. The Sieur Ivan Argounof, inspector of the Zimovic, had sent on to Irkutsk the head and a fore and hind foot of the animal, all very well preserved.” The Sieur Argounof, in his report, states that the animal was half buried in the sand; it measured as it lay three ells and three-quarters Russian in length, and he estimated its height at three and a half; the animal, still retaining its flesh, was covered with skin which resembled tanned leather; but it was so decomposed that he could only remove the fore and hind foot and the head, which he sent to Irkutsk, where Pallas saw them. “They appeared to me at first glance,” he says, “to belong to a Rhinoceros; the head especially was quite recognisable, since it was covered with its leathery skin, and the skin had preserved all its external characters, and many short hairs. The eyelids had even escaped total decay, and in the cranium here and there, under the skin, I perceived some matter which was evidently the remains of putrefied flesh. I also remarked in the feet the remains of the tendons and cartilages where the skin had been removed. The head was without its horn, and the feet without hoofs. The place of the horn, and the raised skin which had surrounded it, and the division which existed in both the hind and fore feet, were evident proofs of its being a Rhinoceros. In a dissertation addressed to the Academy of St. Petersburg, I have given a full account of this singular discovery. I give there reasons which prove that a Rhinoceros had penetrated nearly to the Lena, in the most northern regions, and which have led to the discovery of the remains of other strange animals in Siberia. I shall confine myself here to a description of the country where these curious remains were found, and to the cause of their long preservation.
“The country watered by the Viloui is mountainous; all the stratification of these mountains is horizontal. The beds consist of selenitic and calcareous schists and beds of clay, mixed with numerous beds of pyrites. On the banks of the Viloui we meet with coal much broken; probably coal-beds exist higher up near to the river. The brook Kemtendoï skirts a mountain entirely formed of selenite or crystallised sulphate of lime and of rock-salt, and this mountain of alabaster is more than 300 versts (about 200 miles), in ascending the Viloui, from the place where the Rhinoceros was found. Opposite to the place we see, near the river, a low hill, about a hundred feet high, which, though sandy, contains some beds of millstone. The body of the Rhinoceros had been buried in coarse gravelly sand near this hill, and the nature of the soil, which is always frozen, had preserved it. The soil near the Viloui never thaws to a great depth, for, although the rays of the sun soften the soil to the depth of two yards in the more elevated sandy places, in the valleys, where the soil is half sand and half clay, it remains frozen at the end of summer half an ell below the surface. Without this intense cold the skin of the animal and many parts of it would long since have perished. The animal could only have been transported from some southern country to the frozen north at the epoch of the Deluge, for the most ancient chronicles speak of no changes of the globe more recent, to which we could attribute the deposit of these remains and of the bones of elephants which are found dispersed all over Siberia.”[92]
[92] “Pallas’s Voyage,” vol. iv., pp. 130-134.