The World Before the Deluge

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 nth 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 Rhone, 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 efiigy of Marius. This Teutobocchus was a barbarian king, who invaded Gaul at the head of the Cimbri, and who was vanquished near Aqiice. Sexfice (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 fojgotten. 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

349

THE MIOCENE PERIOD.

History in Paris, where anybody may see them, should ever have

been mistaken, for a single moment, for ' human remains. Theskeleton of Teutobocchus remained at Bordeaux till 1832, when it

Fig. 166. — Skeleton of Mesopithecus.

Fig. 167. — Mesopithecus restored. One-fifth natural size.

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

THE WORLD BEFORE THE DELUGE.

350 beds of Sansan M. Lartet discovered the Dryopithecus, as well as Pithecus aiitiqmis, 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 Mesopitheciis, which we present here (Fig. i66), 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.

The seas of the Miocene period were inhabited by great numbers of beings altogether unknown in earlier formations; we may mention.

Fig, 168. — eerithium plicatum. Fig. 169.— Murex Turonensis,

Fig. 170. — Ostrea longirostris. One quarter natural size. Living form.

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 Cojius, Tnrbineiia, Ranella, Mitrex (Fig. 169), and Doliitm are the most abundant; with many Lamellibranchiata. The Foraminifera are also represented by new genera, among which are the BoUvina^ Foiystomeila, and Dentrithia.

Finally, the Crustaceans include the genera Fagiirus (or the Hermit crabs); Astacus (the lobster); and Portimus (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

XXIV.—Ideal Landscape of the Miocene Period.

resemblance to Podophthahmis vi(:^il, as P. Defraud i^ which only differs from it in the absence of the sharp spines which terminate the lateral angles of the carapace in the former; while Forhmus leticodon (Desmarest) bears some analogy to Lupea.

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

Fig. 171.— Podophthalmus vigiL

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 ligtiitc. This imperfect coal does not quite resemble that of the Carbo- X

niferous, 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

Fig. 172.— Lupeapelagica.

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 modem 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 Phoenicians 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,"' while it has lost none of its former commercial value, is, besides, of much palaeontological 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 —

" 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: i. 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,

*.See Bristow's "Glossary of Mineralogy," p. 11. X 2

and the numerous cavities or hollows with which their texture is honeycombed. This grit, or silex meuUer^ is much used in Paris for the arches of cellars, underground conduits, sewers, &c.

The Falinis 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 mouqd 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 Mastodo?i and Dinothermm, together with a species of long-armed ape, which he named Pitheciis 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.

Fig. 173. — Carj'opliylln cyathus.

357

. 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 auji inequaltties in the external surface, sometimes accompanied by fractures through which the semifluid or pasty matter poured itself; leading aftenvards 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.

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 Culmitcs arundinaceus (linger) abounds near the