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The remains of equine mammals, now known from the tertiary and quaternary deposits of this country, already represent more than double the number of genera and species hitherto found in the strata of the eastern hemisphere, and hence afford most important aid in tracing out the genealogy of the horses still existing.
Side lines developed which finally disappeared, but the main line kept on, and when the Quaternary came the horse arrived with it. Many of the skeletons in this series were known before it was realized what they were. As time went on and intermediate forms were found, it became possible to recognize these as ancestors of the horse and to assign them their proper position in the family tree.
Excavations made in 1886 have brought to light a series of deposits, one above the other, the gravel and red earth containing Quaternary bones and worked flints, whilst the stalagmite and ooze are evidently of more recent origin.
Experiments on animals with Quaternary flint implements have always been successful, and have had no tragic results, which is the best proof we can possibly give. The size of the perforations made varies ad infinitum. One, the largest known, is described which is no less than sixteen inches in diameter.
This high authority maintained that the soil of Moulin Quignon was not diluvial at all, but was of much more recent formation; and, agreeing in that with Cuvier, he refused to admit that the human species could be contemporary with the animals of the quaternary period.
But there is no other way of escape. Prof. Bronco, of the Geological and Palaeontological Institute of Berlin University, says, "Man appeared suddenly in the Quaternary period. Palaeontology tells us nothing on the subject, it knows nothing of the ancestors of man." As fossils must be imbedded in rock, there is not a single fossil of an ape-man in the world.
The Strassburg anatomist, Gustav Schwalbe, deserved great praise for having the moral courage to oppose this dogmatic and ungrounded teaching of Virchow, and showing its untenability. It is probable that language was not evolved until after the dispersal of the various species and races of men, and this probably took place at the commencement of the Quaternary or Diluvial period.
During the entire Quaternary, invertebrates and plants suffered little change in species, so slowly are these ancient and comparatively simple organisms modified. The Mammalia, on the other hand, have changed much since the beginning of Quaternary time: the various species of the present have been evolved, and some lines have become extinct.
Many of the bowls are of saucer shape, with almost vertical sides and flat bases; several are double, with rounded or flat base. The surface, inside and out, is polished to a fine gloss, and when exteriorly decorated, the design is generally limited to one side just below the rim, which is often ornamented with double or triple parallel lines, drawn in equidistant, quaternary, and other forms.
I served Confucius: I was like a thirsty man going with his pitcher to the river. I drank my fill, but I never knew the depth of the water." And Tse Kung was right; and what he felt then, one feels now. You read Boswell, and have your Johnson in the hollow of your hand: body, soul, and spirit: higher triad and lower quaternary.
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