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Journey to the Center of the Earth
Chapter 35. DISCOVERY UPON DISCOVERY
To fully understand my uncle's exclamation and his allusions to these illustrious and learned men, it'll be necessary to enter into certain explanations.
They concern a matter of importance to paleontology, the science of fossil life, occurring shortly before our departure from the earth's upper regions.
On the 28th of March, 1863, some navigators under the direction of M.
Boucher de Perthes, were at work in the great quarries of Moulin-Quignon, near Abbeville, in the department of the Somme, in France.
While at work, they unexpectedly came upon a human jawbone buried fourteen feet below the surface of the soil.
It was the first fossil of the kind that had ever been brought to the light of day.
Near this unexpected human relic were found stone hatchets and carved flints, colored and clothed by time in one uniform brilliant tint of verdigris.
The report of this extraordinary and unexpected discovery spread not only all over France, but over England and Germany.
Many learned men belonging to various scientific bodies, and noteworthy among others, Messrs.
Milne-Edwards and De Quatrefages took the affair very much to heart and demonstrated the incontestable authenticity of the bone in question.
They became, to use the phrase then recognized in England, the most ardent supporters of the "jawbone question."
To the eminent geologists of the United Kingdom who looked upon the fact as certain, Messrs.
Messrs. Falconer, Buck, Carpenter, and others from the United Kingdom regarded the fact as certain.
They were soon joined by the learned men of Germany, and among their leaders the most eager was my worthy uncle, Professor Hardwigg.
The authenticity of a human fossil of the Quaternary period seemed then to be incontestably demonstrated, and even to be admitted by the most skeptical.
This system or theory, call it what you'll, had, it's true, a bitter adversary in M, Elie de Beaumont.
This learned man holds a high place in the scientific world.
He believes the soil of Moulin-Quignon does not belong to the diluvium but to a much less ancient stratum.
In accordance with Cuvier in this respect, he'd by no means admit that the human species was contemporary with the animals of the Quaternary epoch.
My worthy uncle, Professor Hardwigg, with the majority of geologists, held firm, disputed, and, after much talk and writing, M.
Elie de Beaumont had been pretty well left alone in his opinions.
We knew the details of the discussion, but were unaware that since our departure the matter had entered a new phase.
Other similar jawbones, belonging to individuals of varied types, had been found in the grey sands of grottoes in France, Switzerland, and Belgium.
They were found together with arms, utensils, tools, and the bones of children, of men in the prime of life, and of old men.
The existence of men in the Quaternary period became, therefore, more positive every day.
But this was far from being all.
New remains were dug up from the Pliocene or Tertiary deposits.
They led far-seeing or audacious learned men to give the human race even greater antiquity.
These remains, it's true, weren't those of men, they weren't the bones of men.
They were objects that had clearly served the human race.
They were shinbones and thighbones of fossil animals.
These bones were regularly scooped out and sculptured, bearing the unmistakable signs of human handiwork.
By means of these wondrous and unexpected discoveries, man ascended endless centuries in the scale of time.
He, in fact, preceded the mastodon and became contemporary of the Elephas meridionalis, the southern elephant.
He acquired an antiquity of over a hundred thousand years, which is the date the most eminent geologists assign to the Pliocene period of the earth.
Such was then the state of paleontologic science, and what we knew explained our attitude before this great cemetery of the Hardwigg Ocean.
It'll now be easy to understand the Professor's mingled astonishment and joy.
On advancing about twenty yards he found himself, face to face, with a specimen of the human race belonging to the Quaternary period.
It was indeed a human skull, perfectly recognizable.
Had a soil of very peculiar nature, like that of the cemetery of St. Michel at Bordeaux, preserved it during countless ages?
This was the question I asked myself, but which I was wholly unable to answer.
But this head with stretched and parchmenty skin, with the teeth whole, the hair abundant, was before our eyes as in life!
I stood mute, almost paralyzed with wonder and awe before this dread apparition of another age.
My uncle, who on almost every occasion was a great talker, remained for a time completely dumfounded.
He was too full of emotion for speech to be possible.
After a while, however, we raised up the body to which the skull belonged.
We stood it on end, it seemed, to our excited imaginations, to look at us with its terrible hollow eyes.
After some minutes of silence, the man was vanquished by the Professor.
Human instincts succumbed to scientific pride and exultation.
Professor Hardwigg, carried away by his enthusiasm, forgot all the circumstances of our journey.
He also forgot the extraordinary position we were in and the immense cavern stretching far above our heads.
He surely fancied himself at the Institution addressing attentive pupils, he assumed his most doctorial air, waved his hand, and began,
"Gentlemen, I have the honor on this auspicious occasion to present to you a man of the Quaternary period of our globe".
Many learned men have denied his existence, while other able persons, perhaps of higher authority, have affirmed the reality of his life.
If the St.
Thomases of paleontology were present, they'd reverentially touch him with their fingers and believe in his existence, thus acknowledging their obstinate heresy.
Thomases of paleontology were present, they'd reverentially touch him with their fingers and believe in his existence, thus acknowledging their obstinate heresy.
I know that science should be careful in relation to all discoveries of this nature.
I'm not without having heard of the many Barnums and other quacks who have made a trade of suchlike pretended discoveries.
I have, of course, heard of the discovery of the kneebones of Ajax and of the pretended finding of the body of Orestes by the Spartiates.
I have also heard of the body of Asterius, ten spans long, fifteen feet, which we read about in Pausanias.
I have read everything in relation to the skeleton of Trapani, discovered in the fourteenth century, which many persons chose to regard as that of Polyphemus.
I have also read the history of the giant dug up during the sixteenth century in the environs of Palmyra.
You're as well aware as I'm, gentlemen, of the existence of the celebrated analysis made near Lucerne in 1577.
The great bones described in that analysis were declared by the celebrated Doctor Felix Plater to have belonged to a giant about nineteen feet high.
I have devoured all the treatises of Cassanion, and all those memoirs, pamphlets, speeches, and replies.
They were published about the skeleton of Teutobochus, king of the Cimbri, invader of Gaul, dug from a gravel pit in Dauphine, 1613.
In the eighteenth century I should have denied, with Peter Campet, the existence of the preadamites of Scheuchzer.
"I have had in my hands the writing called Gigans, "
Here my uncle was afflicted by the natural infirmity which prevented him from pronouncing difficult words in public.
It wasn't exactly stuttering, but a strange sort of constitutional hesitation.
"The writing named Gigans, " he repeated.
He, however, could get no further, and his voice faltered into an awkward silence.
"Giganteo, "
Impossible! The unfortunate word wouldn't come out.
There would have been great laughter at the Institution, had the mistake happened there.
"Gigantosteology!" at last exclaimed Professor Hardwigg between two savage growls.
Having got over our difficulty, and getting more and more excited, he said, "Yes, gentlemen, I'm well acquainted with all these matters."
"I know, also, that Cuvier and Blumenbach fully recognized in these bones the undeniable remains of mammoths of the Quaternary period."
But after what we now see, to allow a doubt is to insult scientific inquiry.
There's the body, you can see it, you can touch it.
"It isn't a skeleton, it's a complete and uninjured body, preserved with an anthropological object."
I didn't attempt to controvert this singular and astounding assertion.
"If I could but wash this corpse in a solution of sulphuric acid," continued my uncle.
"I'd undertake to remove all the earthy particles and these resplendent shells which are incrusted over this body." But I'm without this precious dissolving medium.
"Nevertheless, such as it's, this body will tell its own history."
Here the Professor held up the fossil body, and exhibited it with rare dexterity.
No professional showman could have shown more activity.
"As on examination you'll see,"
My uncle continued, "It's only about six feet in length, which is a long way from the pretended giants of early days."
"As to the particular race to which it belonged, it's incontestably Caucasian."
"It's of the white race, that's, of our own."
"The skull of this fossil being is a perfect ovoid without prognathism, which modifies the facial angle formed by two planes."
"Measure the angle for yourselves, and you'll find that it's just ninety degrees."
"I dare venture to say this specimen belongs to the Japhetic family, which spread from India to western Europe, there's no occasion, gentlemen".
One plane is more or less vertical and aligns with the forehead and the incisors.
The other plane is horizontal and passes through the organs of hearing and the lower nasal bone.
Prognathism, in anthropological language, means that particular projection of the jaw which modifies the facial angle.
Of course nobody smiled, all faces remained grave and intent.
But the excellent Professor was so used to beaming at his lectures that he believed his audience were laughing during his learned dissertation.
"Yes," he continued, with renewed animation, "this is a fossil man, a contemporary of the mastodons, whose bones cover this whole amphitheater."
"If I'm called on to explain how he came to this place, I can give no explanation."
"I can't explain how the various strata that cover him fell into this vast cavity."
"Doubtless, if we carry ourselves back to the Quaternary epoch, great convulsions took place in the earth's crust."
"The continual cooling of the earth produced fissures, landslips, and chasms through which much earth moved."
"I make no absolute conclusion, but there's the man, surrounded by his hatchets and carved flints from the stony period, showing his great age".
The Professor with these words ceased his oration, and I burst forth into loud and "unanimous" applause.
Besides, after all, my uncle was right.
Much more learned men than his nephew would have found it rather hard to refute his facts and arguments.
Another circumstance soon presented itself, one that filled us with fresh unease.
This fossilized body wasn't the only one in this vast plain of bones, the cemetery of an extinct world.
Other bodies were found as we trod the dusty plain, and my uncle chose the most marvelous specimens to convince the most incredulous.
In truth, it was a surprising spectacle, the successive remains of generations and generations of men and animals confounded together in one vast cemetery.
But a great question now presented itself to our notice, and one we were actually afraid to contemplate in all its bearings.
Had these once animated beings been buried deep by a tremendous convulsion of nature, after being earth to earth and ashes to ashes?
Or had they lived here below, in this subterranean world under this factitious sky, borne, married, and given in marriage?
Had they died at last, just like ordinary inhabitants of the earth?
Up to the present moment, marine monsters, fish, and suchlike animals had alone been seen alive!
The question which rendered us rather uneasy, was a pertinent one.
Were any of these men of the abyss wandering about the deserted shores of this wondrous sea of the centre of the earth?
This was a question which rendered me very uneasy and uncomfortable.
How, should they really be in existence, would they receive us men from above?