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35 - Discovery Upon Discovery - Journey to the Center of the Earth - Jules Verne · Classic Sci Fi Books - Daily

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Chapter thirty five, Discovery upon Discovery. In order to fully understand the exclamation
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made by my uncle and his allusions to these illustrious and learned men, it
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will be necessary to enter into certain explanations in regard to a circumstance of the
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highest importance to paliontology or the science of fossil life, which had taken place
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a short time before our departure from the upper regions of the Earth. On
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the twenty eight of March eighteen sixty three, some navigators, under the direction
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of Monsieur Bouchet de Parties, were at work in the great quarries of Molencoignon,
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near Abeville, in the department of Somme in France. While at work,
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they unexpectedly came upon a human yaw bone buried fourteen feet below the surface
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of the soil. It was the first fossil of the kind that had ever
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been brought to light of day. Near this unexpected human relic were found stone,
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hatchets and card flints, colored and clothed by time in one uniform,
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brilliant tint of their degree. The report of this extraordinary and unexpected discovery spread
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not only all over France, but over England and Germany, many learned men,
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belonging to very scientific bodies, and noteworthy among others, Messov Milne,
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Edwards and de Catrefarts took the affair very much to heart, demonstrated the incontestable
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authenticity of the bone in question, and became to use the phrase then recognized
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in England the most ardent supporters of the jaw bone question. To the eminent
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geologists of the United Kingdom, who looked upon the fact as certain Messrs Falconer,
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Buck, Carpenter and others, were soon united the learned men of Germany,
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and among those in the first rank, the most eager, the most
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enthusiastic, was my worthy uncle, Professor Hartwig. The authenticity of a human
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fossil of the Quaternary period seemed then to be incontestably demonstrated, and even to
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be admitted by the most skeptical This system or theory, call it what you
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will, had it is true a bitter adversary in Monsieur Elie de Beaumont.
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This learned man, who holds such a high place in the scientific world,
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holds that the soil of Molanquignon does not belong to the diluvium, but to
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a much less ancient stratum, and in accordance with Cuvier. In this respect,
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he would by no means admit that the human species was contemporary with the
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animals of the Quaternary epoch. My worthy uncle, Professor Hartwig, in concert
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with the great majority of geologists, had held firm a dispute, uted,
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discussed, and finally, after considerable talking and writing, Monsieur le de Beaumont
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had been pretty well left alone in his opinions. We were familiar with all
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the details of this discussion, but were far from being aware then that since
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our departure, the matter had entered upon a new face. Other similar jawbones,
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though belonging to individuals of very types and very different natures, had been
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found in the movable gray sands of certain grottos in France, Switzerland and Belgium,
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together with arms, utensils, tools, bones of children, of men
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in the prime of life and of old men. The existence of men in
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the Quaternary period became therefore more positive every day, But this was far from
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being all. New remains dug up from the Pliocene or Tertiary deposits had enabled
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the more far seeing or audacious among learned men, to sign even a far
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greater degree of antiquity to the human race. These remains, it is true,
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were not those of men, that is, were not the bones of
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men, but objects decidedly having served the human race, shin bones, thigh
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bones of fossil animals, regularly scooped out and in fact sculptured, bearing the
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unmistakable signs of human handiwork. By means of these wondrous and unexpected discoveries,
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Man ascended endless centuries in the scale of time. He in fact preceded the
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mastodon, became the contemporary of the elephas. Meridionalis the southern elephant acquired an
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antiquity of over a hundred thousand years, since that is the date given by
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the most eminent geologists to the Pliocine period of the Earth. Such were then
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the state of palaeontologic science. And what we moreover new sufficed to explain our
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attitude before this great cemetery of the plains of the Hartwig Ocean. It will
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now be easy to understand the professor's mingled astonishment and joy when, on advancing
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about twenty yards, he found himself in the presence of I may say,
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face to face with a specimen of the human race actually belonging to the Quaternary
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period. It was, indeed a human skull, perfectly recognizable, had a
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soil of very peculiar nature, like that of the cemetery of Saint Michael at
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Bordou preserd It during countless ages. This was the question I asked myself,
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but which I was fully unable to answer. But this head, with stretched
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and parchment in skin, with the teeth whole, the hair abundant, was
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before our eyes. As in life. I stood new, almost paralyzed with
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wonder and abe before this streed apparition of another age. My uncle, who
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on almost every occasion was a great talker, remained for a time completely dumbfounded.
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He was too full of emotion for speech to be possible. After a
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while, however, we raised up the body to which the skull belonged.
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We stood it on end. It seemed to our excited imaginations to look at
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us with its terrible hollow eyes. After some minutes of silence, the man
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was vanquished by the Professor. Human instincts succumbed to scientific pride and exultation.
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Professor Hartwick carried away by his enthusiasts, forgot all the circumstances of our journey,
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the extraordinary position in which we were placed, the immense cavern which stretched
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far away over our heads. There can be no doubt that he thought himself
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at the institution addressing his attentive pupils, for he put on his most doctorial
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style, weighed his hand, and began, gentlemen, I have the honor,
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on this suspicious occasion to present to you a man of the quaternary period
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of our globe. Many learned men have denied his very existence, while other
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able persons, perhaps of even higher authority, have affirmed their belief in the
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reality of his life. If these sanctomasis of paleontology were present, they would
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reverently touch him with their fingers and believe in his existence, thus acknowledging their
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obstinate heresy. I know that science should be careful in relation to all discoveries
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of this nature. I am not without having heard of the many barnums and
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other quacks who have made a trade of such like pretended discoveries. I have
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a course heard of the discovery of the kneebons of ayaks, or the pretended
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finding of the body of Orestes by the Spartiats, and of the body of
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Austerius ten spans long fifteen feet, of which we read in Pausanias. I
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have read everything in relation to the skeleton of Trapani, discovered in the fourteenth
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century, and which many persons chose to regard as that of Polyphemus, and
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the history of the giant dug up during the sixteenth century in the environs of
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Palmyra. You are well aware, as I am, gentlemen, of the
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existence of the celebrated analysis made near Lucerne in fifteen seventy seven of the great
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bones, which the celebrated doctor Felix Platter declared belonged to a giant about nineteen
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feet high. I have devoured all the treatises of Casanyon, and all those
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memoirs, pamphlets, speeches and replies published in reference to the skeleton of Theepto
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Borcus, king of the Kimbrim, the invader of Gaul dug out of a
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gravel pitt Endophin in sixteen thirteen. In the eighteenth century, I should have
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denied with Peter Campett the existence of the Preadamites of shoist Sir. I have
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heard in my hands the writing called geigans. Here my uncle was afflicted by
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the natural infirmity which prevented him from pronouncing difficult words in public. It was
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not exactly stuttering, but a strange sort of constitutional hesitation. The writing named
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gigans, he repeated. He, however, could get no further gigantio impossible.
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The unfortunate word would not come out. There would have been great laughter
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at the institution had the mistake happened there guy gan tos theology at last,
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exclaimed Professor Hartwick, between two savage growls, having got over our difficulty,
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and getting more and more excited. Just, gentlemen, I am well acquainted
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with all these matters, and know also that Kavier and Blumenbach fully recognized in
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these bones the undeniable remains of mammost of the Quaternary period. But after what
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we now see. To allow a doubt is to insult scientific inquiry. There
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is the body. You can see it, you can touch it. It
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is not a skeleton. It is a complete and uninjured body preserved with an
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anthropological object. I did not attempt to controvert this singular and astounding assertion.
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If I could but wash this corpse in a solution of sulfric acid. Continued
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my uncle, I would undertake to remove all the earthy particles and these resplendent
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shells which are encrusted all over this body. But I am without this precious
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dissolving medium. Nevertheless, such as it is, this body will tell its
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own history. Here the professor held up the fossil body and exhibited it with
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rare dexterity. No professional showman could have shown more activity. As on examination
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you will see, my uncle continued, it is only about six feet in
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length, which is a long way from the pretended giants of early days.
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As to the particular race to which it belonged, it is incontestably Caucasian.
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It is of the white race, that is of our own. The skull
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of this fossil being is a perfect ovid, without any remarkable or prominent development
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of the cheek bones, and without any production of the jaw. It presents
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no indication of the prognathism which modifies the facial angle. Note the facial angle
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is formed by two planes, one more or less vertical, which is in
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a straight line with the forehead and the incissors, the other horizontal, which
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passes through the organs of hearing and the lower nasal bone. Prognathism in anthropological
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language means that particular protection of the jaw which modifies the facial angle. End
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of note. Measure the angle for yourselves, and you will find that it
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is just ninety degrees. But I will advance still farther on the road of
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inquiry and deduction, and I dare venture to say that this human sample or
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specimen belongs to the eaphetic family, which spread over the world, from India
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to the uttermost limits of western Europe. There is no occasion, gentleman,
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to smile at my remarks. Of course, nobody smiled. But the excellent
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professor was so accustomed to beaming countenances at his lectures that he believed he saw
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all his audience laughing during the delivery of his learned dissertation. Yes, he
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continued with renewed animation. This is a fossil man, a contemporary of the
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mastodons, with the bones of which this whole amphitheater is covered. But if
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I am called on to explain how he came to this place, how these
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various strata by which he is covered have fallen into this vast cavity I can
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undertake to give you no explanation. Doubtless, if we carry ourselves back to
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the Quaternary epoch, we shall find that great and mighty convulsions took place in
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the crust of the earth. The continually cooling operation through which the earth had
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to pass produced fissures, landslips, and chass, through which a large portion
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of the earth made its way. I come to no absolute conclusion. But
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there is the man surrounded by the word of his hands, his hatchets,
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and his card flints, which belonged to the stony period. And the only
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rational supposition is that, like myself, he visited the center of the earth
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as a traveling tourist, a pioneer of science. At all events, there
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can be no doubt of his great age and of his being one of the
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oldest race of human beings. The professor, with these words ceased his oration,
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and I burst forth into loud and unanimous applause. Besides, after all,
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my uncle was right. Much more learned men than his nephew would have
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found it rather hard to refute his facts and arguments. Another circumstance soon presented
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itself. This fossilized body was not the only one in this vast plain of
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bones, the cemetery of an extinct world. Other bodies were found as we
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trod the dusty plane, and my uncle was able to choose the most marvelous
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of these specimens in order to convince the most incredulous. In truth. It
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was a surprising spectacle, the successive remains of generations and generations of men and
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animals confounded together in one vast cemetery. But a great question now presented itself
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to our notice, and one we were actually fraid to contemplate in all its
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bearings. Had these once animated beings been buried so far beneath the soil by
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some tremendous convulsion of nature after they had been earth to earth and ashes to
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ashes, Or had they lived here below, in this subterranean world under this
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factitious sky born, married and given in marriage, and died at last,
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just like ordinary inhabitants of the earth. Up to the present moment, my
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green monsters, fish, and suchlike animals had alone been seen alive. The
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question, which render us rather uneasy, was a pertinent one. Were any
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of these men of the abyss wandering about the deserted shores of this wondrous sea
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of the center of the earth. This was a question which rendered me very
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uneasy and uncomfortable. How should they really be in existence? Would they receive
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us men from above? End of Chapter thirty five.