The First Days of Man

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The Author desires to express his thanks to Dr. William K. Gregory, of the American Museum of Natural History, as well as to the other Museum authorities, for their courtesy and assistance in the matter of illustrations, and in the preparation of the text. The book does not pretend, of course, to be a strictly scientific work. Many liberties have been taken, in order to render the subject interesting to the youthful mind. Man's early inventions did not come about so simply as is pictured in the various chapters. But the development of civilisation is a romance, and only by so treating it can we hope to enlist the interest of the young reader. It is sufficient that the story rests upon a foundation of fact.

PREFACE FOR PARENTS

Every child, between the ages of five and fifteen, seeks by constant questioning to grasp the fundamental facts upon which our whole fabric of present-day knowledge is based. These facts, painfully gathered by the human race during its many centuries of development, must of necessity be absorbed by the child within the short space of some ten or twelve years. It is a prodigious task, and one in which the growing mind should be afforded every possible assistance. Two courses are usually adopted by parents; one, to dismiss the child's questions with the stock phrase, "You are not old enough to understand," the other, to place in his hands some so-called book of knowledge, containing, it is true, a great mass of information which the child should possess, but usually so badly presented, so jumbled together, that no one fact has any bearing on another, and thus the child is left to turn from "Why the ocean is salt?" to "What is a lightning rod?" without the least understanding of the principles and laws which underly these and all other facts, and link them together in a composite whole.

The writer has followed, with his own children, a method of presenting the steps in the gradual development of man which has produced most gratifying results. Instead of treating each fact, each laboriously accumulated bit of human knowledge, as a mere isolated patch in a crazy-quilt of information, he has attempted to arrange them in logical sequence, to form an interesting pattern, so that as the child's fund of knowledge increases, he feels a deeper and deeper interest in fitting each newly acquired fact into its proper place in his mental picture of things.

The result is that the child is constantly building a structure which he understands. His mass of accumulated knowledge is not heaped together hap-hazard, like a pile of blocks, but each occupies its proper and logical place in a slowly developing whole. He derives pleasure from what would otherwise be hard work, just as he would derive pleasure from fitting together the pieces of a puzzle picture; he finds himself progressing toward some understandable end, and without knowing it, he has not only gathered his facts, and catalogued them, but he has begun to think about them, and their relation to each other, in short, he has begun the process of logical thought, which is the first and greatest step in all education.

In this process of storing away in his brain the accumulated knowledge of the ages, the child's mind passes, with inconceivable rapidity, along the same route that the composite minds of his ancestors travelled, during their centuries of development. The impulse that causes him to want to hunt, to fish, to build brush huts, to camp out in the woods, to use his hands as well as his brain, is an inheritance from the past, when his primitive ancestors did these things. He should be helped to trace the route they followed with intelligence and understanding, he should be encouraged to know the woods and all the great world of out of doors, to make and use the primitive weapons, utensils, toys, his ancestors made and used, to come into closer contact with the fundamental laws of nature, and thus to lay a groundwork for wholesome and practical thinking which cannot be gained in the classroom, or the city streets.

As has been said, the writer has tested the methods outlined above. The chapters in "The Earth's Story" are merely the things he has told his own children. It is of interest to note that one of these, a boy of seven, on first going to school, easily outstripped in a single month a dozen or more children who had been at school almost a year, and was able to enter a grade a full year ahead of them. The child in question is not in the least precocious, but having understood the knowledge he has gained, he is able to make use of it, he has a definite mental perspective, a sure grasp on things, which makes study of any kind easy for him, and progression correspondingly rapid.

Too much emphasis cannot be laid upon the fact that methods of thinking are more important, than the particular things we think about. Right thinking is the cornerstone of all mental development. In the writer's opinion it is the great lack in modern education.

Catonsville, Maryland.

CHAPTER I

HOW MOTHER NATURE MADE THE EARTH READY FOR MAN

In the beginning, millions of years ago, before there were any men, or animals, or trees, or flowers, the Earth was just a great round ball of fire, bright and dazzling, like the Sun.

Instead of being solid, as it is now, it was a huge cloud of white-hot gases, whirling through space.

We all know how solids can be turned into liquids, and liquids into gases, by Heat, for we have only to heat a solid piece of ice to turn it into a liquid, water, and if we keep on heating the water, it will turn into a gas, which we call steam. It was the same way with all the solid things on the Earth; Heat had turned them all to gases, like steam.

Then God called Mother Nature to Him and told her to get the Earth ready for Man to live on.

So Mother Nature sent Heat away to melt up some other worlds, and called for his brother, Cold. And Cold came rushing up, his great white wings glittering with frost.

"What can I do for you, Mother Nature?" he asked.

"Blow on the Earth with all your might, Cold," said Mother Nature, "and get it ready for Man to live on." Then she flew away, and as she went she took a piece of the Earth-cloud and rolled it into a ball, and set it spinning in space about the Earth, so that it might cool down later and be the Moon.

When Mother Nature had gone, Cold, who was the spirit of the great outer darkness in which the Sun and Stars move, hovered about the Earth and blew on it with all his might, and as his icy breath swept over the fiery Earth, the hot gases began to get cooler and cooler, and at last they turned back to liquids again. And after that, they got cooler still and began to turn to solids, just as hot melted taffy gets hard and solid when it cools.

It took Cold a very long time to cool the Earth, millions of years, but he did not mind, for he had nothing else to do. So he blew and blew, and after a while a hard solid crust began to form all over the Earth, very rough and uneven, with high hills and mountains sticking up here and there, and between them great wide valleys and plains, all of solid rock.

When Mother Nature came back to look at the Earth, Cold asked her how she liked it.

"You have done very well, Cold," she said, "but it isn't fit for Man to live on yet, for it is too hot, and there isn't any water. Blow some more, and make Rain."

So Cold blew again, on the great white clouds of steam that came rolling up from the hot Earth, and his icy breath cooled the steam and turned it into Rain, just as the steam from a teakettle will turn to little drops of water if you cool it suddenly. And the Rain fell back on the Earth, year after year, until at last it filled up the great wide plains and valleys between the hills and turned them into rivers, and lakes and oceans. But they were boiling hot.

"How do you like it now, Mother Nature?" asked Cold.

"It still isn't fit for anything to live on," said Mother Nature. "You must cool it some more. And tell Rain to make some earth for things to grow in. They can't grow in solid rock."

So Cold blew again, harder than ever, and as the cool Rain fell he said:

"Rain, will you please make some earth for things to grow in?"

"Very well," said Rain. "I will."

So Rain fell for days and months and years on the hot rocks, and cracked and softened them, and each little raindrop as it rushed down the sides of the mountains, carried a bit of soft, crumbling rock down into the valleys, and after a very long time, all these bits of rock-dust which Rain had washed down from the hills formed great wide beds of mud covering the rocky surface of the plains many feet deep.

At the same time that Rain was washing the soft rock down into the valleys to form mud, he also carried down many bits of harder rock, yellow and white, and other colours, like glass. These rocks would not form mud, because they were too hard, but instead they became smooth round pebbles of all sizes, with millions of tiny bits, called sand, and the rivers carried them down to the ocean, and made beautiful clean beaches, as you can see whenever you go to the seashore. And Rain washed many other things out of the rocks and carried them down into the ocean, such as salt. There are great beds of rock-salt all over the Earth, and Rain melted them, and washed the salt into the ocean, and that is why the ocean is salt.

When Mother Nature, who was very busy, came to look at the Earth she smiled, because it pleased her.

"You have done very well, Cold and Rain," she said. "All the rivers and lakes and oceans are full of nice warm water, and all the valleys and plains are covered with soft warm mud, ready for things to grow in. I think I had better speak to the Sun."

So Mother Nature said to the Sun:

"Sun, the Earth is ready for you now. Please make something grow." Then she went away to look after some other worlds she was fixing up.

The Sun looked down at the Earth and smiled as he saw the nice rich beds of mud, and the great wide Ocean.

"Are you ready, Ocean?" he asked.

"Yes," said the Ocean. "I am warm and salt and full of Rain."

"Good. We shall need plenty of Rain," said the Sun. Then he turned to the Air.

"Are you moist and warm, Air?" he asked. "Yes," said the Air. "I am very moist and warm."

"Good," said the Sun. Then he turned to the beds of mud.

"Mud," he said, "you are ugly and black, but you are also full of nice rich chemicals and all sorts of substances we need to make things grow. With the help of Air, and Rain, I am going to cover you with a beautiful carpet of green, so that you will not be ugly any longer."

So the Sun turned his blazing rays on the soft mud and warmed it, and then a wonderful thing happened. Tiny living things, like plants, formed out of the chemicals in the Mud and the Water, and the Air, began to spring up, just as God had long ago planned. They were very small and weak at first, but after a while they grew stronger and stronger, until they had spread all over the Earth, wherever there was mud or dirt for them to grow in. And later on, because the Air was so moist and warm, the way it is in the tropics, and because the Sun was so hot, and there was plenty of Rain, the plants on the Earth grew to be very large and strong. There were ferns, like the little ones we see in flower-pots, as big as trees, and all sorts of tall, rank grasses, and vines, even at the North and South Poles, for in those days, before the Earth had cooled down the way it has now, the Poles were warm, too.

For hundreds and hundreds of thousands of years these great ferns and other plants grew, and died, and fell back into the mud, and as they rotted they made more earth, for other plants to grow in, so that the earth-covering on top of the rocks grew thicker and thicker. In some places the leaves and trunks of these fern-trees got mashed down on each other in thick layers, and became harder and harder, until they turned to coal. Often, in coal mines, the miners will break open a lump of coal and find printed in its surface the exact pattern of the leaf of one of these great fern-trees, just as it fell, millions of years ago.

While all this was going on, Mother Nature, having a little time to spare, came back to take a look at the Earth. It was one of the smallest worlds she had to look after, so she could not give it all her time.

"It is doing very nicely indeed," she said to the Sun. "In eight or ten million years it may be ready for Man. But we must have some fish and other things first. Won't you please attend to it for me, Sun? I am very busy just now looking after some new-born stars in the Milky Way."

"Certainly," said the Sun. "I will attend to it at once." So he turned to the Ocean.

"Ocean," he said, "wouldn't you like to have some fish swimming about in you?"

"Indeed I should," said the Ocean. "I am very big, and I have plenty of room for all the fish you can make."

"Good," said the Sun. "Do you see those tiny spongy growths along the edge of the mud – those funny little things like jelly-fish. I have noticed that some of them haven't quite made up their minds yet whether to be plants, or fish. They have begun to wriggle and squirm about in the mud, and a plant, you know, is supposed to take root and stay in one place. Don't you think we ought to help them to make up their minds?"

"Yes," said the Ocean. "What do you want me to do?"

"Well, suppose you gently wash them loose from the shore, and let them drift for a while in your nice warm salt water. Maybe they will get to like it."

"I'll try it," said the Ocean.

So he did, and after a time the tiny creatures got to like the water so much that they lived in it all the time, instead of just squirming about in the mud. And as thousands of years went by, some of them grew little shell-houses to live in, and some of them fastened themselves to rocks, like oysters, and waited for food to drift right into their mouths, but others grew fins and tails, so that they could swim about in search of something to eat. It took a very long time of course, but after a while, as they grew and grew, and changed and changed, the Ocean came to be full of all sorts of fish, large and small. And the Ocean was very proud of them.

CHAPTER II

THE FISH THAT GOT STUCK IN THE MUD

When Mother Nature came back to take a look at things she was delighted to see how well they were going.

"The trees and plants and grass are doing nicely," she said, "and so are the fish. Now we must get some animals on land, and you, Ocean, must attend to it for me."

"What can I do?" the Ocean asked. "I haven't any animals to put on the land."

"Then you must put some fish there, and I will see that they are turned into animals."

"But fish can't live on the land," said the Ocean. "They haven't any lungs to breathe air with. They can only breathe in the water."

"I know that," said Mother Nature, smiling. "You just do as I tell you, and leave the rest to me."

"What do you want me to do?" asked the Ocean.

"Tell the Wind to blow a great storm, and wash some of your fish up into the salt marshes. And after that, have your waves build a wall of sand along the edge of the marshes, so that the fish and the water you have washed in cannot get out again."

"I will do it," said the Ocean, "but I do not see any sense in it."

"You will, when I have finished," Mother Nature said.

So the Ocean spoke to the Wind, and told him to blow his hardest, and the Wind howled and shrieked with joy and drove the waves before him, and they danced and rolled up into the great wide marshes and carried thousands and thousands of fish with them. Then other waves came, carrying sand, and with the sand they built a wall all along the edge of the marshes, so that the water in the marshes could not get out again, but stayed there, spread out like a great shallow inland sea.

Then Mother Nature said to the Sun:

"Sun, dry up the marshes, and see what happens."

So the Sun blazed down on the marshes and began to dry them up. It took him thousands of years to do it, for they were very large, but he did not mind that, for he had nothing to do but shine.

The fish that had been carried into the marshes had a great time, at first, swimming about in the shallow water quite as much at home as they had been in the Ocean. But after a while, as the marshes began to dry up, some of the fish got caught in the mud on the edges, and they couldn't breathe, with their heads out of water, so they flopped their fins in the mud, and tried to breathe the air, and at last, by pushing with their fins, they managed to get back into the deeper water again. Every time this happened, their fins got a little tougher and stronger, from pushing themselves along in the mud, and their lungs got a little more used to breathing air, instead of water, and by the time thousands of years had gone by, and the water in the marshes was nearly all dried up, the great-great-great-grandchildren of the first fish had got so used to breathing air that they did not mind it a bit, and their fins had got so used to rubbing along on the mud that they weren't fins any longer, but had changed to short, strong little webbed feet.

Mother Nature came and looked at them, and laughed.

"You see, Ocean," she said, "I knew what I was about. Your fish have turned into reptiles. They can live on land as well as in the water, and they have legs and feet."

"How did you do it?" the Ocean asked.

"I did not do it. There is a wonderful law, made by God, which takes care of all such things. No matter what sort of a life any creature is in the habit of living, if you make him live another kind of life, he will change himself to suit it. Your fish couldn't breathe air, when they first tried it, but as soon as they had to breathe it, this law I speak of helped them, so that their lungs began to change, and before long, they had grown a new pair of lungs, fitted to breathe air. It was the same way with their feet; the tender fins they used to swim about in the water with weren't hard and tough enough to scrape against the mud and rocks, so they have grown tougher and stronger fins, like little legs, to get about with. You may be sure that God knew what He was about when He planned the Universe, and made its laws. You just watch these reptiles we have made, and see what happens to them. I'll be back in a million years or so, and see how things are getting along. We'll be ready for Man pretty soon." Then Mother Nature went away to look after some comets that had gotten lost and were dashing madly through space, trying to find out where they belonged.

The Ocean watched the reptiles in the great salt marsh, and saw many wonderful things. As the water in the marsh got lower and lower, being dried up by the Sun, the mud in the marsh got harder and firmer, and the reptiles in it, who lived partly on land and partly in the water, found after a while that there wasn't enough water left for them all to live in, so thousands of them crept inland, away from the sea, and made their homes in the great fern forests, or among the rocks on the bare hillsides and plains. And no matter what sort of a life they lived, they changed to suit it.

Some made their homes in the soft earth along the edges of the marsh, squirming along on their stomachs, and as they did not need feet and legs to squirm with, their feet and legs got smaller and smaller, until they did not have any at all, and they became snakes. Some dug holes in the hard ground with their feet, to make homes for themselves, and from digging and digging, their feet became very strong, with hard, sharp nails on them. And those that lived under the ground all the time, feeding on the roots of plants, lost their eyes and became blind, because they no longer needed eyes to see with, in their dark burrows, just like the moles we see digging under our lawns to-day. Some, like the frogs and the turtles, stayed in the marshes. The frogs made holes in the mud to live in, but the turtles grew hard shells on their backs, so that they could carry their homes about with them, and sleep on the open ground without any fear that other animals could harm them. Some of the reptiles, who liked the water best, crawled out of the marshes into the rivers, and became crocodiles, and alligators, while those that went inland forgot all about the water, and instead of scales, or shiny skins, like the reptiles, they grew hair on their bodies, to protect them and keep them warm. Some, who took to living in the trees, grew sharp claws, and long legs, to climb with, while others, who did not care for climbing, but ran around on their four feet all day, found that after a time their feet grew very hard and strong, and because they did not use their toes any more, they gradually lost them, and grew hoofs, like the horse, or the deer. And some, who liked the trees better than the ground, because there were always plenty of berries and fruits to be found there, stayed in the tree-tops all the time, and never came to the ground. Their front fins had gradually become larger, from flopping them in the air all the time, and at last, after many thousands of years, these fins became wings, and the trees in the forest were full of birds.

The kinds of food the new animals ate had a great deal to do with their shapes and sizes. Some, like the deer, the huge elephants we call mammoths, and the giraffes, who came later, grew very fond of the fresh green leaves of the trees, and ate them most of the time. The giraffe got into the habit of reaching up so far for the tender leaves that his neck grew longer and longer, until now he has the longest neck of any animal in the world.

Some animals, instead of eating leaves, or fruit, learned to eat other animals, and so their teeth and claws got very large and sharp, and their bodies very quick and strong, like the lions and tigers, so that they could jump upon the creatures they ate and tear them to pieces.

Because the Earth was so warm and comfortable, and there was plenty to eat, some of the animals grew to be very large. There were mammoth elephants, two or three times as large as the elephants we see in the circus to-day, with shaggy hair, and long curving tusks to fight with. And there were animals like lizards, some of them almost as big as whales, and others with long necks, and wings like a bat, that flew about over the marshes, eating smaller animals, or the leaves of plants and trees. As the Earth became cooler, many of these early sorts of animals died out, became extinct, as we call it, and we only know that they once lived, because sometimes we find the bones or skeletons of them lying in beds of clay or rock.

All these changes the Ocean watched while Mother Nature was away, and the laws that God had made to govern the Universe filled him with wonder. Even in his own kingdom of the sea he saw strange things – flying fish, and others that grew swords at the ends of their noses, to spear their enemies with. And he even saw, at the very bottom of the sea, where it is always dark, fish that grew little electric lights like the lights of a firefly, by which they were able to see their way about in the darkness.

When the new animals had spread all over the edge of the Earth, Mother Nature came back to see how everything was going.

"Splendid," she said, when she had looked things over. "The plants, and the fish, and the animals are all doing very nicely indeed. Now we are ready for Man."

CHAPTER III

THE APE THAT WALKED LIKE A MAN

When Mother Nature told the Sun that the Earth was at last ready for Man, the Sun did not quite understand her.

"What kind of creature is this Man you are always talking about?" he asked.

"Wait and see," Mother Nature replied, "and while you are waiting, just keep your eye on that funny little animal running about there in the woods – the one with the long arms and legs and tail. I'll be back after a while and tell you more about him." Then she went away.

The Sun looked down at the creature Mother Nature had pointed out to him, and saw a queer little animal, covered with hair, and looking somethink like a very small monkey. This animal liked the fruits and nuts of the trees, and spent most of his time in the tree-tops, but sometimes he would go down to the ground, and run about through the thick jungle forests on all four feet, like a squirrel. But when he wanted food, or when some of the fierce flesh-eating animals attacked him, he would quickly climb up into a tall tree.