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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 10, 1915)
The s aMOBBaaMM " -tMnMMHBMMMMMMniMHBtaAMAAaWM-AaMAMMKM ftBMMWBfedMMBHMBMMaBBBBBBMM L " " """"""'"''iMBl Omaha Sunday Bee Magazine Page , -ej 1 Avv W A .'7' A The Sea Otter of the Arctic, Whose Favorite Food la the Giant Crab Shown to the Right, Which Is a Survival of the Earliest Crustacean Forma. ' The Evidence Upon Which Science Bases Its Newest Theory That the Cradle of Oar Race Was Somewhere in the "Circum-Polar Basin," Where the Explorer Has Discovered His New Land By W.H.Ballou,Sc.D. THE fact that Stefansson, ine renowned Arctic explorer who had been unheard of for nearly a year and a half, Is still alive and courageously pursuing bis research work in the Arctic regions has revived the bope in Scientific circles that before very long he may return with the solution of some of the riddles of that vast area. Although both the North Pole and the South Pole have been discovered." It is nevertheless a fact that millions of square miles in both the Arctic and Antarctic have never been trodden on by modern man. The main object of the Stefansson expe dition was to explore these unknown regions because they are believed to hold the answer to many questions which have long engaged the attention of scientific men. ' One of these interesting questions was recently reierroa to oy Profesaor Henri Fourier, of the Sorbonne. "When the work ol polar research is so organised and systematised that scientists will be able to live at the North Pole all the year round, he declared, "it will speedily be found that the birtbplaco of hu manity, the traditional Garden of Eden, was there. Lifo origi nated In the North Polar region, and spread from there through out the world." - This theory finds acceptance among a great many pr Amer ica's foremost scientists and is based upon a number of ex traordinary bits of evidence which have been brought to light during the last decade, but it is hoped that BtefanBSon's research will still further strengthen the foundation upon which It rests. The region which the Stefansson expedition set out to explore covers about a million square miles north of western Canada, north of Alaska and north of eastern Siberia, and it is this very region, particularly that part which lies north of Siberia wnlcH Is generally believed to have been the cradle of the world. The evidence of man's origin in the polar regions has not been obtained directly from under the great ice-cap, but from around Its edges, more particularly in northern Asia. In the region extending from Thibet to near the pole the fossil remains of mammals, birds, plants and reptiles have been found from time to time, and these are very significant. ' Dr. W. D. Matthew, at a recent meeting of the New York Academy of Sciences, at J-he American Museum, said: "The great mass of evidence In favor of adaptation to progressive arid climate and of dispersal from the northern land regions, is de rived from the recorded history of the Mammalia during the Tertiary and Quartenary and from comparison of their former and present geographical distribution. It has long been recog nized that the present distribution of mammals is due chieflly to migration from the great northern land mass, and the con nection of this southward march with progressive refrigeration In the polar regions. "With a clearer perspective of geologic time and far more exact records, it is evident that most of this deployment and dis persal of mammalian races has taken place since the Eocene epoch of the Tertiary, although remnants of an older dispersal on the same lines are probably traceable in the present habitat of monotremes, marsupials and primitive lnsectvores. "In view of the data obtainable from historical record ,frmo tradition, from the present geographical distribution of higher end lower races of men, from the physical and physiologies! adaptation of all and especially of the higher races it seems lair to conclude that the centre of dispersal of mankind in prehis toric times was central Asia, north of the great Himalayan ranges, snd that when by progressive aridity that region be came a desert, it was transferred to the bordering regions. "We may further assume that the environment In which man primarily evolved was a temperate and more or arid oue, progressively cold and dry during tho course of his evolution. In this region and under these conditions .the race first attained dominance which enabled it to spread out in successive v.eves cf migration to the most remote parts of earth." Man and contemporary mammals were tho last and highest expression of evolution of life. Btforo. them by millions el years, reptiles had Sway, and before repliles, fishes. So all to sil evidence collected relating to the period of man and con temporary mammals Is labeled "recent"1 The Haeckel table, as figured out by Gadow, places the prtgln of anthropohi aps and lemurs, the stock from among which prospective man. probably an ancestor also of the gibbon, sprang, In the Eocene-Miocene period of 2,(09,009 years ago. Mioeeno times were hot ones, when much of the earth was a tropical Jungle. In the Aslatlo-poler region, however, the conditions were sub tropical, as Knowlton has shown from fossil plants collected entirely around the Arctic Circle region, and others by mammal and invertebrate fossils. In consequence, tnore Animal life evolved under more favorable conditions on the northers Asiatic sector, and has continued to evowe there for the same reason .lmobt continuously since. Also at that time, vast areas of the Erth were under ahallow teas, which later and since nave mostly, aporated. because cf changes of climate. The hot Miocene changed into the cooler, more arid Pliocene rlod, according to Haeckel-Gadow, so that the ancestral an- u If- 1 fywH MN''iaweMMWpejwqwsejwe JiipweMt 9 tm iwti'liJ'fm..t''"Mjf -wi W'iiah . ua. v- .7-J; I . . V?v . f f " ' f . " .v 1 -i .slT"ljr . ..' - . '..v.-'J.-l ?'.t'--v?0. . 1 r ,-fr ..-" - ......... ,j a y; y yyy I -." : T - : -.y . M. M ' yy ys y ! V .; ; ,V;w i f ' .. ' i .., -j -e , s , ft . , . ,.. ) X t - i . . ' . ' ' ? . J .... -.. . . . . ,S ? , X ' . ..,.-.V'-&..-- ; ' . . ' ' . ' '''Vi- .. ."';, . J. ' " " - " -' ( 4 W v.- . . 4 ' 1'-, ! .... v .. . .... . V-- J - f .... 1 f. i. Whole Carcasses of Mammoths Are Found Preserved in the Arctic Ice This Striking Drawing by IJiron Roger Shows One of the Gigantic Beasts, Which Could Only Live in Tropical Climate, Being Submerged in a Frozen Marsh During the Beginning of the Glacier Epoch. thropolds and contemporary mammals, had Increasingly better times for development in the northern Asiatic-polar territory where they were Intrenched, and they began to spread around that region into northern Kurope. What caused this slow change of climate, first cooling off this region, then congealing it? Astronomy answers, "an increasing eccentricity of the earth's orbit." The tables of eccentricity may be found computed by 1'. V. Kendall in Wright's "Man and the Glacial Period." These tables show that 200,000 years ago the eccentricity of the earth's orbit was three times that of to-day. Woodruff said: "The widespread story of the deluge must be a the Earth" and summarize this feature as follows: Omitting the elevations of the crust, one degree of latitude btlng equivalent to 250 feet of elevation, the essential feature tt glacial times was the increase of eccentricity and the posltlor of the earth in perihelion in Summer instead of Winter as at present There were then long Bevere Winters and very rfliort, terribly hot Summers, the latter causing tremendous floods on the south edges of the glaciers. These Hoods, or perhaps one of them of vaster dimensions, gave rise to the story of the flood. As Woodruff said: "The widespread story of the deluge must be a modified tradition from glacial tlrs, 'when terrific floods oc curred each Summer. They must have made such a profound Impression as to leave traces in myths long after migration was forgotten." Another thinker has assumed that the traditions of these same floods gave rise to the flaming sword story, by which Adam and Eve were driven out of the Mesopotamlan Garden of Eden. The human mind, ever since it began to possess some organi sation, has tried to think out the reasons for things, same as rdinary minds do Unlay, without the scientific bolster of evi- Northern Albatrosses in Their Love Dance A Curious Form of Bird Life That Is Profuse in the Lands Being Explored by Stefansson. dence. Hence we have myths substituted for evidence from the earliest recorders down to the unknown who was always tele graphing the fall of Port Arthur during the Russo-Jap war. The Haeckel-Gadow table puts the existence of Pithecanthropus erectus, our earliest discovered ancestor at 600.000 year ago. Ills skull shows hlra to have been higher than the apes, but lower than man. His descendants, according to the same table were 360,000 y ears developing the man brain. In other words, the Adam and Eve of science on that Asiatic polar rim, achieved full development Of huge physique and large skull with perfected brain 260.000 years ago. What caused it? Just excessive cold and nothing else, say scientists. All con cede that the population of the world at that Instant wil far greater than that of to-day. Mankind of the lowest, most brutal, apish types had spread all over the earth'a warmer regions to get awsy from the cold Into regions automatically producing food, with climate adapted to primeval life. Up In the Asiatic corthland, however, the men who remained, developed brain and self reliance because of and in splta of the cold. They had to think or perish. .... The summary of this evidence from the works of Huxley, Le Conte and others Is thus given by Dr. Charles B Woodruft: "Our pre-glactal ancestor. In that Asiatic sub-tropical climate, which extended nearly to the pole, may have had so llttlo trouble in getting food that It waa the active, agile, intelligent ones best fitted to escape the enemies of the times who weru best adjusted to the environment and who survived In greater numbers. Now what a change occurred In the very slow and gradual approach of the long cold! What a struggle began with a wiping out of species which could not And fit variations ad Justed to the change, and what a mortality there must havo been among our most stupid ancestors, and therefore what a rapid evolution of brain when the most intelligent survived, and no others in each, generation! Is It not possible then that . brain developed during the cold and as a result of It? " The section entirely around the Arctic Circle has been con tinuously inhabited by man, since man evolved. Before, during and after the lco agon and the last one la not yet all gone the polar region, whether subtropical or congealed, has been mas tered by man, under whatever conditions, and gainst all hasard's. In those regions which .w e characterise as awful, man has been accompanied by other mammals, birds, reptiles, Inverte brates and plants. In former times, before the glacial age, evi dence shows that land was continuous around the Arctic Circle. Water gaps have since been made in the Circle by the weight. In other words, the Arctic Circle people who first evolved tho perfected brain have left -the original habitat of man and bis ancestors continually peopled. On the northern Asiatic sector, It is not too much to assert that there -are still existing tribes to-day, not a whit different in form, physique and brain from the men of 160,000 years agp. In the Lapp of to-day we have almost typical first men, white men. blond men. In the people of darker skins or redder or browner skins the nigrencensed people we have offshoots who evolved color changes because of the violet rays of the sun causing snowburn, snow blindness, eta, and to meet environ mental conditions so as to deceive enemies, according to Charcot, Unna, Hammer, Bowles, etc. These peoples,' the nigrescensed races, which Include negroes. East Indians, and all not white, made the mistake of their lives In not remaining white and blond, since they have In consequence become the under dogs of the races, subjected by those who re mained white, also have been victims of disease and epidemics, and have been depleted time and again because of intermarriage. Still many of them survive entirely arpund the Arctic Circle and illustrate to us that the Fournier proposition of a Polar Garden of Eden makes it possible for the humsn race to be rehabili tated at a time when more southern conditions exterminate us, whether by wars or disease. In other words, the polar region Is not only the birthplace of brain and brawn, but the stabiliser and rehabllltator of mankind. Its estimated populations of to-day are some 10,000,000 people, of whom most are Asiatics. Among the latter, particularly In northern Siberia, are many men of huge stature and large skulls, who have never been defeated in battle, conquered or who have ever surrendered, al ways fighting to the death. The Russians, after several cen turlea of attempted conquests by Cossacks, gave np, and took over a mild control by diplomacy and bribes. The Russians re allied that If these huge natives were exterminated there would be none left to do the Arctic Circle work, that of reindeer propa gation, fur collection and fisheries. Cold means nothing to them the nine months - . ---r.iiifc.TsWTTr'" H Mil A Strange Drawing of the Extraordinary Creatures Long Supposed to Live in the Arctic Seas These Legends, Science Thinks. Are Survivals of Racial Memories of Actual Fights of Earliest Humanity in That Region with Monsters- . of Winter, Arctic bllzsards, the ab sence of sunlight, never for an in s t a n t interfere with their travel or occupations. They are pure, typical and prim itive carnivores, with atrengtb comparable to a gorilla's, able to throw a reindeer stag by his horns anj to master the most ferocious beasts In hand to hand conflicts; men, women and children dressing in furs that would make New York billionaire e n v 1 o a s . We speak oi the menace to the world of rousing the Chinese, for getting that if these Arctlo Asi atics were . ever aroused a worse calamity might befell the more southern peoples than even tho Teutons have 'lanced. rJnnvri.w, io:i by U Star Company. Oreat Britain Right RtaeM . 'KmMm'mm'mm'n'mmm''mmmmlmai"mm 1 irinHii n naa-nm u - swasiissi iisjul nannima " - r