The Antediluvians

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 9, 1866

The Antediluvians.

Bro. White: The following article is from the N. Y. Tribune of Dec., 1865, and is corroborative of the testimony found in Vol. iii of Spiritual Gifts, pp. 34 and 92. Those who are unwilling to receive these testimonies given us by the gifts of the Spirit, cannot put aside these witnesses that come from the bowels of the earth.

W. G. B. Albion, N. Y.

Discovery of Wonderful Organic Remains. Proofs of an Extinct Race of Men and Animals.

On Meagher's Bar, opposite Nevada, have been discovered fossils that unmistakably prove that this part of the world was, at one time inhabited by a race of human beings who stood, in maturity, from ten to twelve feet high; and by a species of quadruped at least twice as large as the Asiatic elephant. They were imbedded about eight feet, in what might be termed a close diluvial deposit, and in what the configuration of the country indicates was once the eddy of a river.

As an evidence of the former, we now have before us the jaw-bone—anatomically termed the inferior maxillary—of a biped which is almost double the size of an ordinary human jaw-bone. From point to point of the condyle—the upper projection, where junction is made with the corresponding parts above—this fossil measures fully five inches. It is in a perfect state of preservation—so perfect, that, had it been of ordinary size, one would have supposed that its owner had not made his (or her) exit from this "vale of tears" over 15 or 20 years ago. The enamel of the teeth still remains bright and uninjured by the action of fire, water, or air. Not a tooth is lost. They comprise six grinders or molars (the usual number), and ten others, being sixteen in all. They have been much worn by the labor of mastication; which fact proves that this American Goliath did not cease to use them until they had prepared for his stomach the food of many years, perhaps not until the other functions of his physical organization had weakened from old age, when the utility of the teeth ceased, though decay had not yet marked them by a single perforation. The fact is also a good conjectural argument, that this being belonged to a race similar in their habits to the existing tribes of natives, who, even in their old age, are notable for the fine state of their teeth. The jaw-bone is the only portion of the remains we have seen; but ribs, and other bones were found near the spot, which undoubtedly belonged to the same individual, as they are all of proportionate size. It has been estimated by members of the medical fraternity here, that the hight of this biped could not have been less than 10½, and might have reached 12 feet!

Why, we will be asked, do we suppose these human bones to be the remains of an extinct race? We answer it is a conclusion fairly arrived at by inductive reasoning. It is true, among existing races, there are instances recorded of men reaching the hight of over eight feet; but the record is not positive of any reaching over nine feet. The science of "comparative anatomy" need not be deeply studied to prove that these fossils belonged to a being more than ten feet high. If this being belonged to the existing races, and was a sort of lusus naturæ, or one individual of tremendous proportions among whole nations of the common stature, is it not somewhat surprising that his (or her) gigantic bones should be exhumed in the heart of the continent, having distinctive physical prominence among millions? Why was not one of the myriads of smaller frames, from which the vital spark had fled before and fled after him, found instead? The Caucasian is put down as the tallest of the five divisions of the human family. There is not one of this race, on record, that we are aware of, who attained to a hight of near eleven feet. Such an anomaly might happen; but if it should, many generations would most probably come and go without a parallel. Judging from its size alone, we think the chance of this jaw-bone having belonged to one of the North American Indian race is as one for, to many millions against. But the concomitant circumstances of a fossil having been found with it, which we know is not referable to any species now existing in America, strengthens the theory that in this jaw-bone we have the evidence of a race of human beings that has "gone flickering among the things that were."

The proof of an extinct race of quadrupeds, or of a species at least, that were twice as large as any now extant, is the discovery of an enormous molar tooth, which was found along with a monster jaw-bone. The crown or top of this tooth measures, the longer* way, exactly six inches, and it is four in width; the root, or the part invested by or sunk below the gum, measures over seven inches. The measurement from top to bottom (that is, in its natural position) is between eight and nine inches, being but little greater in depth than in length on the top. Judging from our very limited knowledge of palæontology, the animal which carried this tooth was ruminant and herbivorous. The crown of the tooth is marked by numerous transverse ridges, thickly enameled. The enamel is bright, and in many places as well preserved as if on the tooth of a living animal. These ridges are not deep, and are rounding on the top, indicating adaptability to bruising in mastication, rather than cutting, on the carnivorous, or flesh-eating order. The tooth is partially petrified, and has indications of having been a long while buried. Upon exposure to the air, a fragment crumbled off, and fully half of it is in a state of petrification. Had it not been for the enamel—the most indestructible of substances—and this petrifying process, it is doubtful that its form would have been so long preserved.

This molar may have belonged to the mastodon species, or an enormous type of the elephant. But we are told that a tooth of similar outlines, but three times as large, has been found in Deer Lodge county, in this Territory. Gentlemen in this place have seen it. This would seem to indicate an extinct quadrupedal race larger than remains have yet been found of, in Europe or other parts of North America. The great mastodon skeleton in the Philadelphia Museum, is fifteen feet long, and eleven feet high; but think of a tooth a foot and a-half long, and a foot wide on the top!

The carcass of an elephant was found, in the present century, in the frozen mud and sand of Siberia, preserved in its entirety. Its skin was covered with hair or fur, but all else indicated a bona fide elephant. In 1771, the carcass of a rhinoceros, also, was found in the same regions. The icy shores of the Polar Ocean, in north-eastern Asia, abound, it is said, with the bones of these animals, now only known in the tropics. What mighty convulsion of nature caused their extinction? and how far did its influence extend? Did not the great upheaving break asunder a land connection that once existed between the two hemispheres? One arctic explorer reports having found fossil tropical plants, species of the palm, buried beneath the perennial snows of Kamchatka. This, as well as the Siberian fossils, point to a complete and permanent climatical revolution. May not these facts bear upon the theory of our Indian tribes coming from the Eastern hemisphere? Was not there a time when, with even open canoes, such as the northern-coast Indians now use—they could have crossed?

We leave the subject for the speculation of the antiquarian and the curious. The mammoth jaw-bone and tooth described may be seen, for a few days, in the counting-room of The Post.