We may add to this account of land animals a few details on the land mammals of North America. The great point of contrast here is that Europe, from the beginning of the historic period, has always been a relatively well-peopled region, while in America, prior to the advent of the white man, the population was scanty. There was thus far more room in North America than in Europe for great flocks of large mammals. Thus the plains and prairies carried great herds of bison, while to the north there were other herds of reindeer, which were never tamed by the inhabitants of North America as they were in the Old World by the Lapps and others. The musk-ox is another interesting animal found in the north of America. It once also lived in Europe, but died out long ago. Just as the coniferous forest and tundra in Asia produce many small fur-bearing animals, so do the forest and tundra of North America. Deer are present as in the Old World, though they are of different types, and there is a curious animal known as the prong-buck which is peculiar. Wild sheep occur as they do in Europe, but no wild horse nor ass roams the plains of America as they roam to-day the wastes of Asia. Withoutgoing into further detail, we may say generally that as regards wild animals, no less than as regards wild plants, North America shows a closer resemblance to Asia than to that favoured peninsula of Asia which the geographers call Europe.
Before proceeding to discuss the chief races of men in Europe, something must be said of its cultivated plants and animals. Originally, doubtless, the various human groups which have mingled in Europe had each their own type of culture, based upon the possession and cultivation of particular animals and plants. The lapse of time has caused so complete an intermixture that it is only possible to a very small extent to disentangle the different elements which have gone to the making of present day civilisation. Nevertheless, as climatic differences remain and still determine minor differences, it seems worth while to consider briefly the distribution of cultivated plants and domesticated animals at the present day.
Europe has been so strongly influenced bythe neighbouring land-masses of which it forms a part, that we must begin with a few words about them.
The great continent of Asia, of which Europe, as we have seen, is but a peninsula, can be divided into a series of zones, distinguished alike by climate and by vegetation. To the north we have the cold tundra region, passing to the south into the forest region. The Asiatic forest region is continuous with that of Europe, but while the European forest extends southward till Mediterranean conditions intervene, close to the sea of that name, the Asiatic forest has its southern limit in about the latitude of London. To the south of the Asiatic forest stretches a zone of steppes passing into desert, and even into tundra in the elevated regions of Central Asia. The steppe region, as we have already indicated, enters Europe by way of Russia and pushes a long arm up the Danube into Hungary.
South of the Asiatic steppes and deserts comes an interrupted band of warm temperate or tropical forest, luxuriant to the east where there are summer rains, scanty and scrub-like to the west, where Asia meets the Mediterranean.
The steppes and desert of Asia are populated, scantily enough, with wandering pastoral nomads, who constantly tend to overflow from their own region into those of the surrounding agricultural populations. These agricultural populations are concentrated in three areas, all specially favoured by nature. To the east the summer rains, the luxuriant indigenous flora, and the presence of great river valleys, that is, of naturally fertile regions, led to the early establishment of agricultural populations in China and India. Further to the west, the fertile valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates early saw the founding of a great civilisation. This region, the Mesopotamia of geographers, is very near the third area, the Mediterranean, though far enough removed to have a very scanty rainfall, which made irrigation a necessity for agriculture. Its inter-relations with the Mediterranean must have begun early, and, remembering that part of the Mediterranean itself is in Asia, we need not stop to discuss the vexed question as to whether the Mediterranean civilisation was largely indigenous, or originated in the continent of Asia. It is often difficult to ascertain whether plants which have long been grown in the Mediterraneanarea, and are well-fitted to it, are really indigenous there, or were brought to it from the Mesopotamian countries. There is much similarity of climatic conditions, and for our purpose it is sufficient to note that the cultivated plants of the Mediterranean basin fall into three main categories. There are, first, the plants specially adapted to its climate; these are either native or were introduced from the countries close at hand. Second, there are many plants, much less perfectly adapted to conditions of drought, and therefore often demanding irrigation in summer, which were introduced from the Far East, after they had been cultivated there for long periods. Thirdly, and much fewer in number, there are the plants introduced, at a relatively late date, from America.
Of the first group the most important are the cereals barley and wheat, and the olive and the vine. These four have been known in the area from the earliest times, and they still form the basis of the diet of Mediterranean peoples. Bread, olive oil to replace the butter used by pastoral peoples, wine as a beverage, with fresh grapes and the dried forms of raisins and currants, these early made life possible in the Mediterranean area.
Barley is older than wheat, and is more productive but less valuable. It is now largely grown in the basin of the Mediterranean as a food for horses, instead of oats which, like rye, is a cereal not well suited to the Mediterranean climate. As a bread plant it was early replaced in the Mediterranean by wheat, but it is still used to make bread in some other parts of Europe,e. g.in Scandinavia, and is also of importance outside the Mediterranean as the origin of fermented beverages.
Wheat is the most valuable bread plant which exists, both on account of its proteid content and on account of its digestibility. It demands a warm dry period for ripening, with much sunshine, and is well adapted to Mediterranean conditions. Here it is sown in the autumn, to enable it to take advantage of the “early and the latter rain,”i. e.the autumn and spring rains, and ripens early before the excessive drought of summer sets in. Like barley it has always been associated with plough culture, the animal used being the ox. According to most authorities plough culture originated in Mesopotamia.
The vine and olive are apparently both indigenous to the Mediterranean, and bothare well adapted to withstand drought. In regard to the vine there are several interesting points. To the traveller from the north it is most familiar in France or Germany, where it is grown on sunny slopes, usually terraced to prevent stagnant water from lying. In the Mediterranean, on the other hand, it is planted in hollows, or low-lying ground, which permits of the collection of water, for it will receive no summer rain. The vintage is more secure than further north, and the resistance to the attacks of parasites is greater, yet, curiously enough, the Mediterranean countries do not produce the finest wines. This seems to be partly because the climate does not permit of the long storage necessary for maturing to take place. The cool cellars, so important in the wine industry further north, are here absent.
To the four plants which we have mentioned we must add such forms as the fig, which if not indigenous was of very early introduction; garlic, greatly valued as a flavouring matter; various kinds of pulse; sesame; millet, once widely grown though no longer important, and flax, known from remote antiquity.
The second group, that comprising plantsintroduced from the Far East, includes many valuable fruit trees, which in the region of the absolutely rainless summer mostly require irrigation. The peach came from China in the time of Alexander the Great; the various citrus fruits, lemon, orange, lime, citron, etc., now so characteristic a feature, were introduced from China or India. India also gave rice, extensively cultivated during long ages, and still extensively consumed, though the facility with which communication with the East is now effected makes it relatively little grown, except in the plain of Lombardy, which is easily irrigated. China sent the white mulberry, and with it the cultivation of the silkworm, so important in many regions. From the Far East also came the sugar-cane, very important till the recent development of the sugar beet industry. Cotton also was probably introduced from the Far East, which thus supplied many cultivated plants and has enormously enriched life for Mediterranean man.
Of the American plants of late introduction the most interesting is maize, which fed the somewhat limited indigenous civilisation of North America. Maize requires a warm climate with much sunshine, but needs muchmoisture during its short growing season. It is not a very valuable cereal, but it is enormously productive and therefore cheap. Generally it may be said to be used as food by man only when necessity compels its use. It is thus employed by subject races,e. g.negroes, and by the poor in the warmer parts of Europe. In the Mediterranean it is not sufficiently valuable to be grown on irrigated land, and it will not grow without irrigation where the summer is rainless. Where there are summer rains, however, as in North Italy, or where mountain slopes increase the rainfall, as in parts of Greece, or where the land is rendered valueless for wheat by winter flooding, there maize is grown. Generally it occurs within the Mediterranean area wherever the necessary water occurs naturally or can be supplied cheaply. It forms a very important part of the food of the poor in North Italy, for example, but not in the south, where water is too costly.
Two other important plants of American origin are tobacco and the potato. The latter plant is little grown in the Mediterranean, but a considerable amount of tobacco is produced. Another American plant, theprickly pear, besides furnishing an edible fruit, is important as a hedge plant within the area.
Cereals in the Mediterranean are grown, as we have seen, on ploughed land, as elsewhere. A more characteristic form of cultivation is garden-culture, practised where water can be obtained for irrigation. Such gardens consist primarily of fruit trees, all the citrus fruits, peaches, apricots, pomegranates, pistachio, almonds, and many other forms of nuts, plums, even apples and pears, being grown in this way. So productive is the ground once water is supplied, that plants are grown in association in a fashion hardly suggested in the north. Thus among the fruit trees many different kinds of vegetables, such as garlic, cucumbers, leeks, salad plants, many sorts of melons, tomatoes, egg-plants, beans, and peas, etc., are grown. Elsewhere one may see corn sown beneath the olive trees, and the vine sharing the same ground with them.
The picture of Mediterranean life may be completed by adding a few words about the domesticated animals. These are naturally in essence the same as those further north, but their relative numbers and the uses to which they are put are different.
The dog and cat both occur, but the former has little importance in the pastoral industries, and is largely a watch animal, insufficiently fed, and therefore important as a sanitary agent in that it devours garbage. Among the ungulates or hoofed animals, the ass was domesticated in the region long before the horse, and it and the mule are still more important than the horse, partly, no doubt, because both are hardier, and the problem of food is a difficulty in the largely pastureless Mediterranean region.
Few camels now occur in Europe, where they have been always closely associated with Mahometans, appearing and disappearing with them.
The pasturage difficulty greatly reduces the importance of cattle, which are draught animals rather than a source of food. As draught animals cattle go back to the dawn of history, but their numbers are small and the use of either their flesh or their milk as food is insignificant. Philippson in his book on the Mediterranean gives some striking figures to illustrate the difference in numbers between the cattle of the Mediterranean countries and those of Central Europe. Spain has only 2.1 million cattle, and yet itis scarcely smaller than Germany, which has 19 millions; Switzerland has 1,340,000 head of cattle, and Greece, which is about half as large again, has only 360,000. It is to be noted, however, that the irrigated plains of North Italy now support a considerable amount of cattle, whose milk gives rise to a considerable cheese industry; but, then, the olive will not grow in North Italy, which is therefore not strictly within the Mediterranean area.
The Arabs introduced the Indian buffalo which has spread considerably, and is now found in South Italy and the Balkan peninsula. The pig has been banished from parts of the region on religious grounds, but elsewhere it chiefly thrives where oak forests grow, the acorn being an important part of its food. The really important ungulates, however, are sheep and goats, which are often very numerous, and which, apart from birds and fish, furnish the most important part of the animal food of the inhabitants. The milk furnishes cheese, which is an important element of diet, while leather, wool and hair are also important products.
The goats chiefly feed upon the young shoots of shrubs, and frequent the denser thickets, while the sheep browse upon thegrasses and herbs to be found in the more open forms of maquis. The climate permits the animals to remain in the open during the whole year, and this prevents the collection of the manure for the arable lands. Further, the summer drought makes it difficult for even these hardy animals to obtain food, and necessitates in many regions a curious form of nomadism, to which the name of transhumance is given. Transhumance, still well developed in Spain, is the periodic and alternating displacement of flocks and herds between two regions of different climate.
As we have had frequent reason to remark, the rainlessness of the Mediterranean summer is locally modified by many causes, notably by elevation. Mountains may receive frequent showers, while the plains are parched and brown, and therefore there may be pasture on the mountains while there is none in the plains. On lofty mountains also the winter snow lingers long enough to promote the growth of summer pasture. While there are considerable herds of sheep and goats, then, it may be necessary for the flocks and their keepers to travel to the mountains in summer and back to the plains in winter. In Spain these periodic migrations, now largelymade by means of the railway, formerly took place by well-defined routes, along which the immense army of sheep, accompanied by a smaller army of attendants, passed twice a year, causing enormous destruction to the cultivated lands through which they passed. Everywhere the conflict between shepherd and husbandman is more or less acute, but it seems to have been especially acute in Spain, which is in some respects a link between Africa and Europe. Its constant liability to Arab invasion made agriculture especially difficult, while frequent wars favoured the pastoral industry; for flocks may be removed to a place of safety on an alarm, but agriculture must have some security before it can develop. In the semi-desert regions of North Africa some form of pastoral nomadism, with the social polity which comes from pastoral nomadism, was the natural result of the physical and climatic conditions, and Spain, like the lands of the eastern part of Europe, has been constantly liable to have its nascent agriculture destroyed by incursions of such pastoral nomads. In both cases the slow victory of the agriculturists, marked by many temporary reverses, affords an extraordinarily interesting chapter in human history.A stable civilisation must always be based upon agriculture, but every disturbance of an old and stable civilisation has temporarily encouraged the pastoral as contrasted with the agricultural industries.
In regard to the other animals of the Mediterranean, mention need only be made of the domesticated birds. The fowl has long been known; it is believed to have been introduced from the East eight centuries B.C. Both the eggs and the flesh are of great importance as a source of food. In spite of Roman history, geese are relatively unimportant, as are also ducks, but the turkey, late introduction from America, is well suited to the climate and has become important. Pigeons are everywhere abundant, sometimes so much so that their manure is extensively used as a fertiliser. We have already mentioned silkworms, and students of classical history know that bees have long been kept.
If we sum up what has been said about Mediterranean cultivated plants, we may note that these have been derived partly from native plants, partly from plants native to the warm forest country of eastern Asia, and partly from American plants. Regardingfor a moment the Eurasiatic continent as a whole, we may say that the old civilisations, both to the east and to the west, arose in the forest regions—in the monsoon forests to the east, in the drought-resisting forest or scrub of the west. The temperate forest of Asia has produced no great civilisation, and the civilisation of the temperate forest zone of Europe has owed much to the earlier civilisation of the Mediterranean, with which it has always had free communication.
This free communication has taken place chiefly by means of the Mediterranean seaboard of France, especially by means of the great Rhone valley, which forms a natural highway to the north. France, with both an Atlantic and a Mediterranean seaboard, has been the natural intermediary between the Mediterranean scrub land, with its characteristic civilisation, and the temperate forest region, with its colder climate, and its greater rainfall, which produce a corresponding difference in the cultivated plants.
We have seen that wheat is the great bread plant of the Mediterranean, and it is interesting to note that in this respect France is almost purely Mediterranean. It is, above all, the country of white bread, which plays a veryimportant part in the dietary of the people. In ordinary years the country produces nearly as much wheat as it consumes.
In addition to this large use of wheat as a bread plant, France shows strong Mediterranean influence in the part which wine plays in the dietary of the people, in the variety of vegetables, especially kinds of pulse, which are grown; in the fact that fowls and pork form a large part of the animal food consumed, and in that flax has been grown in considerable amounts for long ages, so that linen is an important part of household wealth. The Midi is of course definitely Mediterranean in culture, but just as the vine extends far to the north and west so also do Mediterranean influences extend far beyond the region of Mediterranean climate and Mediterranean flora.
But fertile as much of France is, it must not be regarded as consisting of nothing but fields of waving wheat. To complete and correct the picture we must add that, as in Russia, considerable amounts of buckwheat are grown for use as human food. Buckwheat, the “black wheat” of the French, perhaps introduced by the Arabs, is not a true cereal, but a relative of the knot-grassof British fields. It is very easily grown, even on poor land, and in France replaces wheat where the conditions are unfavourable, or where agriculture is backward. It is not without interest to note that while its use in France as human food is an indication of extreme poverty, in the United States buckwheat cakes take a place as a luxury. Oatcakes in lowland Scotland, “black bread” in well-to-do households in Germany, are other similar instances of the reappearance of a despised food-stuff as a luxury. Such foods become luxuries when they can be used to supplement, not to replace, white bread. Most of the buckwheat of France, however, is now grown as food for domesticated animals.
Again, fruit trees are extensively grown in France as in the Mediterranean region, with a gradual increase in the forms which require more moisture and less heat as we travel northwards. The typically Mediterranean forms early disappear, while many kinds of plums, pears and apples increase in numbers and in value. As we travel northwards also, the various forms of berries, scarcely represented in the south, increase in importance. The strawberries of Brittany form a goodexample, but throughout Europe generally this change takes place, culminating in the enormous wealth of wild berries—cranberries, whortleberries, and so on, which is a characteristic feature of the Scandinavian uplands in late summer.
As we travel to the north-west also, with the increase in the rainfall and the consequent increase in pasturage, the number of cattle increases, and with them the increased use of beef as food, and the increased use of cows’ milk and milk products. This is well seen in the broad fields of Normandy, while still further west, in the British Islands, pastures become more and more extensive, and only the existence of a well-marked “rain shadow” on the eastern seaboard, which is robbed of much of its rainfall by the hills of the west, makes the extensive growth of wheat possible in south-eastern England. With the increase of pasture, and the increased cold of winter, as compared with the Mediterranean area, we have stall-feeding, with the possibility of collecting manure for the fields. The consequence is that England, with a climate very different from that which wheat experiences elsewhere, has a yield per acre greater than that of any other country in the world.France, despite her warmth and sunshine, only gets an average of 19 bushels to the acre from her wheat fields, while in England, where wheat can only be grown at a profit when the conditions are especially favourable, the average yield is 30 bushels per acre.
In those parts of Europe where the climate or soil does not suit cereals, even such cereals as oats and rye, there is a tendency for these to be partially replaced as the basis of the diet by plants requiring less sunshine and tolerant of greater moisture. Thus in Ireland and North Germany, the potato is a very important article of diet, while in France and in Mediterranean regions generally it is unimportant. Similarly, towards the north the “fowl in the pot” tends to be replaced by fish, in the case of those who cannot afford beef or mutton.
In the more northern regions also, with their relatively large rainfall, root crops play a very important part. Most of these are grown for the domestic animals, as turnips, mangels, swedes, etc., a phenomenon which does not occur in the Mediterranean area to any extent; but the sugar beet, whose cultivation is spreading greatly in northernand central Europe, is of course grown for its yield of sugar.
We have seen that wine is the universal drink through the greater part of France, and this in spite of the fact that the northern limit of the vine, so far as wine-making is concerned, is in France about lat. 47½°, that is, about the north of the Loire. In Germany, the vine reaches to the east, in the Province of Posen, a latitude of nearly 53° N., owing to the fact that the summers grow warmer as we pass eastward. Nevertheless, in Germany, as a general rule, wine is a luxury, the influence of Mediterranean culture being less felt than in France. Throughout Germany, as throughout northern Europe generally, wine is replaced by beverages made by the fermentation of cereals or other plant products rich in starch. Throughout Germany, as throughout much of England, beer is the characteristic drink, and associated with it we have the growth of hops, used as a flavouring material. Further north stronger beverages tend to be used.
Another plant which is widely grown in the more northerly parts of Europe, especially in Russia and the Baltic countries, is flax,which, though originally Mediterranean, is now grown for its fibre chiefly in the north, partly because it is especially suited for flat moist land.
Having now looked at the cultivated plants of the Mediterranean in their bearing on the life of the inhabitants, and compared with them the plants cultivated in extra-Mediterranean areas, let us conclude this chapter by a few words on the purely pastoral peoples. These do not now occur in Europe in unmodified form, but the Asiatic steppes still contain pastoral folk, diminishing with the progress of civilisation. There can be no doubt that such pastoral folk have repeatedly invaded Europe, and have there undergone modifications owing to the different conditions which prevail.
Of pastoral folk in the unmodified form the Kirghiz of the Asiatic steppes form perhaps the best example. They are pure nomads, wandering about in search of pasture for their numerous herds, and dwelling in a movable tent, or yurt, which can be readily carried from one place to another. The herds consist of horses, sheep, goats, cattle, and camels, and the females of all these animals are milked. The Kirghiz do not cultivate land, or onlyto a very slight extent, and practically do not eat bread, though flour and rice, obtained by barter, are employed by the richer. Milk and milk-products, with the flesh of the flocks, form the basis of the diet, and a milk-wine or koumiss, produced by the fermentation of milk, is the characteristic drink. This brief description is based upon that of the traveller Brehm, and as it was written some fifty years ago, matters have doubtless changed considerably since, but it remains as the typical picture of the nomadic pastoral life. In the smaller spaces of densely populated Europe it would of course be impossible, and here pastoral nomadism is mostly replaced by that modified form known as transhumance upon which we have already touched.
As the European peoples of Asiatic origin are specially found on high ground, we may conclude by contrasting briefly with the above the life of the pastoral folk of Switzerland. Here there is no yurt or movable tent, but the old conditions are suggested by the fact that each family may possess as many as four houses. Thus in some of the valleys tributary to the Rhone in the canton Valais the following conditions occur.
There is first the true village, where eachhouse is a miniature homestead, with dwelling, cow-house, hayloft, and granaries or store-houses. Round about are fields, where rye, the characteristic cereal, is grown, with some fodder plants. Higher up the valley is the spring pasture or “mayen,” whither the cows are driven in May, to feed until the alps or high pastures are clear of snow. At the mayen there are cow-houses, and also human habitations, though not of an elaborate type. Further up, again, there are necessarily huts near the high pastures, whither a few men only go with the cows as herds, and where the cheese is made. The fourth village is placed on the hot plain of the Rhone valley, and here are the vineyards whose produce gives the much-prized wine, and orchards which yield fruit. We find here therefore a curious combination of pastoral and agricultural life. Mostly of the race called Alpine, believed to be of Asiatic origin, these Swiss folk have borrowed the vine and the use of wine from the Mediterranean peoples. The large part played in their diet by milk products, especially various forms of cheese, must be an inheritance from their nomad ancestors, while the rye, which is their bread plant, is also a heritage from Asiatic ancestors. Theoccurrence of four sets of dwellings instead of a movable one is an adaptation to life in a settled community, confined to a limited space. The whole social polity is thus a curious example of a transitional condition.
We have thus, in successive chapters, shown that in Europe three chief zones of vegetation exist, the Mediterranean scrub land, the temperate forest zone, the steppe or pasture land, and that as each of these is determined by climate, each, again, has special types of cultivated plants and domesticated animals, involving a special social polity in each case. Now it is interesting to note, what cannot be a pure coincidence, that in Europe three races of men exist, which show a certain rough correspondence to the three zones of vegetation.
The Mediterranean type of vegetation and climate is associated with a particular race, to which the name of Mediterranean has been given. The race is by no means confined to the Mediterranean region—we find representatives of it,e. g.in western Ireland,—nor does it occupy the whole of that region, for in many places it is pressed hard by other races, but it reaches its fullest developmentwithin the Mediterranean basin. Curiously enough, also, its presence in western Ireland is associated with the presence of certain representatives of the Mediterranean flora, notably the arbutus or strawberry tree and St. Dabeoc’s heath.
The characteristic inhabitants of the temperate forest region of Europe are the members of the race called Teutonic or Nordic, whose particular type of civilisation is deeply stamped by the lessons they learnt in their early struggle with the forest.
Finally, the steppe and pasture lands, whether in parts of Russia, in the Hungarian plain, or in the Alps and in the uplands of Brittany and Central Europe, etc., tend to be occupied by a third race, which seems to have originated in the steppes of Asia, and to which the somewhat inappropriate name of Alpine has been given, though it occurs in lowlands to the east as well as in uplands to the west. This race seems to be accompanied throughout Europe by plants and animals of Asiatic origin.
The full meaning of this association between racial peculiarities and types of vegetation cannot perhaps be formulated meantime, but it is interesting to note that there aresome curiously close connections between human life and the distribution of vegetation. For instance, all travellers in Switzerland must have been struck by the curious fact that in following up the Rhone valley from the lake of Geneva to the Rhone glacier the French language is found to extend up to the town of Sion, and beyond, without any obvious cause, German prevails. It has been pointed out recently that the eastward extension of the French language here marks also the eastward extension of the sweet chestnut—a curious coincidence.
Again, the same writer points out that the battle-ground between the French and German peoples round the Rhine is the region where the growth of the sweet chestnut as a planted tree reaches its eastward limit. Such facts must not, of course, be over-emphasised. Both must indicate a climatic change, but it can hardly be supposed that this change of climate is sufficient to affect man directly. It seems at least justifiable to point out that every human group which reaches any degree of civilisation and stability must depend for its permanence in the early stages on some special skill in the growing of certain cultivated plants, and the rearing of certain domesticatedanimals. We have much reason to believe that this skill is often difficult to acquire by other groups. The great difficulties which have been experienced in introducinge. g.Smyrna figs and dates into the United States; the fact that Europeans seem to find it impossible to manage camels without native help, and that they have been hitherto unable, despite most elaborate and costly experiments, to tame the African elephant, seem to be minor illustrations of this fact. Given, then, an evolving group spreading over the surface of the globe, and taking with it its characteristic plants and animals, it is probable enough that such a change of climate, even a minor change, as may be sufficient to render it impossible to cultivate these plants, or to rear these animals, may give a definite and more or less permanent check to the spread of the race. There is at least some evidence to this effect, and it gives an additional interest to the study of plant geography.
We have limited ourselves in this chapter practically to a consideration of the European area, because the existing cultivated plants and domesticated animals of North Americaare almost all derived from Europe, with the exceptions already indicated, and a few others not of great importance, and their distribution in America is determined by the same conditions as in Europe.
We have spoken in the previous chapter of the three chief races of Europe, but before proceeding to discuss them in detail it is necessary to clear the ground of certain misconceptions and difficulties.
The first of these is the notion that nationality has anything to do with race, in the anthropological sense. There is much to be said for the view that the European civilisations owe their development largely to the mingling of races which has occurred within the area; it is at least certain that no European nation, whatever the fervour of its citizens’ patriotism, is of anthropologically pure race. There is no British race, no French race, no German race, even though the word Germanic is sometimes applied to one of the strains which occurs in the GermanEmpire. We recognise this fact, of course, in our popular language, for the contrast between the Briton of Saxon race and the Briton of Celtic race is a favourite literary topic. Unfortunately for accuracy, the people within the British area who speak Celtic languages are not all of the same race, and there is nothing more certain than the fact that few of them, if any, have any distinct trace of Celtic blood. Although in literature also the comparison between the “Celts” of Brittany and the “Celts” of Wales and western Great Britain generally is a favourite one, upon which many deductions have been based, it is certain that the Bretons are not homogeneous, and that they have language but not race in common with the dark-haired Welsh.
This naturally leads us to the second point of importance—that language has nothing to do with race. In his book on theRaces of Europe, Ripley illustrates this in a very interesting way by a consideration of the languages and races of the Iberian Peninsula. This peninsula shows at the present time relative purity of race—not absolute purity, for a mingling has certainly occurred, but nevertheless one race, that which we havecalled Mediterranean, enormously predominates. Yet in spite of this relative purity of race, the peninsula is divided between two nationalities and no less than three languages. Portugal forms a separate nation with its ownlanguage, while Spain, though forming one nation, has two languages, Castilian or Spanish, and Catalan. Catalan is nearly related to Langue d’oc, the language of Provence across the French border. Provençal again, before its gradual displacement by the Langue d’oeil, or true French, was spoken by men of the Mediterranean as well as of the Alpine race. Within both French and Spanish territory still another language, Basque, is spoken.
Fig. 13.—The Iberian Peninsula and part of France, to show the distribution of languages, and their independence of political boundaries. (After Ripley.)
In other words, the almost uniform race of the Iberian peninsula speaks four separate tongues, the Portuguese, Castilian, Catalan, and Basque languages, and the political boundary of the Pyrenees separates at its eastern end two groups of Mediterranean man, speaking similar languages, Catalan or Provençal, the latter of which is also spoken, or was spoken, in France by the men of another race, the Alpine, found in the uplands of southern and central France, as well as elsewhere.
Ripley’s explanation of the heterogeneity of language combined with homogeneity of race in Spain and Portugal is interesting. The peninsula was peopled from Africa before the dawn of history, by a division of theMediterranean race called Iberian, which traversed the Strait of Gibraltar. This race established itself firmly in the peninsula and has persisted there despite infusions of other races from the north and north-east. But the road from Africa remained open, and the region was constantly liable to new invasions from the area of its prime origin. Differences of culture produced fierce warfare between the incoming and the old established race, and led temporarily to the triumph of the invaders, known to history as Saracens and Moors. The original Iberians, like the people of the same stock in Wales and parts of the Scottish Highlands, were pushed back to the mountains of Galicia, to the hill country of Castile, to the hills of Aragon and round and over the Pyrenees to Languedoc and the south of France generally. Ultimately they reasserted themselves, and drove the Moors out of Europe, but the driving force was exerted from three different centres, Galicia, Castile, and Aragon, which, owing to the configuration of the country, were isolated from each other. A political accident united Castile and Aragon, and imposed Castilian Spanish on a united Spain as the official language, but the geographical conditionshave led to the long retention of the Catalan speech, though not of a Catalan nation. The Iberians who found a refuge in the mountains of Galicia, at a later date, formed the nucleus of the Portuguese nation.
With these preliminary considerations we may pass to the discussion of what is known, or surmised, as to the different races of Europe and their origin.
The earliest man who has left traces in Europe is he of the Palæolithic Period, or Old Stone Age, a hunter and cave-dweller without domesticated animals, whose traces are especially found in southern Europe. No traces of his presence have yet been found in Scandinavia or in Scotland, where the climatic conditions perhaps made his existence impossible. Not much is known of this early race, but it seems to have been long-headed, and was probably dark. It is no longer believed that there was a complete rupture between the culture of the Palæolithic period, with its unpolished stone implements, and that of the Neolithic age, with its polished implements, but the relations of the two remain somewhat uncertain. The remains of the Neolithic period are much more extensive and enable us to draw muchmore satisfactory conclusions as to racial characters. We shall describe briefly some of these Neolithic remains as they appear in Great Britain.
Before doing this, however, it is necessary to say a few words about the means of recognising different races of men. The criterion most employed is that of head form, and especially what is known as the cephalic index, that is, the ratio between the breadth of the skull between the ears and its length from front to back. The ratio is expressed as a percentage, the length being taken as 100, and the breadth stated as a fraction of it. When the index rises above 80, the skull is said to be brachycephalic, or rounded; when it is below 75, the skull is long, or dolichocephalic. The Italian anthropologist, Sergi, adopts another classification of skulls, based upon the shape, but this is only a refinement of the ordinary distinction between long and round skulls.
Another important character, which, like the shape of the skull, can be measured either in the living person or in the skeleton, is the height, which has some racial significance. A third character, of much importance, is the colouring of the skin, eyes and hair.This can only be inferred in the case of pre-historic peoples. Finally, the shape of the features, especially of the nose, has some racial significance.
In the west of Great Britain generally, and extending northwards to Orkney, there occur the burying-places of a Neolithic people, which have yielded abundant remains, including skeletons. The cairns, tumuli, or barrows of this people are recognised by their elongated shape, by the fact that they are chambered, and by the contained skeletons, which are always those of a dolichocephalic people. “Long barrows, long skulls” is an anthropological rule for England and Scotland, no less than for the other parts of Europe in which these tumuli occur. The skeletons within the barrows show no marks of fire, so that inhumation not cremation was practised, and a very curious feature found in Scotland, in Sicily, in Egypt and elsewhere, in tombs supposed to be of similar age, is that the body is usually placed in a doubled-up position. The position corresponds to the pre-natal position of the human infant, and this method of burial is supposed to imply some belief in a future life—is a record of a naïve hope that man could “enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born again.”
Graves of this type, containing the skeletons of long-headed men, believed to be of the race which we have called Mediterranean, occur not only in western Great Britain, but also in France, in Scandinavia, in Germany, in the Mediterranean basin, and elsewhere. There seems reason to believe that they prove that in Neolithic times the Mediterranean race was widely distributed, especially in the west; it seems, further, tolerably certain that Mediterranean man himself was an immigrant from the north of Africa, and established himself first in the Mediterranean basin.
The members of this race have now, and apparently have always had, the following characters:—The skull is markedly dolichocephalic, the skin tends to be brown, the eyes and hair are dark, the stature is medium and the build slight, and the nose is rather broad.
According to Prof. Sergi there are four great stocks of this race; of these, one remained within Africa, and has been known under various names, the ancient Egyptians, the Libyans, the Berbers being all of this stock. The other three stocks invaded Europe, entering by the three natural routes which present themselves, that is, by thethree regions where the sea is most easily crossed. The most western group, the Iberians, crossed, as we have seen,viaGibraltar, and occupied the Iberian peninsula. The next group, the Ligurians, found an entrance into EuropeviaSicily, and passing up into Italy extended westwards along the Riviera, till they encountered the Iberians in southern France.
Finally, the third group, the Pelasgians, reached Greece by means of the islands of that part of the Mediterranean. It still remains uncertain whether an earlier migration still had peopled Europe with Palæolithic man, who, on this theory, would belong also to the Mediterranean race, or whether the immigrant African race displaced some earlier unrelated population. In any case, it is tolerably certain that the first peopling of Europe on any considerable scale was the result of this immigration of Mediterranean man.
He doubtless first established himself on the margin of the great sea, and there became thoroughly suited to his environment. Later he spread northwards, being no doubt especially attracted by the relatively mild climate of the west, by what has been called the“winter gulf of warmth” which extends over north-western Europe.
Whatever was the cause of his northward trend, however, Mediterranean man does not appear to have been left long in undisturbed possession of his acquired territory. In Scotland, in the Clyde valley, which is typical of many other parts of Europe, round barrows or cairns are found side by side with the long ones. These are of later origin, as is shown by the nature of the pottery, by the occurrence of ornaments, and especially by the presence of bronze weapons—a great advance upon stone. The skeletons in these cairns mostly show marks of fire, suggesting that cremation was practised, and the skulls are those of a round-headed race. “Round barrows mean round skulls” is a second anthropological maxim for Britain.
These barrows are the first traces of the second great European race, called Alpine, Celtic, Eurasiatic, or Celto-Slavic by different anthropologists. The members of this race are of medium height, but are more stoutly built than Mediterranean man. Though generally resembling him in the coloration of hair and eyes, they are lighter in tint, the hair tending to be chestnut-coloured, andthe eyes hazel grey, instead of both being very dark as in the former race. The nose, though variable, is in living types usually rather broad, and the special feature is of course the round head and broad face. As one of the names given indicates, this race is supposed by most anthropologists to have been of Asiatic origin.
Where the two sets of barrows occur there are indications that the incoming race greatly influenced the culture of the old. The use of bronze must have given its members an enormous advantage in the struggle for existence, and they seem to have imposed their customs, burial and other, and apparently also their language, on the older race.
This conflict of races which has left its traces in the Clyde valley apparently occurred in other parts of Europe. Everywhere the new race imposed its language and its customs upon the old, and everywhere its appearance is associated with a change and a rise in culture. It is presumed by the majority that this Alpine race brought with it the use of bronze, and was therefore at a higher level than Mediterranean man, but Prof. Sergi believes that the appearance of bronze and of the new race simultaneously was a mere coincidence,and that the Mediterranean race itself originated the use of metals. Meantime there is no means of deciding this question, which in any case is not of supreme importance, but what seems clear is that everywhere, except in the Mediterranean basin, the new race pressed the old one hard, whether by its skill in the arts of peace or in those of war remains uncertain. Even in the Mediterranean the old languages went down before that of Alpine man.
In the Mediterranean area the new-comers seized the upland regions, that is, as we have suggested, the regions of pasture, and ousted the longheads permanently from them. In Spain and Portugal, perhaps because of the vicinity of the reservoir of the race in North Africa, Mediterranean man kept his hold, and the brachycephalic forms did not succeed in obtaining much foothold. But they are strongly represented in parts of southern France. In southern Italy, in Sicily, Corsica and Sardinia Mediterranean man largely kept out the intruders, though they appear again on the Alpine slopes of the north of Italy. But in the eastern Mediterranean the dark longheads are hard pressed and have kept little save the seaboard from the broadheads.
Outside the Mediterranean area, the success of Alpine man was more checkered, but we are met with the difficulty that here a third race supervened later, so that existing conditions are not necessarily comparable to earlier conditions.
At the present time Alpine man occupies almost all the upland and therefore relatively infertile regions of France, especially Savoy and the Dauphiny, the central uplands, and parts (not the whole) of Brittany. Outliers of this race also occur in other regions,e. g.in parts of the Saône valley, which is not infertile. In Great Britain, despite their first success, the broadlands have left little trace on the existing population. We thus see the absurdity of talking about British Celts, for Celts in the true sense are almost extinct in Britain though their language remains and is spoken by types of Mediterranean man as well as by others. In Scandinavia Alpine man was more successful, for he has left traces in various parts, especially on the coast of Norway. Throughout Belgium and in Southern Germany the broad-headed element in the population is very strong, while in Austria, the Balkan States and Russia this race predominates and is no longer confinedto elevated or infertile regions. This increase in numbers and in dominance towards the east is one of the facts which lead anthropologists to believe that Alpine man is of Asiatic origin.
We shall return to him in a moment, but meantime it is necessary to speak of the third element in Europe, the race variously called Nordic, Teutonic, or even Germanic, in spite of the fact that many Germans belong to the Alpine race. The members of this race are remarkable for their tall stature, for their long skulls and face, for their blue eyes and fair hair, their light complexions, and their narrow aquiline noses. The resemblance in skull form leads many anthropologists to regard them as derived from a common stock with the Mediterranean race, but the race seems to have originated in Europe. The place and date of its origin are still quite uncertain. It is possible that it was produced from an early form of the Mediterranean race in adaptation to the moist climate of western Europe. Ripley gives Scandinavia as the probable place of origin, but meantime there can be no certainty.
What we do know is that this race shows as perfect an adaptation to the climate offorest-clad temperate Europe as Mediterranean man does to the dry climate of that region. Just as the border of the Mediterranean is the province of Mediterranean man, and has been his for countless ages, so north-western Europe is the almost unchallenged possession of Nordic man. Between the two, along the great wedge of uplands, is the land of Alpine man, which widens to the east, his original home. Just as Mediterranean man in the days of his prime pushed north wherever conditions permitted, so Nordic man has pushed south, across the Alpine barrier, both in the literal and anthropological sense, and has left traces of his coming even within the territory of Mediterranean man. Just as the dark-haired Welsh and the dark-haired strain of Scottish Highlanders bear witness to the old exploits of Mediterranean man, so do the fair-haired, tall-statured Lombards bear witness to the former activity of Nordic man. Nevertheless, the main territory of the two races is widely separated.
The relation of these two types, at least, to their zones of distribution is relatively easy to explain. Mediterranean man is highly susceptible to diseases of the breathing-organs to which the fair-haired Nordic type is moreresistant. Here is one possible explanation of their command of their respective habitats, and there are many others. The forest-dwelling Nordic type, as Prof. Penck points out, must necessarily have had the family as the unit, for only by dwelling in small family groups can primitive man war against the forest. Mediterranean man, with his early use of irrigation, had necessarily to evolve a larger unit, for irrigation means extensive co-operation, so that political organisations would arise early in the Mediterranean. We can hardly doubt that these two facts had some bearing on the survival rate of the two races. The Nordic race with their strong family life, and with their abundant pasturage, had doubtless a relatively low death-rate among the children, though, as Prof. Myres points out, the struggle in adult life must have been keen. In the Mediterranean, as he also notes, the dry summer means difficulties with the water supply, difficulties in sanitation, and the risk of pestilence, which, with the abundant supply of fruit and the absence or scarcity of milk, has probably always meant a very high death-rate among the children. But the fact that the struggle for existence among adults was much less keenthan among the forest folk, perhaps prevented this high infantile death-rate from being a great handicap. Once the geographical surroundings of the two peoples were changed by migration, the qualities which aided them to survive in their native habitat might become a positive hindrance. In brief, as two types evolved in harmony with well-defined geographical conditions, the very perfectness of their respective adaptations would hinder either from appropriating the territory of the other, while leaving a considerable margin for struggle on the debatable land between the two geographical regions.
If it seems at the present day that the Nordic race has more than passed the Mediterranean in the race of life, we must remember that the fact that coal is chiefly found in the territory of the former, has given it an enormous economic advantage in recent times, an advantage which it may not be able to keep.
The Alpine race presents a much more difficult problem. We have said nothing here of the so-called Aryan problem, because the whole conception of an Aryan race advancing from Asia with a ready-made culture, and imposing it upon a barbarian Europe, is somewhatout of date, and much that has been written on the subject of the Aryans preceded in time the disentanglement of the complex problems presented by European races. But with all deductions made, the incoming Asiatic race which we have called Alpine presents many curious problems. It seems probable that the languages of Europe are largely due to the grafting of Alpine or Eurasian tongues upon the different tongues already spoken by Mediterranean man. We have still in Britain a Celtic language, though it is spoken by people of Mediterranean characters, and it is an extraordinary fact that a people should impose its language and culture upon another race, and yet be itself unable to keep its footing among that race.
It has been suggested that the new-comers, in Britain at least, were never more than an aristocracy, and that they disappeared by the mingling of their blood with the indigenous people, after having long dominated them. That is, it was as if we might suppose that the British population in India was cut off from the mother country, and ultimately disappeared owing to intermarriage, while their language and their customs remainedin greatly modified form and replaced the existing languages and customs.
The difficulties in regard to this hypothesis are twofold. In the first place, such a hypothesis of mingling seems inconsistent with the extraordinary persistency which this race has manifested in other parts of Europe, where it came into contact with the same races as in Britain; and, second, the position of the Alpine race in western Europe generally, its virtual limitation to relatively infertile land, seems inconsistent with the notion that it ever formed an aristocracy, apart from and above the other races. To-day in Germany it is so far from occupying the position of an aristocracy that it sometimes forms the lower classes to a Nordic dominant class, though the Alpine race is sometimes stated to be better adapted to town life than the Nordic.
Of the three races, Mediterranean man seems to be perfectly adapted to a dry region, with deficient pasture, naturally clothed with a drought-resisting type of forest. As he prospered he spread beyond his own region, with the result that he reached a region markedly different in climate and vegetation from his own, to which his adaptation was never very perfect. Where, as in Ireland andwestern Great Britain, the conditions permitted the natural growth of some of the Mediterranean plants, there his hold was fairly firm, elsewhere it must always have been loose and uncertain.
Into a Europe thus peopled, with probably large vacant spaces, came a pastoral type of man from Asia, certainly a transporter, if not an originator, of a higher culture, best fitted for a region of pasture land, but better fitted than Mediterranean man to withstand cold. He filled the spaces which Mediterranean man could not fill, and pressed him hard in many places. Ultimately the forest region of Europe evolved its own type, perhaps from some aberrant strain of Mediterranean man, and this type, perfectly fitted to the forest regions, conquered the north and west, driving Alpine man up to the hills, and largely displacing Mediterranean man except where distinctively Mediterranean influences prevailed.
To the east, as the European forest dies away into the steppes of Asia, Nordic man can no longer compete successfully with Alpine man, and diminishes in numbers and in strength.
Thus while in Germany the tendency isfor the tall, fair longheads of the north to dominate the short, darker broadheads of the south, further to the east this same broad-headed race, under the banner of Panslavism, strives, not unsuccessfully, to dominate the longheads of Finland and elsewhere.
Thus below and beneath the warfare of race is the contrast of physical conditions, which have produced the various types of man, no less than of plants and animals, and from which man cannot fully emancipate himself.
The New World was first colonised by Mediterranean man, but later all the European races contributed their part to its peopling. When we add a strong negro element in the southern United States, a remnant of the original Indian population, and an infusion of eastern races, it is obvious that the mingling of blood which has apparently produced good results in Europe, is being carried out on a much more elaborate scale across the Atlantic.
One other point may be touched upon. We have shown that the nations of Europe are not races in the pure sense. But, at the same time, it may be noted that in the western nations one or other of the two chief races tends to predominate at the expense of the other.
Thus broadly we may say that the antagonism between the French and German nationalities is fed by the fact that in race, in culture, in tradition, the one is predominantly Mediterranean, and the other predominantly Teutonic. In the Iberian peninsula, as we have seen, the Mediterranean strain enormously predominates, while in the countries of the north-west the Teutonic race tends to overbalance the other.
The distribution of minerals over the surface of the earth is much less obvious phenomenon than that of plants and animals, but it has always been of great importance in determining the distribution of man and his settlements. Except in the most primitive communities man must have tools and implements; probably never since he became man has he been without weapons. The first sign of emergence from the rudest barbarism is the use of metals, instead of stone or bone, to construct these tools and weapons and the necessity for finding the metals best suited to his use at each stage of civilisation has always influenced the movements and settlements of man. The existence of useful metals in a particular area must always attractpopulation to that spot, and it is obvious in the case of Australia, of California, and later of Alaska, how strong the attractive power of metals is, even when the other conditions are distinctly unfavourable. As metals have always had this attractive power, the study of their distribution must always be important to the geographer.
We have seen that the first men whose remains have been preserved in Europe used only implements of stone, but that at a later state bronze was used, and corresponded to a marked rise in civilisation, as shown by the improved pottery, the nature of the ornaments used, and so on.
Now bronze is not a metal but an alloy or mixture of two metals, copper and tin. This alloy is very hard, and possesses qualities which make it more valuable for weapons and tools than the relatively soft metal copper. But we can hardly suppose that the first metal-workers discovered, immediately after they had learnt how to smelt metals, that a mixture of metals was more useful than a pure one. In point of fact, it is clear that in some places, at least, the age of bronze was preceded by a period when developing man used pure copper for his implements.
Our word copper is derived from the name of the island of Cyprus, which is particularly rich in copper ores. In this island they were smelted at a very early date, the process being aided by two facts, first, that copper ores are relatively easy to smelt, and, second, that the necessary fuel for the process was furnished by the forests which formerly covered the island, and which were largely destroyed by the early smiths.
For our purpose it is quite unnecessary to discuss the difficult and debated question as to where the use of copper and bronze originated. It is sufficient to note that the island of Cyprus, placed near early centres of civilisation seems to have been the region from which a knowledge of the pure metal and of its more useful alloy radiated over the Mediterranean and ultimately over Europe generally. It is more than probable that the use of copper or of bronze spread faster than the knowledge of the method of producing either. It is at least clear that in many cases the Stone and Bronze Ages co-existed, suggesting that the new type of implements was at first very difficult to obtain. No doubt for long ages they occupied the position which firearms long occupied among savage races,and which they still occupy among those most remote from civilisation.
In Cyprus itself very few stone implements occur, suggesting that the Stone Age was very short, and rapidly gave place to a metal one.
We do not know how the discovery was made that the addition of tin improved copper for human purposes. Bronzes of very varying composition have been found, including many which contain antimony, a somewhat rare metal, still employed in making many useful alloys. It is suggested that the first smiths tried a great number of combinations before they found one which was satisfactory, and finally fixed upon tin as the most suitable addition.
The next point of interest is the source of the tin. This is a question of great interest, for long after iron had been used, and used extensively in the manufacture of implements, the demand for bronze continued, for the iron, even of late Roman days, was very costly and probably very troublesome to make. Bronze also became of importance in connection with the coinage of civilised nations.
Tin is not a very abundant metal, and it is rare in the Mediterranean. The deposits which were utilised by the first makers ofbronze have doubtless completely disappeared, for from the early days of civilisation the tin deposits even of Far Britain were sought.
Within the Mediterranean region at the present time only one tin deposit of any importance is known. This occurs in the village of Montecatini, which is situated near Volterra in Italy, in the ancient Etruria. It perhaps played a part in connection with the development of the civilisation of ancient Etruria.
Outside of the Mediterranean the main deposits of tin in Europe occur, or occurred, in three separate areas, which formed as it were three stages in one journey, and whose position certainly made them a factor in promoting the spread of Mediterranean culture to the north-west.
These three rich tin-bearing areas were: (1) Galicia in north-western Spain, (2) the south of Brittany, especially between the estuaries of the Loire and the Vilaine, a deposit long since exhausted, and (3) the still-important deposits of southern England, in Cornwall and parts of Devon, which are believed to have been visited by the Phœnicians. Just as the gold of California brought population and civilisation to the Far Westof North America long before the natural increase of eastern peoples would have led to a westward movement, so the rich tin deposits of south-western Britain, with the other metals of those favoured islands, brought merchants and navigators to what was the Far West of ancient Europe.
The bold navigators who had learnt their craft in the Mediterranean Sea left its basin by the Strait of Gibraltar, and visited successively those masses of ancient rocks which project out into the ocean, and form the western extremities of Spain, France and Britain. But it was not only the sea route which was utilised, at least in later times. Perhaps so long ago as five centuries before our era a land route was organised which carried British tin to Marseilles, and thus to the Mediterranean. The great valley of the Rhone renders such a traverse of France feasible, and the passage from the valley to the Rhone to that of the Loire or of the Seine is easy. The existence of a commerce in tin thus ensured that France was early and deeply permeated by Mediterranean civilisation, for it involved the existence of high roads through her land, at a time when northern Europe generally was cut off from the civilisationof the Mediterranean. There is even reason to believe that trade in tin led to the founding of an early maritime power on the barren shores of Brittany. The trade in tin certainly did much to open the way for the future civilisation of France.
Though, as we have indicated, bronze was for long of relatively great importance, yet the use of iron dates back to great antiquity. It seems to have been a rare and precious metal when the Homeric poems took shape, and for long afterwards its use waspartialand limited. The fact, however, that it is very readily destroyed by rust when exposed to air and damp, makes it difficult to draw any certain conclusions from its absence in ancient remains.
The slow growth of the use of iron must be largely ascribed to the great difficulties in smelting it, especially when it occurs in impure forms. Iron does not occur in the pure state, as copper does to a small extent, but it is enormously abundant, being found, to a greater or less extent, in almost all rocks. Relatively pure ores are rare, most iron-bearing minerals containing a large number of impurities, some of which are very difficult to remove. Further, the process ofsmelting always requires much fuel, and, in the case of the more impure ores, remarkable skill and science. The result was that the early smiths could only employ a very high grade of ore; all others were useless to them. Even with a high grade of ore, they could only extract a relatively small amount of the iron present.
A very curious little proof of this latter fact is furnished by the Roman iron workings in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire. The refuse thrown out of the ancient furnaces worked by the Romans here, was re-smelted by the British smiths long centuries afterwards, and this refuse fed their furnaces for a period of between two and three hundred years.
The next point of interest in regard to iron is the source of the necessary fuel. At first wood or charcoal was always employed, and therefore iron could only be smelted in the vicinity of forests. Thus the Forest of Dean, already mentioned, supplied the wood used by the Romans in smelting, and the trees of the Weald or “wood” of Sussex and Kent were completely removed during the long centuries when the iron ores of that region were smelted. The Forest of Arden, nearBirmingham, is another region where iron was long smelted by the aid of charcoal. The amount of fuel required, especially in the early days, was very great, and as the forests were cleared without any regard for scientific forestry, it naturally followed that in many districts the destruction of the necessary fuel led to a diminution of the industry.
In England coal was not generally employed in the smelting of iron until after the middle of the eighteenth century, and long before that the British forests had been largely destroyed. The result was that the British iron industry had declined, and in the early part of that century considerably more iron was imported than was made in England. The countries which at this time were specially favoured in connection with the industry were those in which pure iron ores co-existed with extensive forests. This condition occurred especially in Germany, where the iron deposits formerly worked were those of the upland regions which have kept their forests till this day. Thus the wood and the ores of the Harz Mountains and of the Erzgebirge, or Iron Mountains, were of great importance before the industrial revolution, and up till the early part of the eighteenth centurythe German iron industry was more important than the British.
The replacement of charcoal by coal led to a great diminution of the cost of production, and permitted the use of low-grade ores, but it was not in itself a great improvement. Charcoal is a singularly pure form of carbon, and its use as the reducing agent gives a high quality of iron. Coal, on the other hand, often contains impurities which spoil the iron, and have to be provided against in various ways. Not all coal, indeed, is suitable for iron smelting. The result is that where charcoal can still be obtained cheaply, as in the Scandinavian countries and in parts of Russia, it is still used in smelting, and the iron so produced is particularly valuable.
The original demand for iron, as we have seen, was very small, and even down to the middle of the eighteenth century remained insignificant. But with the use of machinery, the spread of railways, the replacement of wood by iron in shipbuilding and for the framework of buildings, etc., the demand in all civilised communities has become enormous, has become too great to permit of any forests supplying the necessary fuel. With the far increased demand has come an elaborationof methods which means very costly installations and much skill and training among the workers.