years ago. The pottery found by Mr. Horner, at the depth of 39 feet, according to his scale, must have been buried 13,000 years.

Experienced Egyptologists do not regard his data as sufficient; but the fact is unquestioned that deep down in the Nile mud, beneath the foundations of monuments whose origin reaches back to the dawn of the Historic Period, are found the relics of a still older people, who flourished at a time when the conditions of soil and climate were apparently the same as at this day; and yet these people were modern as compared to those who were the contemporaries of the great Siberian elephant and rhinoceros.

Here, in the Nile valley, are the ruins of mighty cities which we have been accustomed to regard as among the oldest monuments of man's work. Here stand the Pyramids, upon which Moses and his fellow captives are supposed by some to have toiled, when in Egyptian bondage. The deserted temples, the prostrate obelisks, and other mouldering structures are inscribed with characters which have challenged the antiquarian's skill to interpret. In our reckless curiosity we have invaded the chambers of the dead, and dragged forth to light, forms, embalmed with rich spices and ointments, which were once instinct with life, and whose minds were agitated by the same passions and swayed by the same motives that control us; and yet the tread of these men was above the dust of generations whose name and nation, even then, had perished from the earth.

It has been argued from palæontological analogies, that we May versed to find the relics of man in the Miocene Tertiary, and there como di are facts which sustain such an opinion.

tw the Comptes Rendus for June 1863, has described even ik maakiviligt u zone bones obtained by him from the Upper Pliocene

EARLIEST TRACES OF MAN.

51

beds of St. Prest, which are analogous to those produced by flint knives and several of the deer skulls were broken in the same way, as if by a blow at the base of the horns. M. l'Abbé Bourgeois, at the same place, has discovered worked flints; but the true position of the bed in which these relics were found has not been satisfactorily determined. Professor G. Ramorino, of Italy, at a meeting of the Society of Natural History, in 1867, exhibited some bones from the Pliocene, which showed the marks of knives. M. Bourgeois, from the Miocene of Pontlevoy, recovered many flints which showed the marks of fire, and others which showed, in his opinion, evident marks of human workmanship. The marks of fire do not absolutely prove that they were produced by human agency.

M. Tardy has described a flint flake found by him in the Miocene beds of Aurillac (Auvergne).

The ancestors of the European man, probably, originated in the warm regions of Africa or Asia, and it is to researches in those regions, which are comparatively unknown, that the ethnologist now looks with the keenest interest.

46

There are two admirable English works relating to the subject of the foregoing chapter,-Sir Charles Lyell's Antiquity of Man" and Sir John Lubbock's "Pre-historic Times," which should be read by those desirous of fully investigating the evidence upon this subject.

CHAPTER II.

THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN EVIDENCES IN THE UNITED

STATES.

I

HAVE given, in the preceding chapter, a brief summary of the European evidences of the antiquity of our race, as collected and collated by men of the highest scientific attainments. A deep feeling of distrust pervades the public mind of this country, in reference to every discovery which is supposed to carry back the origin of man to a period antecedent to the Historical Era; and yet, reasoning from palæontological analogies, we ought to expect to find evidences of the human occupancy of this continent, reaching back to an antiquity as remote as on the European continent. Nor are such evidences wanting, although less abundant and less conclusive; but when our superficial deposits Shall have been as thoroughly investigated as those of Daope, wo may expect to find proofs of the existence

the older man equally authentic. The results hitherto aced are of a nature to stimulate us to renewed und to encourage the hope that this country ed the materials to aid in the interpretation of most interesting pages in the history of the

wan's works in the gold-drift of CaliSt. Dr. C. F. Winslow sent to the Boston

CALAVERAS SKULL.

53

Natural History Society, the fragment of a human cranium found in the "pay-dirt," in connection with the bones of the mastodon and elephant, one hundred and eighty feet below the surface of Table Mountain, California. Dr. Winslow has described to me all the particulars in reference to this "find," and there is no doubt in his mind, that the remains of man and the great quadrupeds were deposited contemporaneously.

Another discovery of a human cranium, in this State, deep down in the gold-drift, and covered with five successive overflows of lava, was looked upon with incredulity by what might be called the intelligent portion of the community, and the reputed finder was accused of an attempt to perpetrate a scientific fraud; but Professor Whitney, who succeeded in securing this relic for the museum of the State Geological Survey, after a careful examination of the locality where it was said to be found, and after having questioned the persons who had had it in their possession, arrived at the conclusion that the find was authentic.

This skull was found in a shaft one hundred and fifty feet deep, two miles from Angelos, in Calaveras County. The shaft passed through five beds of lava and volcanic tufa, and four beds of auriferous gravel. The upper bed of tufa was homogeneous, and without a crack through which a human relic could have been introduced into the lower beds. The skull was given to Professor Wyman to describe, who found great difficulty in removing the cemented gravel with which it was incrusted. It was subsequently submitted to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, at the Chicago meeting, in 1869, and Professor Whitney communicated a statement of the conditions under which it was found, but no report of his remarks was

made. Portions of the cemented gravel yet adhered to the relic. This skull, admitting its authenticity, carries back the advent of man to the Pliocene Epoch, and is therefore older than the stone implements of the driftgravel of Abbeville and Amiens, or the relics furnished by the cave-dirt of Belgium and France.

With regard to the gold-drift of California, according to Mr. Whitney, there is nothing to indicate the former existence of the Great Northern Current, whose course on the eastern part of the continent is so conspicuously marked by the grooving and polishing of the rocks, and the deposit of long trains of erratic blocks; and the absence of these phenomena is observed along the whole Pacific Coast of the United States, and the eastern flanks of the Rocky Mountains. But there is evidence that the Sierra Nevada was once occupied by glaciers which, in their descent, ground up and dispersed the gold-bearing quartz, and entombed the remains of the fossil elephant and other contemporary animals. The age of these gravels is referred by Professor Whitney to the Pliocene, or the age before the volcanic eruptions which cover a greater part of the State, took place. Since the introduction, then, of man, the physical features, as well as the climate of this region, have undergone great changes. The volcanic peaks of the Sierra have been lifted up, the glaciers have disappeared, the great cañons themselves have been excavated in the solid rock, and what were once the beds of streams now form the Table Mountains.

A few years ago, Mr. J. Stanley Grimes presented to the Chicago Academy of Sciences, on behalf of Mr. John Shipman, of Knightstown, Indiana, an implement from the gravel deposits of California, which is represented in the following figure: