Daily national Republican., 1863-05-07
THEANTIQUITYO OF MAN--AN
ANT CONVERT To AGAssIZ.

Childs. the extensive publisher Of Phiadcl-
phia, has recently reproduced Sir Charles Lycll's
great work on the Antiquity Of Man." 1t is
beautifully printed on excellent paper and is
houdsomn ely haund. 1t will bring to tho learned
minds Of this country tho discussion of geo
logical suhlc't which has for several years oc-
rupied the attention Of scientInr mron in Europe
and especially NJ. Agassiz and a few other gc-
ologists.
It is well known that Sir Charley LyeII, even
on his second visit 10 this country set his face
altogether against all theories which would have
assigned to the race OF man any very high de.
gree Of antiquity upon the earth. Even now he
simply puts facts together and for the most
part draws lis Inference hypcthetically. Still
II is clear that, in his own mind, he has come
round very much to the conclusions Agassiz
announced boldly some years ago, I. z. that for
"a thousand centuries" at least the red man
Ias been an inhabitant OF North America. that
IN the Post-Pllocene period, France, England,
Denmark, and Switzerland were peopled by
men usnE aint arrows and stone hatchcts and
"ontrivei to build houses, aud in fact whole
"ill'ages out on the lake of Switzerland. caught
nsE and killed large wild animals. Others on
the coast went out to sea and caught the cod
hsh and herring.
Subsequent to these arose a race who used
bronze instruments, and who possessed, there
tore, great advantages in hunting aud fishing.
but who lived in similar villages on the lakes.
To these succeeded in after ages men who used
implements of iron, and who have thus far
faced and subdued nature before them. II is
supposed that the much more intense heat ne.
cessary for working iron, caused 1t TO be so
much later in being brought into use. Pro-
gress, however, can be clearly shown to be the
great law Of our race in all these historical de-
yclopments
The amount Of facts brought together hy Sir
Charles Lycll, all bearing on this great question,
is remarkable and the cautious and truly sclcn.
tifc yigor Of his inductions is worthy Of all
study and all praise. To those who have visited
the Museum, at Cambridge, Mass, and seen
the relies recovered from the bottom Of the Swiss
lakes, and arranged there by VI. Agassiz-thc
stone implements, the pieces of pottery, &C..
their similarity in many respects to those found
in our own Indian mounds, is very remarkable.
Both seem to have used pounded oyster or other
shells for instance, mingled with clay in very
similar forms for their pottery ware. and many
Of the earlier stone implements Of the one might
be mistaken for those Of the other
That there has been at some time during
their continuance communication between
fk. .F eli
Europe, we cannot doubt, and it is by com
pairing carefully the records Of these races all
over the world that the earliest scientific tldngs
Of this race Of men are to be found. DR.. Koch
found an Indian arrow head under the fcmur
oi Missourium, and a Swedish geOogst has
found Il similar arrowhead under a Scotch fir,
buried down 10 deep in the Danish peat beds.
That an az" " ages Of oak and then another Of
beech must have succeeded. This continent
Las not yet been fully examined for the records
Of III" early existence Of man, but. as II has
been less disturbed than Europe, the probability
"a that mare might hc easily discovered In !
Europe, for instance, Sir Charlcs I,yrU shows /
the section Of hut built ON the roast with ,
ring Of h"arth-stours and marks Of nr, Tim,
has been submerged by the ocean so long that
sixty feet Of marine strata had nrsn d.,osrtcd
on top, and then the whole re-ry,utri to or,,ur .
its former position.
Still II is made perfectly clear that il il or,Iv
in the post-tertary periods with about the ,.N-
istlng fauna and fora, that human remain, are
found in Great Britain and that in the post.
pliocene, Gfter the glacial period alone, are all
these marks of man so far discovered through
out Europe, and even in this country. WhIr
therefore, our chronology may have becu too
short in years, we have on the whole been cor
rect in our idea of the order Of Creation. No
human race, 80 discovered, goes back into the
tertiary period, although geology is every year
giving us new ideas Of the long duration Of
what are now called the recent aud post -pllo.
gne periods,