Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1879-11-06
Prehistoric Condition of America
From the American Antiquarian.

ANTIQUITIES OF NATIONS.
And il we are to ascertain any
thing about these earlier people it
will also be by the analogy of his
tory. We are reminded that the his
tory of nearly every land has been di.
vided, as was that of Greece, into
three great periods, the Mythical, the
Heroic and the Historic. These al
most always follow ore another In
Egypt, in China, in japan, as well as
in Greece, a fabulous history pre-
ceded the true, SO that the antiqui
" of these people extended back in
immense cycles. The reign of the
gods preceded that of men; this was
followed by an age when divine and
human beings were mingled,and this
again was followed by the distinct
lively human but each age shaded
into one another so that it is almost
impo ssible to draw the line between
them
Such is the realm which tradition
alone opens before us. There is
something shadowy and uncertain
about it, aud we maintain that the
traditions Of these ORIENTAL countries
as TO the extreme antiquity Of the ma.
tons, or as to the early state Of soci
ETY., or the national grandeur i'll the
earliest times, will prove false. 1t
was the ambition of these nations to
prove very ancient existence, and
later inventions and improvements
were by them reflected back upon
the earlier times.
AMERICA NOT FAVORABLE TO sEPA-
RATE RACES.
The mountain ranges run in the
wrong directions to mark the zones
of climate by any physical barrier.
If there is any effect upon the PEG
pie, the barriers between the nations
are not sufficiently distinct to make
this, nerDetnal. The nations have
not been kept shut in to the effects
OF these local causes so as to make
separate races. The geographical
divisions have not made clinical
differences. 10 Europe, Asia and
Africa the geographical barriers are
so marked that they have made ra
cial distinctions which can never be
obliterated. There the effects of eli
mate, soil, and food, and mode of life
are so apparent that now the most
natural, and perhaps the most scien-
tlfc, division of the races is that Of
Asiatic, European, and African.
/" hatever we may say about the
historic origin of these races, yet as
far as the physical characteristics of
the people of thu eastern hemi-
sphere are concerned, this is the most
distinctive and the most natural. But
If we adopt the more common class-
tication given by Pritchard and
Blumenbach, into Monaghan, Malay,
Caucasian, African, and American,
we find the correspondence in the
colors of these respective races to the
physical barriers Of the countries
which they inhabit. We may not ex
plain it. yet such is the fact. The
"ongohans, or the yellow races were
the inhabitants ofthe high table lands
OF Mongolia and Independent Tarta
ry. The brown races were, on the
other hand, the inhabitants OF the
low plains and islands of the Torrid
zone. The white or Caucasian race
were originally mountaineers, of
Caucasus, but afterwards settled in
the northern highlands of Asia, the
forests of Europe, while the negroes,
or blacks, were always the inhabi-
tants of the great continent of Africa,
where both the effect OF climate and
soil conspired to produce and per-
petuate the physical qualities for
which they are distinguished. As to
the red or American race, the very
fact that this distinction has been
recognized,an that the race extends
across the two continents, proves in
itself that on the western hemisphere
there is an exception to the general
rule. The racial characteristics here
extend through all the geographical
barriers, across the various belts OF
latitude, and we find an homogene
Gus character IN the inhabitants OF
the entire hemisphere
According to that classification
which designates the American as
the red or copper race, the physical
geography of the country has pro
duced no clinical lines. In other
respects also, it is apparent that the
physical geography has not made
any marked clinical differences. II
was the opinion of Dr. S G. Morton
after long study OF the skulls of the
American races, that there was no
racial distinction between The inhab
itsnts of this hemisphere. This opin-
ion may not be entirely teuable, aud
even was held with some uncertainty
by that distinguished ethnologis,; for
the difference between Peruvians
aud Mexicans, and between the Az
tees and red Indians, are too mani
fest; but the idea that the racial pc
culisrities of skull or skeleton were
caused by the geographical surround
lngs has never Ia our knowledge
been maintained. With the single
exception OF the Esquimaux, whose
pyranidal head and squat form have
been assigned to their fish diet and
peculiar hyperborean lie; no race
ON tbs continent hs : been assigned 20
its locality aud there recognized as
creation OF its own environment, a
human race belonging to an earth.
mold.
INFLUENCE OF SCENERY UPON THE
STATE OF SOCIETY.
There is, however, one respect in
which we may recognize the effects