St. Landry democrat., 1882-11-11

jasper and quartz have been made,
there do not occur any chips or nodules
of argillite, showing that it was then
a mineral not in common use by the
Indians, although, OF course, its oc-
casonal use is probable Then. too,
these argillte specimens are greatly
weathered, and show by this feature
their great antiquity; some. indeed, 50
weathered as to be scarcely recogniz-
able. Altogether, there is every prob
ability that by whomsoever made these
ruder argillte objects antedate similar
implements made of tlint-like material
1t would appear then from a ca, ,esul
study OF all these relics of by-gone races,
more particularly in regard to the cir
cumStances under which they occur.
that we have evidence in America. first.
OF a race more primitive in all respects
and lower in culture than any now ex-
i>ting, and which was contemporary
with the mastodon and other extinct
animals. Secondly, of man in more
advanced stage, armed with moe skill
fully wrought weapons
The association of man and the mastO-
don is little startling perhaps, but is
| no unWarranted fancy of the too en-
thusiastic geologist. We are apt to con-
! slider the mastodOn as 4 creature of so
! distant q time in the unreCorded past
! that man must necessarily have ap-
peared much later upon the scene. The
truth is, comparatively speaking, the
animal so recently became extinct that
in all probability our historic red Indians
were acquainted with it. If there be no
question of the authenticity of the ele-
phant pipes found in Iowa, then un-
questionably the elephant was living in
North America not more than one thou
sand years ago. However this may be,
in the distant long ago of the Ice Age
the mastodon certainly existed, and
with him that primitive man who fabri-
Gated the rude implements we have de-
scrbed The bones of the animal
and the weapons of the man lie
side by side, deep down in the gravels
deposited by floods from melting
glaciers, and it is scarcely stretch of
the imagination to picture the Della
ware as at times solidly frozen stream;
so firmly ice-bound, indeed, that the
mastodon might pass in safety over it
not cautiously, even, but with the quick
trot of the angry elephant.
These people remained long in pos
session OF our shores, but how long. or
how recently they were driven away,
we have no means of determining: and,
lastly, we have the historical evidence,
as well as the abundant relics that they
left, of the Indians, whom we may call
the true clippers of flint.
Thus it will be seen that what we
have considered as the evidence of two
races, occupying this continent success
sively, is largely based onthe two kinds |
OF stone used in making the innumera-
BILE relics scattered over the country,
argillite and quartzite, both susceptible |
of being finely wrought, but the former
never so, the latter always; the former I
greatly weathered, the latter not at all,
or very slightly; argillite occurring at
significant depths in the soil, quartzite
strictly a surface "tindn Lastly, the
of the deep gravel implements
and the old, rude, weather-worn objects
nearer the surface is the same.
If, then, there was a people in ad-
vance of the Indians in possession of
this country, who were they?
10 enter into details on this most in
teresting point is not practicable in this
connection; but the study of pref Column
bian history on the one hand and pains
taking exploration of our river valleys
leads to the belief that the first Ameri-
can was even prior to the Esquimaux,
and was, in short, that primitive speci-
men of humanity who hunted the rein
deer. both in Europe and America, dur
ing the great Ice Age. Charles {. A6-
5ott, ". D., IN Our Continent