River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1883-10-25
A PREHISTORIC RACE.

Have Been Witnessed Where Lon.
don and Paris Now stand.
From the North American Review
Who were the earliest inhabitants of
America, and when did they live? are
questions which have generally been APP
preached solely from the point of view
offered by discoveries in the United
States, and, until within the last three
or four years, have been discussed only
on the slender basis Of the Calaveras
skull and the implements found in gold
mining in California. In the following
essay | propose to deal with them as
portions Of one great problem common
TO sae Old and new Worlds, and 10
show that the first traces Of man, az yet
discovered, prove him 20 have lived in
the same low stage Of culture on both
sides of the Atlantic, at time when the
hands ofthe geological clock pointed TO
the same hour over the grca,. part Of
the world The story of early man in
America is part Of the greatest story 0
the first appearance of il an on the earth
so far as he has yet been revealed by
modern discovery.
The change in life has been 50 regular,
definite, and orderly in the geological
past that it enables rs u classify the
rocks over the whole world into prima-
~, secondary, and tertiary groups. In
the last Of these the higher types Of
mammalia become more and more spe-
cialized as We draw nearer 10 the from
tiers Of history; and their pedigrces.
when traced from one period TO anOth-
er, assume the shape Of genealogical
trees, such as that which Prof. Aarsh
has discovered for the horse. Inc liv-
ing orders first appear il the EOene,
the living genera ia the Miocene
few living species in the Fllocene, while
nearly all the living species come in the
PleitOcene division. Again, in the in
terval dividing the last from the historic
period, the do nestle animals appear and
tie cultivated fruits, and this-the Pre-
hstoric-gradulli passes into the peri
od embraced by the written records.
The most highly specialized form
in the animal kingdom cannot be looked
for until the lower animals by which he
is now surrounded made their appear
ance. We cannot imagine him to have
been living IN the i.ocene age, when
animal life was not sufficiently
differentiated to present us with
living genera of placental mammals.
Nor is there any probability Of his hay
ing appeared on the earth in the
MiOcene, because of the absence of pla-
GENITAL mammals belonging to living spe-
cies. 1t IS most unlikely that man should
appear in fauna in which there WAS no
other living mammal He beiongs 10 a
more advanced stage Of evolution than
that presented hy the mij-MiOcene Of
Thenay, ia %hl spIInters fashioned
by man are said TO have occurred. Up
to this time the evolution of the animal
kingdom had advanced no further than
Simiudp in the dire ton of man, and
the apes then haunting the forests of
Italy, France, and Germany, We're the
most highly organized types. We may
also look at the question from another
point OF view. II Il man were upon the
earth in the Nioccue age, it is incredi-
Die that ne should not have become
something els: " While those changes
were going on in the conditions of life
by which al tho NiOCene land mamma
liza have been 50 profoundly affected
that they have either assumed new
forms or been exterminated. 1t Is inn
possible TO believe that man should have
been an exceptio2 to tine law of change.
Nor in the succeeding PhOcene aye can
we expect to find traces Of man upon
the earth THE fossil man of
Denise" IS Of uncertain age, and other
alleged cases of Phocene man in Europe
have now been given up.
The question has, however, been re-
yived in the United States by Prof.
Whitney in his work on the "Auriferous
Gravel5' of California" and the existence
of man in California in the Pllcene age
has been accepted by such nigh author
tiles as Marsh. LIE Conte, and others. 1t
becomes, therefore, neces sary for US to
see how the facts VIII sta'ld the test of
criticism. In the first place, it is as
sumed that the auriteTr US gravels in the
Sierras, with traces of man, which are in
places 800 feet thick and sometimes coy
cred with ancient lava streams, are of
Piiocene age. They are however, proved
bv their fossils, identified by DR.. Leidy
TO have been deposited by the streams
from the MiOcene (ElOtherium) age
down to the present time. Among the
animals we may note the skull Of q mus
tang, identical with that of Mexico and
California, which could not have been bu-
ried in the gravels of Sierra county be-
fore the time of the Spanish conquest,
when the living race of horses was intro
duced. Consequently the disc verer OF
human remains in the auriserOus gravels
tant of Phocene America, even If it be
allowed that they are of the same age
as the strata in which they live. There
Is however, no evidence of this IN any
one instan e. The objects themselves
point to a directly opposite conclusion.
The famous CiiIyeTas skull, according
to Prof. WvmBn, Is related to the Indl-
an TYNE, with a doubtful affinity with
the EsQuimauX. 1t was obtained from
Il shalt sunk through three alternate
layers OF gravel and basalt at a depth
Of one hundred and thirty-two feet from
the 81 rface, was associated with the re-
mains of other individuals, and had
been buried along with shell beads of
the kind usually met with in Indian
iuterments. Had these remains been
found near the surface they would have
been undoubtedly classified with the
ordinary traces of Indians. anu their Oc-
currence at So great q depth is the sole
cause of their being the object of special
interest.
Nor have we to go far to account for
their presence at great depths. 1t IS
very strange that Prof Whitney should
have ignored the fact that mining oper-
atiuus have been carried on IN those
very districts long before the time Of
THE lcrties.' In 1912" writes School
craft C''ArehUology," vol j. p. 1857, the
gold diggers at one Of the mountain Dig
gings called Murphv's aere surprised IN
examining Il high, barren district Of
mountain, 10 find au old site OF mine,
with "a shaft 2l0 feet deep. at the bottom
OF which were human skeleton an al
tar, and other remains OF an ancient
pcople-prObaby Indians. In other
ancient mines in the western states, as
DR. South&ll has recently pointed out,
human skeletou's have been met with,
which prove that gold mining was ex-
tensively carried or long before the dis
IoyeIv 81 gold IN tha present century.
We come now in our inquiry to the
succeeding period when the higher
mammala, now contemporary with
man. appeared in force on the earth,
and man himself may be reasonably
looked for The climate oil Europe
at this time differed considerably from
that of the present day. To allow oil
the northern animals penetrating as far
south as the Alps sud PyreueeS. the
temperature in middle Europe must
have been low. while it must have been
high for ani1 ais Of warm habits, such
IS the hjppopotdmus, 70 have lived rs
far north a. the British Isles. The re-
mains of both these groups are so inter
mingled in the river deposits and caves
throughout Hjddle Europe-hippopot
mus with reindeer and the liSe-that II
tlnposslble 10 refer tnem 70 periods
separa ed from each other by long IN
tervals in most OF the caves t,'