The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1891-05-02
PREHISTORIC MAN.
Recent Remarkable Finds in North
western America.
Ancient Sculptures Which Indicate tho
Former Existence of q Superior
Race of Which No Ira
dition Remains.

James Terry has just published de,
scriptions and photographs of some of
the most remarkable works of pre-
historic man yet discovered on the
American continent, says Alfred r.
Wallace in Nature. They represent
three rude, yet bold, characteristic and
even ifelike sculptures of simian heads,
executed in basalt. One of these be-
longs to the author, one to Z. Condor
and the third to Prof. 0. c.. Marsh, who
referred to it in his address "On Verte-
brate Life in America" in the follow
ing terms: "On the Columbia river
have found evidence of the former ex-
istence of inhabitants much superior to
the Indians at present there, and of
which no tradition remains. Among
many stone carvings which [ saw there
were number of heads which so
strongly resembled those of apes that
the likeness at once suggests itself.
Whence came these sculptures and by
whom were they made?" Unfortunate
ly we have no detailed information as
to the conditions under which these
specimens were found except that
''thcy would be classed as surface
finds from the fact that the shifting
sand dunes, which were largely utilized
for burial purposes, are continually
bringing them to the surface - This
gives no Indication Of their antiq uity,
but is quite compatible with any age
which their other characteristics may
suggest.
The size OF the heads varies from to
10 inches in total height, and from 5A
to 81 inches in height, The three are
80 different from each other that they
appear to represent three distinct AMI
mails; and, SO far as l can judge, they
all differ considerably from the heads
of any known anthropoid apes. Iii par
ticlilar. the nOstrilS are much farther
from the eyes and much nearer to the
mouth than in any of the apes. In this
respect they are more human; yet the
general form of the head and face, the
low and strongly ridged forehead, and
the ridges on the head and cheeks seem
to point to very low type of anthro-
poid. In a letter to Mr. Terry, Mr.. Con-
don suggests that they were copied
from the 1igurehead of some Malay proa
that may have been wrecked on the
coast" but such a supposition is quite
inadmissible, since nothing at all re-
sembling these heads is ever carved on
Malay proas, and there is no reason to
believe that if such a carving did come
into the possession of the natives they
would ever think of copying it III stone;
while these sculptures were found two
hundred miles from the coast, Oh the
east side of the Cascade mountains.
Taking into consideration the enor
nous antiquity of the stone mortars and
human remains found in the auriferous
gravels of California, buried under the:
ancient lava streams and associated with
q fora and fauna altogether different
from that of any part of America at the
present time, Mr.. Terry's own concln
sion appears the more probable. 1t is,
''either that the animals which these
carvings represent once existed in the
Columbia valley or that, in the remote
past, migration of natives from some
region containing these monkeys
reached this valley and left one of the
vivid impressions of their former sur
roundings in these imperishable sculp-
lures The latter alternative appears
to me, for many reasons, to be highly
improbable; and though the former will
seem to many persons to be still more
improbable, am inclined Professionally
to accept it.