The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1891-05-22
WORKS OF PREHISTORIC MAN.
Some Remarkable Ancient Sculpture,
Round In Northwestern America.

James Terry has just published de
scriptions and photographs of some OF
4 the most remarkable works of prehis.
toric man yet discovered on the Ameri-
can continent, says Alfred r. Wallace
in Nature. They represent three rude,
yet bold. characteristic, and even life
like sculptures of similar heads, exc.
cuted in basalt.
One of these belongs to the author,
one to I. Condor, and third to Prof.
I o. c. Marsh. who referred to it in his
address ''On Vertebrate Life in Ameri-
ca in the following terms: "On the Col
umbia river | have found evidence OF
the former existence of inhabitants
much superior to the Indians at present
there, and of which no tradition re.
mains. Among many stone carvings
which l saw there were a 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?n Unfortunately we have no de-
tailed information rs to the conditions
under which these specimens were
found except that they would be
classed as surface finds from the fact
that the shifting sand dunes, which
were largely utilized for burial pur-
poses, are continually bringing them
to the surface" This gives no iudica-
ton of their antiquity, but it is quite
compatible with any age which their
other characteristics may suggest.
| The size of the heads varies from 8
TO 10 inches in total height, and from
/ 5 81 to 6 1-2 inches in height. The
three are so different from each other
that they appear te represent three dis
tinct animals; and, so far as l can
! Judge, they all differ considerably from
Z the heads of any known anthropoid
apes. In particular. 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 aud strongly
rdged forehead, and the ridges on the
/ head and cheeks seem to point to very
lew type of authropoid. In letter TO
Mr.. Terry, Mr.. Condor suggests THAT
they were copied from the tigurehead
of some Malay proa that may have
been wrecked on the COAST but such a
supposition is quite inadmissable,
since nothing at all resembling these
heads is ever carved on Malay proas,
and there is no reason to believe that
if such a carving did come into posses
sion sf the natives they would even
think of copying it in stone; while
these sculptures were found 200 miles
from the coast on the east side of the
Cascade mountains
Taking into consideration the enor.
nous antiquity of the stone mOrtars
f, and human remains found in the auri-
fersUs gravels of California. buried
under the ancient lava streams and as
sociated with fora aud fauna alto
gether different from that of any part
of America at the present time, Mr..
Terry's own conclusion appears the
more probable. II is. either that the
animals which these carvings repre-
sent once existed il the Columbia
valley, or that, iu the remote past, a
migration of natives from some region
containing these monkeys reached this
valley and left one of the vivid i'm
pressiens of their former surroundings
in these imperishable sculptures The
latter alternative appears to me. for
many reasons, to be highly improb a-
Die; and though the former will seem
so many persons to be still more I'M
probable. | am inclined Professionally
to accent II.