Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1891-05-15
PREHISTORIC MAN.
Recent Remarkable Finds in North
western America.
Ancient Sculptures Which Indicate tho
Former Existence of Superior
Race Of Which No Ira
dillon Remains.

James Terry has just published de-
scriptious 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 rllc, yet bold, characteristic AL
even lif2lilc sculptures of Similn head
executed in busalt. Ono OF these ~.
lon:yS to the author, one to II. Comic
and the third to Prof. o. G. Marsh, whc
referred to it in his address ION Fcrtc-
bratc Life in America in the follow
ing terms: son the Columbia river l
have found evidence Of the former cX-
iStcncc of Inhabitants much superior to
the Indians at present there, and of
which no tradition rom linS. Among
many stone carvings which / saw there
were Il number OF heads which SO
strongly rcScmblcd those of apes that
the likeness at once suggests itself.
Whence came these sculptures and by
whom were they maIc?" Unfortunate
ly we have no detailed information as
to the conditions under which these
specimens were found except that
''thcy would be clasScd 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 antiquity,
but i; quite compatible with any age
which their other characteristics may
suggest.
The. size of the heads varies from to
10 inches in total hciyht, and from So
to 81 inches in height. The three are
so different from each other that they
appear to represent three distinct ami
mails: and, SO far a. / can judge, they
all differ considerably from the heads
of any known GnthrOpOid apes. In par
ticular. 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 ridg2d forehead, and
the ridges on the head and cheeks seem
to point TO Il very low type of anthro-
poid. In letter to Mr.. Terry, Mr.. Con-
don suggests that they were copied
from the figurchead Of some Malay proa
that may have been wrecked on the
coast but such superstition is quite
inadmisSiblc, since nothing at all re-
Malay proas, and there is no reason to
believe that if such Il carving did come
into the possession of the natives they
would ever think of copying it in stone;
while these sculptures were found two
hundred miles from the coast, on the
east side of the Cascade mountains.
Taking into consideration the enor-
nous antiquity Of the stone mortnrs and
human remains found in the aurif2rous
gravcls of California, buried under TIC
ancient lava streams and associated with
flora and fauna altogether different
from that Of any part of America ut the
present time, Mr.. Tcrrys own conclu.
sion appears the more probable. 1t is
'cither that the animals which these
carvings represent Orcc existed in the
/ Columbia valley, or that, in the remote
past, Il migration Of natives from some
region containing these monkeys
Z reached this valley and left one of the
! vivid impressions of their former sur
! rOundings in these imperishablc sculp
turcs." 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 moro
! improbable, am inclined professionally
to accept it.