New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1892-11-06

DAnvers). Up. XII, Az. u. 4. Putnam's sons.
'' HE WoNDERLASD OF THE soTTHWGsT 'n By
Charles F. Lummis. PIP XII, 30. The Century
Co.
ALAsKANA, OR Alaska IN DESCRIPTIVE AND
LEGENDARY POEMS. By Professor Busbrod W.
James A. NJ, NJ D. PIP. 1858. Porter d Coates.
The translator OF the Marquis de Nadaillacs
work makes him say that there are domens in
Persia seven thousand feet high and from
twcnty-one TO twcnty-siN feet long by six wide"
This reminds one of tine Nevada miner who when
told OF big houses elsewhere, declared that he
knew of "a building 5000 feet long and just then
he received an admonitory kick under the table
from his friend" and a foot WIDE" he added in
desperation. If my friend here hadn't stopped
me- l would have given you something worth
talking about" Doubtless we are to understand
that the mountains on which the dOlmens are
placed are nearly two miles high; that is, If any
eNactness is 10 be attributed 70 the figures. A
moro annoying to American student OF
archaeology is the transfer of the prehistoric
earthworks at Newark, Ohio. from the valley Of
the Muskingum River TO that Of the Scoto. 1t
is evident that the order which Moorhcad is
endeavoring to introduce into the study Of print
tive civilization in Ohio has not yet become a
part OF universal learning In general it will be
found profitable 10 compare the dimensions OF
American mounds given in this book with those
fixed by the latest investigators. Aside from
these points which are, after oil, not Of supreme
Importance in a popular discussion of archaeology
this work is of high interest and value, especially
10 those who hold with the author that human
civilization if not the human race, had a single
origin.
Facts and illustrations are drawn from all the
regions Investigated mp to the present time, when
show that successive improvements in the modes
Of life in weapons, in tools in habltations ana so
on became general at what may roughly be called
the same time. 1t is possible TO think OF the
prehistoric tribes as like some Nations in modern
times, excluding all communication with their
fellow men. When the ercmitic tendency OF GER
tain Asiatic races is mentioned, however 1t Is
well TO remember that il dates only from the
sixteenth century when all Europe practically
turned pirate and the Chinese, for example were
obliged to protect themselves the best way they
could. Nothing is better established now in re-
gard to prehistoric times than that barter was
extensive. not merely between related or neigh
boring tribes but also between peoples separated
even BY the width of continent Trade routes
from the Atlantic 70 the Pacific and from Lake
Superior to the Gulf Of Mexico, and between the
eXtremties of Asia and Europe, can be traced IN
the relics of the Stone Age But trade of this
kind implies travel and travel means the transfer
from race to race of the inventions of civilization
This fact of intcrcommunication is not really in
contradiction to the other fact, familiar now and
probably true then, that the advance OF two
neighboring communities may he very unequal
Thus the Marquis de Nadaillac Insists in oppo-
.tion to Cartailhac, Evans, Geikie and SiroJohn
Lubbock, that O rude form OF pottery was known
to Palacolithic, or TO put it gcologically, to
Quaternary times and adds that. while tho
knowledge cannot be asserted of all the tribes
In Europe, lit is impossible 10 deny that great
many OF them in possession Of the art.
This difference in the degree OF civilization at
tanned to by men living hut short distances from
each other need not surprise us, for all travellers
report similar facts amongst contemporary savage
races" Indeed it can easily be understood that
knowledge jealously guarded from near neighbors
would be impaired without hesitation to people
more distant From the time Of the earliest
n,igrations,' says the author, intercourse was
Legun, or rather was carried on between tribes as
they gradually dispersed, often travelling consider
able distances from each other and fresh proof
of these relations are continually brought to light
as we become better acquainted with prehistoric
times The hints worked by the cave men of
Belgium, the fossil shells so numerous at ChalcuX
lhave been found in the Frontal and Nuton caves
at Thayngen on the frontier between Switzerland
and Germany; in Italy in the stations of anterior
date TO the terrenare beds have been found the
shells OF the pearl oyster OF the Indian Ocean,
whilst in the caves of the South of France, such
as the Madeleine. that Of CrO-MaGnon Bize in
Herault, and Salutre on the banks of the Saone,
have been picked up the shells of Arctic marine
mousca. The cavc-man of Gourdon was dccked
with shells from the Mediterranean, and the man
OF Mentonc in his turn headdrcss made of
Atlantic shells"
OF course, every one who has paid any attention
70 the subject is aware that the Greek girl 1000
years before Christ decked herself with amber
beads from the Baltic Sea, and that the wampum
belts of Redmcn on the Atlantic coast might con-
tain beads that had been brought either az fin
ished product or raw material from the Pacific;
but such things are matters of yesterday compared
with Cro-Ma1non and Mcntonc. These cave
jewellers, barely escaped from the ice were some
how in communication with very remote places; ;
they or those who carried on the traffic, must have
known more than one language, must have had
something like scale of prices must have known
something about distances and direction, that is,
they must have had in mind something like what
are now called the points Of the compass In short
they had made good beginnings in several sci
ences-in pfhloogy, in political economy, in sur
veying and in geography. If they had only arrived
1t that stage of self-consciousness which demands
a record of itself and it's acts, they would have
saved remote generations from some incredible
,onjecturcs about changes in the brains and mental
capacity of human beings. il should not be for
gotten, also, that If the Marquis is right about
pottery in the Quaternary epoch, then it followed
that even in that primeval time the discovery Of
fire had been made Upon this discovery the des-
tiny of the race hung. without fire. man with his
big brain was a mere ape; with fire, his conquest
of nature was only a question OF time The iu,-
portance Of the discovery has been attested by
the innumerablc eucsses recorded, from the times
when the Vedas composed down to the nine
reenth century as TO how il came about. But all
these guesc5 and the facts, also, meagre as they
are, which can be drawn from relics such as that
kidney shaped piece Of iron pyrites picked up by
NJ. Dupont in the cave Of Chaleux, which had