The morning call., 1893-10-12
OUR PROGENiTORS.

n
old story that the remains of race OF
giants had been discovered in Nevada. 1t
was an ancient fable revived and dressed
for modern consumption. Ii sifted 1t
would have turned out that the giants and
the footprints they left in the tertiary
mud had no existence except in the re-
porter's fancy.
Anthropologists both in this country and
in Europe are busily engaged in researches
on the origin of man. but it must be con-
fessed that their progress is slow. Thirty
or forty years lave passed since human
bones were discovered in French caves in
such proximity with bones of prehistoric
auimals that the men and tile animals had
evidently lived side by side; this demon
strated the existence of man in the past
glacial or drift period. But since then it
has been almost dem onstrated that there
were many glacial periods with long in
tervals of bearable temperature between /;
tools fashioned by the hand of man have
been found under the drift. and hence it
antedated the hairy elephant and the cave
bear. All this thus far is mere conjecture
nothing which can be classed as evidence
has been added to our real knowledge
since the exploration of the caves of the
Dordogne except that we have reason to
believe that at the time of the cave
dwellers man was widely distributed over
most parts Of the earth which are now
inhabited. Careful exploration brings to
light prehistoric remains everywhere
And this is the case where the sites OF the
discoveries are separated by bodies Of
water as well as where they are contigu-
Gus. We are compelled TO assume that, so
far as we know, man existed all over the
world in the remotest prehistoric times.
But there Is no evidence TO show that
prehistoric man differed in proportions 8
from the man OF the present day. By far
the greater number of the human bones
which have been found indicate a stature
of less than six feet. and limbs not exceed
ing those of modern man. In cave on the
Mediterranean pit of bones was disin-
TERED few years ago. which seemed to
imply an average height OF six feet; but
this was the limit. Nowhere have any
traces of giants been found.
Another link which Is wanting in the
chain Of prehistoric discovery is the con-
Meeting link between man and the highest
torn of the quadrumana. The osseous
structure OF prehistoric man shows few
variations from that of the man of to-day.
1t does not assimilate to the siman type.
1t is probable that prehistoric man walked
upright. and he may have been endowed
with artieulate speech. 1t is high time
that the evolutionists unearthed some
where creature that was half man ana
half monkey. They argue that between
the race which is represented by the Mean
derthal skull and the first appearance of
man on the planet there must have elapsed
long period which has left no traces in
the shape of prehistoric remains. If 80. it
is strange that not one little bone has been
dug up to tell the story of the creature to
which it belonged.
SpeculatiOns on the antiquity of man are
only worthy OF college debating societies.
They ara based on sheer conjecture. There
is no rule by which the spaces Of antiquity
can be measured. We know that some of
the Egyptian monuments were erected
5000 years ago, and it is possible for an in
genI0us reasOner to guess how long peo-
pie must have taken to rise from barbar-
ism to a degree OF civilization which en-
abled them to build an obelsk or
pyramid. That calculation might perhaps
set minimum age for the human race.
But it would not fix maximum. And
until archaeological discovery has made
strides of which there are at present no
signs, our conjectures must rest contented
with that