Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1894-05-18
10y CHAs. II. CHASE

tertiary, as does also PrOf. d. W. roster
in his prehistoric Races of the United
States" though the former includes
both formations, miocenc and pliocene,
in the quaternarv, or age of man, as the
pleistocene or diluyial period The
oldest relics found of him are in Africa
and Europe, and the implements are all
very similar in character. They are of
stone, Clipped out in various forms,
indicating that he was present as a
hunter and fisherman. The few relics
found in strata of this early period in
dictate homogeneous race, unprogres-
sive, lacking perhaps the stimulus of
necessity in their mild climate and with
their few needs
Quaternary Geography.
At this time the geography of the
Eastern Continent was very different
from its present outline, All of north
ern Asia and Europe was submerged
beneath the Northern ocean. The Allan
tic and Indian oceans were connected
by the Sahara sea, extending across
Africa where now the Sahara desert is,
leaving Northern Africa attached to the
mainland of Europe and South Africa a
vast island. The 1Rritish Isles were
then also connected with the mainland
as peninsula extending toward the
north from what is now France. Arabia
and Hindoston were islands in the
Indian ocean. The greater part of the
MEDITERRANEAN sea was land, while the
waters of the Northern ocean were
separated from The Sahara sea by a
neck of land not more, perhaps, than
two or three hundred miles wide. This
portion of South Europe and North
Africa forming a triangular peninsula
with one broad side facing the Atlantic,
MIR. Brinton calls Eurafrica, and here
he thinks the species had its birth place.
South Africa, separated from it by the
Sahara sea, he calls Austafrica. Here
also are found very ancient relies.
Mr.. Brinton says in regard to the
existence of man at this period and the
relics found: "Such was the confgura-
ton of land in the Eastern Hemisphere
when man first appeared. We know
he was there at that time. have referred
to his rude stone (paleolithic) nipple
ments exhumed from the river drift of
the Thames and the Somme, deposit
which dates from the time when the
hippopotamus bathed in these rivers;
still older seem some of the rough imple-
ments discovered in gravel layers near
Madrid, Spain, deposited by some large
river in early quaternary times. The
worked flints near Lisbon were manu-
featured when a wide fresh water lake
existed where now not trace of it is
visible on the surface, and according TO
some archaeologists, are the most
ancient manufactured products yet dis
covered" He then goes on to mention
ancient relics found in various parts of
Africa belonging to the preglacial
period. "From these and. similar evil
dence we know that man spread widely
over the habitbale earth at that remote
time"
But Little Positively Known of Him.
While the archaeologist can find evil
dence of his existance in this period of
time, so remote in the past that we
must measure it by hundreds of thous-
ands of years from the present, but
little is positively known of him.
Though a skull and some hacked bones
have been found which have been
referred to this period, they need
further Authorization. SO far as we
know the flint implements alone have
withstood the ravages of time. When
we say he was a hunter, a fisherman
and had migrated extensively over the
then habitable earth, we have said all
that is positively known. We are led to
conclude, however, from the similarity
of implements found in strata Of this
period, that he was of one race and
language, and homogeneous as to
mental endowments and condition of
life.
Relics in America.
Very ancient relics of man have also
been found in America, but whether
any Of them can be attributed to the
preglacial period is not yet shown. The
mound-builders are of the recent period;
and while ancient as being prior to the
historical period, and of antiquity
greater than that of the American