El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1901-01-08

BY n singular coincidence a most In
teresting discovery was made at Gal
weston. Texas. just prior to the great
iood which devastated hat fair south
ern city. 1t was made in connection
with excavations in which relics were
procured for the archaeological exhib-
il at the Pan-American exposition. and
indicated that in some far distant age
when the lands bordering h gulf
were peopled by a race long since per-
ished from the face of the earth a SIM
liar tempest overwhelmed the unfort-
innate residents of the coast. 1t must
have destroyed hem by thousands
just as people were destroyed when
the hurricane n flood descended up
on Galveston in the recent calamity
which has aroused for the stricken city
the sympathy of it's sister cities or the
whole American union
The bones discovered in this search
for Pan-American relics are beyond a
doubt several thousand years old
They are of a prehistoric race and the
character of the people who occupied
the coast of the gulf at this period is
an interesting subject for speculation.
Whoever they may have been ana
whenever they may have lived. the re-
mains found show beyond a question
that some terrible outbreak of nature
caused the sudden death of thousands
of these ancient people and their burial
in the starata where by chance they
were discovered and their existence
reported to Psychologists working in
the interests of the Pan-American ex-
position at Buffalo just a few days
before another awful flood submerged
the city of Galveston and swept to a
terrible and sudden death thousands
of its citizens, destroying also millions
~ x3allorc uorfh IF nrnnQrfv
1t was but a short time ago that the
excavations were begun which resulted
in these singular and extraordinary
discoveries. The finding of the re-
mains in the first place was quite &C
cidental. Mr.. H. J.. Simmons. Super1n-
tendent of the Arizona & New Mexico
railway. who is a friend of S~uperinten-
dent a. l.. Benedict Of the Pan-Ameri-
can exposition department of ethnol-
ogy and archaeology. was making ex-
cavations along the lines of this rail-
road heal Clear Creek, Galveston
county. for railroad purposes when
bones were found in the earth re-
moved. On examination of the con-
tents of the steam shOvels skulls n
human teeth were noticed and furthr
search led to the discovery of skele-
tons of whole families together with
ivory beads and other objects OF nu-
man handiwork.
Realizing the valuable and scientific
character of the find a systematic
search of the strata in the vicinity was
ade Biologists say that this whole
section was once covered by the Gulf
of Mexico. The idea att INC came to
Mr.. Simmons. on learning the extern
sive character of the human emains
that in the far distant past a tidal
wave had occurred at the time the
Ia .-N~~I 0f that mart nf tho
countr than at present n that these
bones were the remains of the thous-
ands of human beings who a been
drowned in the overflow of the waters
OF the gulf.
Evidently these people wre not mere
barbarians, living scattered thinly over
the country in temporary abodes and
having to permanent abiding places.
The number of skeletons and their
close proximity to one another indi-
Gates that there existed here a popul-
Gus community and that in some far
away age a people devoted to the pur-
suits of industry n more or less skill
ed in the arts were here living in a
city having it's institutions of govern
ment and social customs and some de-
gree of civilization. This could not
have been simply the site of a ceme-
terry for the positions in which the
skeletons were found proves conclus-
lively that the persons were not buried
after a natural death but were drown
ed and afterward buried beneath the
debris of the convulsion. or hurriedly
and in wholesale by their survivors as
was don recently at Galveston
While all of the skeletons were lying
down some were face up. others face
down. and many on the side There
was no regularity in their burial at all.
II uac tho aycanfion tn find ono Ckal-
eton by itself. Usually two and m
IL you are going to California this
winter. or expect to visit Arizona or