Evening star., 1901-02-02

put on one side. thinking 1t was curl
osity of some kind. Professor Wyman. to
whom 1t was given, had great difficulty In
removing the cemented gravel and DIS
covering that 1T was really a human skull
nearly entire. Its base was embedded in a
conglomerate mass of ferruginous earth,
water-worn volcanic pebbles, calcareous
tufa, and fragments OF bones, and several
bones of the human foot and other parts
of the skeleton were found wedged into
the internal cavity of the skull. Chemical
examination showed the bones to be In q
fossilized condition, the organic matter ana
phosphate of lime being replaced by car
Donate. 1t was found beneath four beds
of lava, and in the fourth bed of gravel
from the surface; and Professor whitney
who .afterWard secured the specimen Ior
the state geological museum, has no DOUBT
whatever of Its having been found as de-
scribed.
Many Millions of Years.
But although these numerous traces OF
prehistoric man found in America might
lead us to suppose that there was the
birthplace of the human race. we are un-
able to adopt that theory. In that continent
there are at the present time no anthropoid
apes, and SO far as We know. there never
have been any in past ages. Nevertheless,
we can hardly refuse to admit that the evil
dence clearly shows that our ancestors
were in North America during the later
portion of the tertiary epoch. and that
they came there from or by the arctic re-
gions, Bering straits or Greenland
In letter to the Times newspaper In
August. 1897, I pointed out that science
would appear to teach US that our planet
was at one time fiery mass, the heat OF
which was too great to permit OF either
animal vegetable life, and that as this
fiery mass cooled down the first parts to
reach a temperature sufficiently low to al
low life to exist would be the north and
south poles At these parts evolution would
be going on through long ages, and eras of
were still a fiery girdle round the earth,
across which no living creature might
pass
Sir Herbert Maxwell, in his interesting
birds. drawn by a hereditary impulse,
press as far northward as possible to rear
their young. bearing witness that In polar,
not in equatorial regions. lies the source
in his Round the Year. points out that
traces of men, races of animals, races of
plants, religious faiths, modes of civilization
all originate in the northern continents and
spread out In successive waves: the
palae-arctic region, and. In less degree,
North America, have been the 'off1cina gen.
tium' of which Jornandes spoke, the labor
atory in which new tribes are fashioned,
which at length reach the remotest corners
of the earth"
Driven Out of Forests.
This corresponds in great measure with
my own view on the subject, which Is that
the cradle of the human race was probably
the vast tract Of unbroken land lying be-
tween the Ural mountains on the west and
the Behring straits, the Sea of Ohkotsk and
Manchuria on the east. 1t also is partly
in accordance with the opinion OF Mr.. Wal
lace, who suggests that the birthplace OF
man was probably In Central ASIA but the
region to which we refer more especially
lies to the north Of Central Asia 1t Is three
thousand miles across from the Ural noun
tains to Manchurla, and in so large coun-
try the human race may have multiplied
for centuries and have reached more than
million members before 1t spread to other
continents. This region is little known from
a geological point of view, and may con-
tain any number OF human relics, fossils.
fiIits, skeletons, ETC., for anything that we
know to the contrary. During the eocene
epoch the climate and temperature would
be similar to that of the south OF France
at the present time. and would not. there
fore, be too hot to allow the race not only
to exist but also to progress and Improve.
As it's extreme northern boundary Is close
to the polar regions. in this respect 1t also
meets the view of those who hold that the
source of animated nature was located at
pinquity to the Behring straits. where there
was probably at that time an fsthmus join
ing the two continents. would enable the
race to pass over into America. and woulo
account for the fact that they were appar-
entity in that country at an even edriier
date than that at which they reached west.
ern Europe. They would also at once spread
into China: and we know from the unique
and primeval character OF the Cninese iaA'