The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-03-09

l.
Brewer, for his volume of memoirs,
entitled ''Kakabik Ansing," an attempt
is here made to trace, very concisely
the derivation of the American race of
mankind, it's route and time of immi-
grafton to this continent, and the relation
of primitive man to geology, and espec-
Tally to the Ice age. 1t is a theme most
interesting to me because of my studies
of the glacial drift in the northern part
of the United States and adjoining parts
of Canada, supplemented by observations
at many places in the British isles, Scan
dlnaV1a, Denmark, Germany and SWitz-
erland. To the investigation of the gla-
cial period and it's diverse drift forrna-
tons, these questions of the origin, an
tiquity, and migrations of mankind are
YER intimately and indeed inseparably
allied.
The birthplace Of our species was I'M
dOubtedly somewhere in the warm re-
sions of the Eastern hemisphere. In the
rock formations of the old world, belong
ing to the late geologic era termed Terti-
airy, fossil remains of anthropOid apes
are found, but none is known in the
rocks of our Western continent, either of
North or South America They are our
nearest animal kin. The great tropical
regions of the old world, therefore, where
they still live and where their and our
backwardly convergent lines of ancestry
are made known, though very fragmen-
tarly, by the testimony of the rocks,
must be regarded as the source of our
now cosmopolitan human species.
II the very remote past, some races of
the ancestral stock acquired articulate
speech to express their thoughts, and
this led to more and better thought Fire,
the mysterious gift of nature to mans
dawning intelligence, cooked his food.
Thereby he grew stronger and more
crafty, and gradually extended his geo.
graphic range into the colder northern
and southern temperate zones. To the
genial comfort of a fire for the prepara-'
ton of food and warmth in the winter
he added when cold and exposure requir
ed, the skins and furs of beasts as cloth
ing. Wandering tribes of men were then
able to brave the cold of the high north
ern ATTITUDES
First People in America.
The first people in America appear to
have migrated to our continent from
Northern Asia during the early Ouater-
nary time of general uplift of northern
regions which Immediately preceded the
Ice age, being it's principal cause and
which continued through the early and
probably the greater part of that age.
Then land undoubtedly extended across
the present area of the shallow Boring
sea. 1t is not improbable, too, that
another line Of very ancient immigra-
ton, coming by a similar early Quater-
nary land communication where now are
wide tracts of the sea, passed from
Western Europe by the way of the Farce
islands, Iceland, and Greenland, to this
continent. The very distant and dim
antiquity of these nigrations, however,
will perhaps always forbid our looking
back with clear and certain view, to
trace their relative Importance and their
respective contributions to prehistoric
American industries, traffic, customs,
myths and racial characters.
Whenever Japanese or other Asiatic
sailors have been driven by storms to the
North Pacific shores of our continent, as
is known to have happened many times
during hundreds of years past the sur
yiyors have been mingled with the Amer
lean tribes, without perceptible effect, be-
yond perhaps a few myths or some adj
vancement in making weapons, utensils,
or ornaments. There have also been
frequent traverses of Boring strait by
the Eskfmos and their Asiatic neighbors
within the historic PERIOD but without
notable migration in either direction to
modify the racial characteristics of either
continent.
An objection against migrations of
primitive man to this Western hem
isphere during the glacial period may be
based on the ice-covered condition of
North America at that time, wholly en-
veloped by an ice-sheet upon it's north
ern half, northward from the Ohio and
Mississippi rivers, excepting the greater
part of Alaska. If the preglacial and
early glacial altitude Of the continent had
been the same as now, this objection
would be valid, and we should be obliged
to refer these ancient migrations wholly
to a time before the accumulation Of the
North American ice-sheet, which reached
both east and west beyond the present
coast lines. But the land elevation then,
as known by old river valleys submerged
beneath the sea and by marine shells of
littora1 and shallow water species
dredged at great depths, was 5000 to 5000
feet greater than now. During the epoch
of ice accumulation and elimination, its
boundaries probably failed to reach gen