The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1907-01-26
ANTIQUITY OF MAN SHOWN.

His implements of Remote Ages I'm
the Worlds History Survive.
Long ago it was settled to the salts
faction of all who had given the facts
due attention that the human race has
had a long career upon the earth. How
long none can tell even approximate
ly. But it is certain that proofs Of the
existence Of man upon the earth reach
back to distant epochs variously esti-
mated at $4,000 to 100000 years ago
and even further. Lyell in his "An-
tiquity of Man." published in successive
editions from thirty-five to forty-five
years ago, adduced the main proofs,
which have since been confirmed by
unanswerable further discoveries Of
similar kind.
The human body is perishable and
not much sure and certain proof Of
mans high antiquity can be had from
human bones or remains Of human art
with them, for there may be dispute
or at least uncertainty as to the perl
DDS to which such discoveries belong.
But mans indestructible tools and i'm
plements, including his weapons Of
warfare and Of the chase, have been
found in situations innumerable, bur-
led deep in beds Of glacial drift and
gravel that certainly have lain undis-
turbed through countless ages. No
forces less potent than those which
produce cosmic or geologic changes
could so have placed them.
Implements and weapons of flint and
stone found In such situations tell q
story which all minds open to facts
must receive. No human theory, no
creed Of theology, no cosmology or re
ligious belief is good for anything that
disputes or ignores them. Man has
been upon the earth during a period
inconceivably long, and such remains
as we have of his life in those distant
ages prove that he was then In very
low stage Of being or existence. This
must have been the original condition
Of every race.
That condition was simply the con-
dition Of other animals, yet relieved by
germ, instinct or capacity of prog
ress which has carried the development
Of the human race from low to sue
cessively higher stages, from the weak
and helpless state of infancy to the
maturity and power Of manhood, from
a rude and barbarous phase to a more
refined civilization. 1t reverses the
idea that man has fallen from q high
estate to a lower; it requires belief in
an ascent from lower to a higher
They who deny this conclusion, as Ly-
ell has said, lowe their opinion or be-
lief to very strong prepossessions in
favor of an opposite hypothesis"
But the appearance Of man in the
western hemisphere was probably
much more recent than in the east
ern. No sure proofs or probable indi-
cations Of as high antiquity for the hui
man race in America have yet been
produced as those discoveries in Eu-
rope admitted by common consent. The
relics Of the mound builders of Ameri-
ca, it Is believed, are not very old, and
we think no sure proof of the exist
ence Of preglacial, interglacial or
paleolithics man in America has yet
been produced. Thus, while the an
tiquity Of man in Europe is an estab-
lished fact, the like proofs are not
wanting in America, though there are
those who hold that the Eskimo Is a
surviving representative Of ancient
man In the western NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
land Oregonian.