POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 473 



As to the character of the remains themselves, both Dr. Hrdlicka 

 and Dr. Dorsey, to whom may confidently be left the final decision, 

 assert that they are of modern type, and might well belong to an 

 Indian inhabiting the plains region within quite recent times, so far 

 as anthropological evidence goes. Nor does this verdict as to the char- 

 acter of the remains have much to do with either of the views presented. 

 It is certainly not improbable that the widespread races of American 

 Indians date back for thousands of years in their history. Mr. 

 Upham's estimate of the time since the death of the Lansing man is 

 about twelve thousand years, a not unreasonable time for the evolution 

 of the American Indian. 



Evidences of the high antiquity of man in America have hitherto 

 been wanting, or doubtful, and the Lansing man, whichever age is 

 assigned to him, can claim but little greater age than might be given 

 him from a priori reasoning. One must frankly admit that proofs 

 of man's contemporaneity with the many extinct animals of the 

 pleistocene times in North America have been few, and perhaps in 

 some cases doubtful. But, that man has existed with some of the 

 large extinct animals of North America, the present writer, in com- 

 pany with other vertebrate paleontologists, believes. But this belief 

 does not carry with it, necessarily, a belief in any very great antiquity. 

 It seems very probable that some of these large animals, such as the 

 elephant, mastodon and certain species of bison, have lived on this 

 continent within comparatively recent times. 



Furthermore, if the evidences of the commingling of human and 

 extinct animal remains in South America are to be accepted, and such 

 evidences seem almost beyond dispute, it must necessarily follow that 

 man has existed on our own continent for a yet longer time, since there 

 could have been no other way for him to reach the southern continent 

 than through the Isthmus of Panama. In additional support of the 

 evidence of man's high antiquity in South America, I am permitted 

 to quote the following from a recent letter by Professor W. B. Scott, 

 the distinguished paleontologist of Princeton University, who has re- 

 cently spent some time in those regions in the study of the extinct 

 vertebrate fauna: "I am convinced, from personal examination, that 

 man existed in South America contemporaneously with the great, ex- 

 tinct mammals. To be more explicit, human remains have been found 

 in the Pampean beds in association with large numbers of extinct mam- 

 malian genera." Is it not reasonable to suppose that we must seek 

 for the earliest indications of man's habitation on our continent in 

 the Pacific regions? 



