THE BIRTHPLACE OF MAN 599 



ican paleontologists should not interest themselves to some extent in 

 investigations now in progress in Europe and Asia, just as American 

 archeologists have contributed to the success of work on the later his- 

 tory of man. Whether American paleontologsits, working in their own 

 field, are to have a part in interpreting the Pleistocene history of man 

 is a burning question at the present time. 



Whether we find that man was in North America in Pleistocene 

 time or not, it is certainly true that one of the most important prob- 

 lems in the general history of the human race concerns the date of 

 occupation of the western hemisphere by the human family. Discussion 

 of the numerous finds reported to represent Pleistocene man in North 

 America are too well known to every one to require particular mention. 

 It should only be noted in passing, that as yet no specimens represent- 

 ing either skeletal remains or implements of man found in North 

 America are generally recognized by geologists and paleontologists as 

 of Pleistocene age. A careful search through the literature, and the 

 investigation of many of the actual occurrences, lead the writer to the 

 conclusion that we have, as yet, nothing in North America which can 

 be considered as unquestionably representing Pleistocene man. 



Also in South America there has been serious discussion of many 

 interesting finds. The evidence on the whole seems to be more dis- 

 tinctly in favor of Pleistocene occupation there than is the case in 

 North America. The discoveries made in recent years in the cave at 

 Last Hope Inlet, and the numerous remains found in the Pampean 

 formation at levels very far below the surface, seem difficult to interpret 

 excepting on the supposition that man was present in South America 

 before the beginning of the recent epoch. 



It is to be presumed that any occupation of South America would 

 necessarily be through migration by way of the northern continent, and 

 proof of the presence of man in South America in Pleistocene time 

 would be tantamount to proof that he was in North America at least 

 as early. This suggestion does not, of course, take into account the 

 theories of Ameghino to the effect that man is possibly derived from 

 some of the South American monkey forms. Another suggestion made 

 by Ameghino would give us an immigration of old world forms, pos- 

 sibly with ancestral man, coming into the southern continent in com- 

 paratively late time, by some other route than North America. 



In the consideration of man's history in America, it is particularly 

 important to notice the probable relation of migrations of the human 

 family to migrations of other groups of mammals. The presumption 

 is that the migrations of primitive man were caused or occasioned 

 largely by influences of the same sort as have produced the spreading 

 out or migration of many other mammalian types. It becomes then 

 particularly necessary to discover exactly when the more recent migra- 



