INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1873. \xxxi 



A very important contribution to the question of the an- 

 tiquity of man in Europe is furnished by the result of recent 

 explorations in the Settle bone-cave in Yorksliire, where a 

 fragment of bone unmistakably human was found, under cir- 

 cumstances proving that it must have been deposited dur- 

 ing the glacial period. 



Anthropological research has been prosecuted in America 

 during the year with much zeal, and new pages are continu- 

 ally laid bare in reference to the history of man on the Amer- 

 ican continent. Mounds have been opened, graves emptied 

 of their contents, and shell-heaps especially those of Ore- 

 gon and California have been investigated with unusually 

 rich results. Some very remarkable remains of implements 

 and other objects have been disinterred in Washington 

 Territory, Oregon, and California. Mr. Dall has brought 

 from the Aleutian Islands large numbers of prehistoric ob- 

 jects found buried in the caves of Unalashka and elsewhere. 

 The explorations of Professor Powell in Colorado, in contin- 

 uation of those of previous years, have furnished an exhaust- 

 ive representation of illustrations of the habits and character- 

 istics of the Utes, embracing dresses, ornaments, implements, 

 utensils, weapons of war and the chase, etc. A most inter- 

 esting discovery has been made by Professor Kerr, of North 

 Carolina, of ancient mica mines in the western part of that 

 state. The existence of mica in the mounds of the West has 

 long been an interesting fact, but without any explanation 

 of the source whence this was derived. Accordino; to Pro- 

 fessor Kerr, the aboriginal excavations for mica are very nu- 

 merous in North Carolina, and were made on a large scale ; 

 and there seems to be no reasonable doubt that from them 

 were obtained the plates of mica found among the remains 

 of so many of the early nations of North America. 



The expedition of the Polaris, and that of the vessels which 

 went in search of her, have also furnished some interestino: 

 objects, including many remains of implements of modern or- 

 igin ; but a more special result Avas the discovery in Polaris 

 Bay, latitude 81 34', of Esquimau sledge runners, and oth- 

 er articles ; as also the remains of stone houses, showing that 

 these people lived that distance to the north, and probably 

 still farther. 



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