THE AGE OF CAVE-DWELLERS IN AMERICA. 489 



At this period, it has been stated by many and believed by most, 

 that the present line of the equator was where man originated and 

 flourished, because of the warmth of the climate and abundance of 

 easily procurable food. Yet the evidences in Colorado are opposed to 

 this belief, for here were the tropics also. 



The existing specimens of perfectly-preserved petrified palm-trees 

 show this, so also do the petrified remains of gigantic turtles peculiar 

 to tropical waters alone. The Asia theorists also offer the nativity of 

 the horse as a strong argument in their behalf, claiming that man and 

 horse developed at about the same time. If this claim has any weight, 

 it more than settles the point in favor of America, for the fossil re- 

 mains of horses with three toes to each foot have been found in Colo- 

 rado, and the examination of any hoof of a horse in embryo will show 

 this to have been one of the earliest stages in the existence of that 

 animal. This evidence goes beyond the researches of the supporters 

 of the Asia theory, for their conclusions are based upon the fact of 

 the existence of the wild horse of the present time. 



These evidences of tropical life in Colorado, it must be remembered, 

 are found at an altitude of ten thousand feet, or near the present snow 

 line. As the waters gradually receded, they left the valleys and parks 

 throughout the mountains immense lakes, until a trickling and over- 

 flowing outlet wore its way into a deep canon through solid granite, 

 and liberated the pent-up waters of each. 



The San Luis Valley, in which Del Norte is situated, is in the 

 southwestern part of Colorado, and is from sixty to seventy miles 

 broad by about three hundred miles long, and the outlet for drainage 

 is now the beautiful snow-born Rio Grande. 



Hearing one day in December, 1877, that a gentleman acquaintance, 

 in wandering over the foot-hills, about three and a half miles from Del 

 Norte, had found a small arrow-head of chalcedony, it aroused my 

 curiosity, and I at once called upon him that I might see it. He 

 showed me a beautiful specimen of elegant workmanship, made with 

 great care and accuracy as to dimensions, but evidently intended for 

 an ornament, being too small and delicate for any other actual use. 



The present Indians never work in chalcedony, and I felt sure 

 some discoveries might be made by visiting the spot ; so, calling to- 

 gether a couple of friends, we mounted our horses and had a delight- 

 ful canter over the floor-like valley until we reached the base of the 

 hill on top of which the specimen had been found. We dismounted, 

 tied our horses, and began climbing up and up for several hundred 

 feet above the valley, pausing now and then to breathe and enjoy the 

 magnificent view extended at our feet the valley stretching away 

 like an ocean of molten gold, with its autumn-tinted grasses, a hun- 

 dred miles to the north and seventy miles to the east, where it came 

 to an abrupt ending against the solid bases of the majestic peaks com- 

 prising the Sangre-del-Christo range of mountains. No foot-hills inter- 



