86 ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



skeleton preserved in the museum at Quebec, that was dug out of the solid schist- 

 rock on which the citadel stands; several skeletons from Guadalotipe, preserved in 

 European cabinets, found in a rock described as " harder under the chisel than the 

 finest statuary marble;" human fossils discovered by Dr. Lund, the Danish natural- 

 ist, in eight different localities, among the calcareous caves of Brazil, in connection 

 with those of extinct species of animals — all represented as incorporated with a 

 very hard breccia ; and, from the same source, a human skull taken out of a sand- 

 stone rock now overgrown with lofty trees. Remains of a similar character, although 

 from positions supposed to be less unequivocal, found in Mississippi and Florida, by 

 Dr. Dickeson and others, are also named. All of these, it is believed, had previ- 

 ously been the subjects of communications to learned societies, with testimony in 

 favor of their geological antiquity, and their cranial conformity to the aboriginal 

 American type, exhibiting, in some instances, as stated, the American peculiarity 

 of configuration in an excessive degree. 1 The concluding passage of Dr. Morton's 

 inedited MSS. contains this prediction : " I have no doubt that man will yet be 

 found as low down as the Eocene deposits, and that he walked the earth with the 

 Megalonyx and Palajotherium." 



The following is quoted by Dr. Usher as the language of Professor Agassiz, at 

 Mobile, in April, 1853 : — 



1 Am. Phil. Soc. Trans., Ill, 286-29G: Communication from C. D. Meigs, M. D., on the human 

 bones found at Santos, in Brazil. Am. Journ. of Science, &c, XXXII, 361 : Dr. Moultrie's 

 description of the skull of the Guadaloupe fossil human skeleton. Proceed, of Phila. Acad, of Nat. 

 Sciences, Dec, 1844 : Lieut. Strain's letter to Dr. Morton, respecting Dr. Lund's discoveries. Me- 

 moirs de la Soc. Royale des Antiquaires du Nord, 1845-'49, pp. 49-T7 : Communication from Dr. 

 Lund. Dr. Lund states that the remains examined by him manifested not only the cranial character- 

 istics common to the American and the Mongol, and also those peculiar to the American ; but a form 

 of teeth unknown among existing races of men, which, being found alike in young and old, he believed 

 to be natural, although resembling a conformation noticed among Egyptian mummies, and ascribed to 

 attrition. On this point Dr. Morton refrains from expressing an opinion for want of opportunities of 

 personal observation. 



Dr. Lund declares his belief that South America was inhabited, not only in remote historical times, 

 but also probably in the geological eras, as many species of animals seem to have disappeared since the 

 existence of man in this hemisphere ; and that the race of men occupying this part of the world in ages 

 the most remote, was, as to its general type, the same that was found by European discoverers. He 

 remarks, that the cranial conformation of the Americans, similar but inferior to that of the Mongols, 

 has led to the supposition that the former were Mongolians who had degenerated as a result of emigra- 

 tion ; but that this opinion is opposed by the fact that no indication of an ancient superior development 

 is found. Moreover, if wc consider that nature habitually advances from the imperfect to the perfect, 

 that this part of the world is, according to geological evidence, of a date anterior to what is commonly 

 called the Old "World, and that an examination of the caves referred to leads to an admission of the 

 antiquity of its original inhabitants, while the primitive type has continued without change, there is 

 good reason, he thinks, to entertain an opinion the reverse of that which would establish a relation 

 between the Mongolian and American races. He mentions, in a note, that the interior plateau of 

 Brazil is composed of horizontal strata of the transition period, which are nowhere covered with the 

 secondary or tertiary formations ; which proves that the New World was elevated above the sea before 

 the secondary period, so as to form an extensive continent. No part of the Old World, to his know- 

 ledge, presented the same phenomenon to such an extent that an equal antiquity could be attributed 

 to it. 



