14 



South America peopled Asia and Europe, resulting in the American, 

 Mongolian and White races. 



The above examples could be much enlarged upon, but this is 

 hardly necessary in view of the facility with which the detailed report 

 on "Early Man in South America" can be consulted. Here it is only 

 just to the other South American authors who are involved in this 

 subject to say that the majority of the failures here refered to were 

 those of the principal exponent of ancient man in Argentina, Florentino 

 Ameghino. And lest the above examples may seem partial and unjust 

 the interested reader is strongly urged to peruse the detailed accounts 

 of these matters. 



The conclusions which the members of the Smithsonian Expedition 

 inevitably reached and hold in regard to early man in South America 

 can be resumed as follows: 



A conscientious study of all the available facts has shown that 

 the whole structure erected in support of the theory of geologically 

 ancient man on the southern continent rests on very imperfect and 

 incorrectly interpreted data, in many instances on erroneous premises, 

 and as a consequence of these weaknesses must collapse completely 

 when subjected to searching criticism.^) It fails to sustain the claim 

 that in South America there have been brought forth thus far tan- 

 gible traces of either geologically ancient man himself or of any pre- 

 cursor of the human race. The position is maintained, and should 

 be maintained, it seems, by all students, that the final acceptance of 

 the evidence on this subject cannot be justified until there shall have 

 accumulated a mass of strictly scientific observations adequate in kind 

 and volume to establish a proposition of so great importance. 



1) In tlie opinion of the writer, based on the published data as well as 

 a personal examination of the specimens, the recent "ancient" or "prehis- 

 toric" man found in Peru and reported on by Professor Bingham offers 

 nothing which would necessitate a recasting of these conclusions. 



