The Life of Yesterday 



It was probably some time during tlie age 

 of the mammotli and mastodon that man ap- 

 peared in North America, very possibly coming 

 over from Asia at the same time as did these 

 big beasts, and, like them, spreading south- 

 ward and westward. But this brings us into 

 the domain of the anthropologist, and it is for 

 him to deal with the vexed question of the 

 peopling of our continent and the development 

 of its primitive races of men. It may only be 

 noted that here, as with animal life in past geo- 

 logic ages, this continent lagged behind the 

 Old World, and at the time Europe had at- 

 tained a high degree of civilization the greater 

 portion of North America was still in its stone 

 age. 



And here we will leave the story of the 

 early life of our continent. Its beginnings are 

 millions of years in the past, its record buried 

 in the rocks, not to be read for thousands of 

 years to come ; for man, who is to decipher 

 this record, has just come upon the scene, and 

 it will be many centuries before he sets about 

 the task. 



273 



