IN HIGHER PEOPLES 87 



In the Pliocene age of geology Alaska was 

 joined to Asia by a rather wide isthmus. It was 

 over this isthmus of Behring that many of the 

 North American animals first came into America 

 from Asia. Animals like the buffalo and the moun- 

 tain sheep did not originate in America. They 

 came from Asia. And they came over the Behr- 

 ing bridge in the Pliocene age of the world. No 

 bones of these animals are found in America pre- 

 vious to this time. The Indians also no doubt 

 came into America from Asia by the same route, 

 altho the Indians came much later than the 

 buffalo. 



Until comparatively recent times in geological 

 history, the island of Great Britain was joined to, 

 and formed a part of, the continent of Europe. 

 The earliest inhabitants of Great Britain were 

 Celts. They were called Britons by the Anglo- 

 Saxons. Great Britain may not have become an 

 island until some time after it was settled by hu- 

 man beings. The Celts may have walked dry-shod 

 over what is now the North Sea into what was 

 then a western peninsula of Continental Europe. 

 That is, when England was first settled by human 

 beings, it may have been a peninsula. 



6. How Old is Man? 



How long it has been since man originated as a 

 new species of animal, no one knows. But it is 

 known that it was a long time ago. Until fifty or 

 one hundred years ago, it was generally supposed 



