VIII 



THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN IN NORTH AMERICA 1 



Ancient Shell Mounds Man Coeval with Extinct Mammalia Man in the 

 Glacial Period Palaeolithic Implements in North America The 

 Auriferous Gravels of California Fossil Remains under the Ancient 

 Lava Beds Works of Art in the Auriferous Gravels Human Re- 

 mains in the Auriferous Gravels Concluding Remarks on the 

 Antiquity of Man. 



OVER a considerable portion of the northern hemisphere the 

 remains of man, or his works, have been found in association 

 with bones of the extinct mammalia which characterised the 

 Glacial epoch, and no evidence has been obtained that man 

 at that time differed more from modern savages than they 

 do among themselves. The facts which prove this antiquity 

 were, when first put forth, doubted, neglected, or violently 

 opposed, and it is now admitted that such opposition was 

 due to prejudice alone, and in every case led to the rejection 

 of important scientific truths. Yet after nearly thirty years' 

 experience we find that an exactly similar prejudice prevails, 

 even among geologists, against all evidence which carries man 

 one little step farther back into pre-Glacial or Pliocene times, 

 although if there is any truth whatever in the doctrine of 

 evolution as applied to man, and if we are not to adopt the 

 exploded idea that the Palaeolithic men were specially created 

 just when the flood of ice was passing away, they must have 

 had ancestors who must have existed in the Pliocene period, 

 if not earlier. Is it then so improbable that some trace of 

 man should be discovered at this period, that each particle of 

 evidence as it arises must be attacked with all the weapons of 

 1 This article appeared in the Nineteenth Century, Nov. 1887. 

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