78 WASTE-LAND WANDERINGS. 



" Who were the earliest inhabitants of America, and 

 when did they live ? are questions which have generally 

 been approached solely from the point of view offered 

 by discoveries in the United States. ... In the follow- 

 ing essay I propose to deal with them as portions of one 

 great problem common to the Old and New Worlds, 

 and to show that the first traces of man, as yet discov- 

 ered, prove him to have lived in the same low stage of 

 culture on both sides of the Atlantic, at a time when 

 the hands of the geological clock pointed to the same 

 hour over the greater part of the world. The story of 

 early man in America is a part of the greater story of 

 the first appearance of man on the earth, so far as he has 

 yet been revealed by modern discovery." 



So I am not alone in the advocacy of very ancient 

 American man ; but ask me for no particulars concern- 

 ing the important questions of origin or antiquity. Of 

 the latter only will I say, it is a matter of " time rela- 

 tive " and not of " time absolute." 



Having gathered up my treasures and returned to the 

 boat, I quickly forgot the Indians when again afloat, and 

 a few yards' progress brought in view the most gorgeous 

 display of yellow bloom I had yet seen. It was the yel- 

 low Gerardia, and although abundant up and down the 

 creek, is nowhere else so luxuriant. I gathered an arm- 

 ful of the rank flower-stalks, and while returning to the 

 boat, was forced to stand a moment and admire a fruit 

 as yellow as the bloom I carried. It was the climbing 

 Celastrus, but in this case was a bush rather than a vine. 

 The crop of berries that it bore was simply enormous. 

 Again, at the very water's edge, was a yellow hawk- 



