THE ARCHEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF NEW YORK 



the cave bear, hairy rhinoceros, mastodon and saber-toothed tiger 

 roamed Europe. The original association of the artifacts with the 

 animal bones can not be questioned for the deposits have never been 

 disturbed, and are by far too large to admit any other interpretation 

 than that man lived when these now extinct animals lived. If there 

 is a single lingering doubt, our minds become convinced when we 

 are shown the carvings of these extinct creatures on fragments of 

 bone and ivory. These carvings are the work of human hands. In 

 many instances, too, the walls of the caves are painted with repre- 

 sentations of these ancient beasts. The location of these deposits 



Fig. i Magdalenian painting from the cave of Altamira 



and the rock paintings make their preservation possible. Had they 

 been made in the open nearly every evidence would have been 

 weathered away. Only by rare chance have any of the ancient 

 deposits been preserved and discovered. Enough, however, have 

 been examined by specialists, to demonstrate that Europe was one 

 of the homes of mankind while it was yet in its early infancy. 



In America no extensive evidences comparable to those of Europe 

 have been found. While there have been several notable discoveries 

 of supposed very ancient human remains in America, there is as 

 yet not evidence that any possess characteristics differing from those 

 of Indians today. No human remains found in America as yet 

 approach the antiquity of European or of Asiatic discoveries. If 

 mankind found a footing in America at the age when the caves of 

 Northern France were inhabited by the contemporaries of the saber- 

 toothed tiger and the hairy rhinoceros, we have not the slightest 

 evidence of it. From a careful review of all the facts placed before 



