102 FOSSIL MEN. 



among the men of the Mammoth age in Europe, so 

 <that perKepa t~h<?se are later practices of more de- 

 graded tribes. ' 



A thfcjtosing thi& chapter, let us reflect for a moment 

 on the picture which it presents. The apparently 

 flourishing town of Hochelaga, surrounded with its 

 fields, and probably for long ages the residence of a 

 settled and semi- civilized people, disappears suddenly 

 from view. In a century or less its site is covered 

 with a dense and tall young forest. This is cleared, 

 and again becomes cultivated fields, showing no trace 

 of former occupation. In three centuries the remains, 

 when disinterred, are veritable fossils; everything 

 perishable, even hair and the animal matter of bones, 

 has disappeared. Nothing remains but stone and 

 pottery and charcoal, and the mineral matter of bones, 

 which underground might remain unchanged for a 

 hundred centuries as well as for one. Nothing but 

 Carrier's visit of a few hours' duration prevents us 

 from being in a position to attach to these remains 

 the longer date with as much show of reason as the 

 shorter. 



These considerations apply in various ways to the 

 interpretation of European pre-historic remains. First, 

 as to their antiquity. Owing to the entire disappear- 

 ance of Hochelaga, Car tier's narrative has actually 

 been discredited by some modern writers as a fiction, 

 and only the recent discovery of the remains of the 

 town he describes, has established its truth. But 

 Cartier's narrative alone enables us to fix the date of 



