PREHISTORIC MAN IN AMERICA. 135 



Whatever age geologists may ascribe to the auriferous gravels, sufficient 

 proof, in our mind, has been adduced to show that man lived at the time of their 

 deposition, and that the mammals and plants then living are now extinct. The 

 plants, according to Lesquereux, are of pliocene age, and some identical with, 

 or closely allied to, miocene forms. 



On the eastern coast of North America, we have the important discovery, by 

 Dr. C. C. Abbott, of true river-drift implements in the Delaware Valley of New 

 Jersey. From the testimony of eminent geologists the Trenton gravels were de- 

 posited at the foot of the retreating ice-sheet. In the Tenth and Eleventh An- 

 nual Reports of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, 

 Dr. Abbott has published full accounts of his discoveries. The implements were 

 obtained from depths ranging from five to ten feet below the surface. These are 

 precisely of the same nature as those characterizing the river-drift men of Europe. 

 If Dr. Abbott's conclusions are correct, then the gravel-beds in question are a 

 part, so to speak, of the glacial epoch. 



That man existed contemporaneously with their deposition, there can be no 

 doubt.* 



The probable relation of the i aleolithic man of Europe with the Esquimaux 

 of North America has been suggested by Professor Dawkins, and Dr. Abbott 

 supports this supposition with other evidences. In this connection, it is interest- 

 ing to remark that while the breadth of the Calaveras skull, according to Professor 

 Wyman, agrees with the other crania from California, except that of the Digger 

 Indian, it differs in dimensions from other crania, and in these differences it ap- 

 proaches the Esquimaux. 



The wide distribution of these remains, from distant India throughout 

 Europe and across the American continent, shows a race, judging from their im- 

 plements, apparently homogeneous, and indicates an immense lapse of time for 

 the dispersion of these people. Their precursors must be recognized by their 

 bones, for implements, to be distinguished from ordinary stones, are not to be 

 expected. The improbabiUty of encountering these remains has already been 

 pointed out. 



If man has descended from some ape-like progenitor, or, rather, if he and 

 the present apes are derived from a common ancestor, then we must expect to 

 find the early remains of man closely drawing near, in his characters, to that 

 hypothetical form which is looked for in " the missing link." Thus far all the 

 characters of the early remains of man point distincdy in that way, though many 

 a long gap must yet be filled before the sharp lines of demarkation between the 

 higher groups break down. From the exceeding rarity of the remains of the 

 order of primates, the different groups stand quite as isolated as man from them. 

 Not to speak of the gaps yet to fill between the different genera of the higher 



*If the views of Mr. Henry C. Lewis regarding the Trenton gravels are cerrect, then their connection 

 and superposition on the red gravel and brick clays indicate asecond and much later glacial period, correspond- 

 ing to the reindeer period of Europe. Whatever the facts may show, the identity of the Trenton river im- 

 plements with those of the river-drift of Europe seems well established. 



