MASTODON BONES FOUND AT CHESTER, ILL. 351 
in the lands bordering on the Mediterranean, in the tropical forests of India, and 
on both sides of the Atlantic. The hunter of the reindeer in the valley of the 
Delaware was the same kind of savage as the hunter of the reindeer on the bank s 
of the Thames or the Seine. It does not, however, follow that this indentity of 
implements implies that the same race of men ranged over this vast tract. While 
this may be left an open question, it certainly indicates a primeval condition of 
savagery, from which mankind has emerged in the long ages that separate it from 
our own time. We may also infer from his wide range that the river-drift hunter 
(assuming that mankind sprang from one center) inhabited the earth for a long 
time, and that his dispersal took place before the glacial submergence and the 
lowering of the temperature in northern Europe, Asia, and America. It is not 
reasonable to suppose that the Straits of Behring could have offered a free pas- 
sage either to the river-drift man migrating from Asia to America, or to the 
American animals from America to Europe, while there was a great barrier of 
ice, or of sea, or of both, in the high northern latitudes. 
It will be naturally asked who and what was the river-drift hunter. The 
question can only be partially answered in the present stage of the inquiry. The 
few fragments of human bones, beyond doubt associated with the implements, are 
too imperfect to offer any evidence as to race. They, however, point out unmis- 
takably that he was a man, and not "a missing link," and that he was without 
traces of Simian ancestry, such as have been ascribed to him by Mortillet and 
others. On this important point I entirely agree with Dr. Virchow. The river- 
drift man has vanished from the face of the earth without leaving any clew to his 
identification with any living race. After him the race of the cave-men appeared 
in Europe, now represented by the Eskimos. 
We may realize before the rock-hewn tombs at Luxor the impossibility of 
measuring the date of the river-drift hunter in terms of years. In the interval 
between the time of his encampment on the site of ancient Thebes and the rise 
of the splendor of Egypt, the conditions of life described in the preceding pages 
passed away, and man had progressed from the hunter stage of civiHzation into 
that of the Neolithic, of the Bronze, and of the Iron ages. He stands on the 
other side of an abyss of past time, the depth of which has not been, and which 
in my opinion cannot be, fathomed. — North American Revieiv, October^ 1883. 
MASTODON BONES FOUND AT CHESTER, ILL. 
Messrs, Mitchell & Needles, the contractors of the Penitentiary brick-works, 
are getting their clay from the hill back of the prison buildings and about 150 feet 
above the river. For some time they have been taking out immense bones, teeth 
and jaw-bones, etc., but recently a mastodon's tusk and head was uncovered at a 
depth of fifteen feet. The tusk is or was a most beautiful and perfect specimen, 
all complete, without a flaw in it. The root of the tusk was slightly flat on the 
under side and measured exactly 8 inches in diameter : in the center it measured 
6}^ inches, and its total length is 5 feet 6 inches. The head is an immense aff'air, 
but as yet is not entirely exhumed, and will not be until Prof. A. H. Worthing, of 
Springfield, 111., arrives to take care of it. There is everything to indicate that 
there is more than one mastodon, as a few days ago a much smaller tusk was foun d. 
