882 Address of A. R. Wallace at the Glasgow Meeting. 
of art and of geometric forms, and their capacity for executing 
the latter upon so gigantic a scale, render it probable that they 
were a really civilized people, although the form their civiliza- 
tion took may have been very different from that of later 
people subject to very different influences, and the inheritors 
of a longer series of ancestral civilizations. e have here, at 
all events, a striking example of the transition, over an exten- 
sive country, from comparative civilization to comparative 
arbarism, the former having left no tradition, and hardly any 
trace of influence on the latter. 
r. Mott well remarks :—Nothing can be more striking 
than the fact that Easter Island and North America both give 
the same testimony as to the origin of the savage life found in 
them, although in all circumstances and surroundings the two 
cases are so different. If no stone monuments had been con- 
structed in Easter Island, or mounds, containing a few relies 
saved from fire, in the United States, we might never have 
suspected the existence of these ancient peoples. He argues, 
therefore, that it is very easy for the records of an ancient 
nation’s life entirely to perish, or to be hidden from observa: 
tion. Even the arts of Nineveh and Babylon were unknown 
only a generation ago, and we have only just discovered the 
facts about the mound-builders of North America. 
But other parts of the American continent exhibit parallel 
phenomena. Recent investigations show that in Mexico, Ven- 
tral America, and Peru, the existing race of Indians has been 
preceded by a distinct and more civilized race. This 18 proved 
by the sculptures of the ruined cities of Central America, °Y 
the more ancient terra-cottas and paintings of Mexico, 
the oldest protrait-pottery of Peru. All alike show markedly 
non-Indian features, while they often closely resemble eee 
European types. Ancient crania, too, have been found in au 
these countries, presenting very different characters from th 
of any of the modern indigenous races of America.* 
There is one other striking example of a higher being Se. 
ceeded by a lower degree of knowledge, which 1s 1n Gane of 
being forgotten because it has been made the foundation 
theories which seem wild and fantastic, and are probably 18 
great part erroneous. I allude to the Great Pyramid — 
whose form, dimensions, structure, and uses have recen vib. 
the subject of elaborate works by Professor ee 
Now, the admitted fact about this pyramid are so I beg to 
a 46 
and so apposite to the subject we are considering, th hat this 
recall them to your attention. Most of you are mosey € oe 
+ | 
pyramid has been carefully explored and meas 
sive Egyptologists, and that the dimensions have lately become 
# Wilson’s “ Prehistoric Man,” 3d ed., vol. ii, pp- 125, 14# 
