THE SHELL MOUNDS OF OMORI, JAPAN. 



BY EDWARD S. MOESE. 



Since the appearance of Darwin's great work ou tlie Origin of Species, and the 

 subsequent revolution in the minds of thinking men regarding the origin of man 

 and animals below him, a new impulse has been given to the investigations of 

 man's early history ; a new science, in fact, has sprang into activity, and Societies 

 and Journals of Anthropology, Ai'chceology and Ethnology are the results of 

 this wonderful awakening. 



"With the idea so long dominant that man had beeu specially created at a cer- 

 tain time to be measured by years, only those documents and those evidences 

 were scanned which came within the prescribed time limits. Thirty years ago 

 it seemed as useless a task to stud} - the evidences of man's existence before these 

 dates, as it would be for one to study the evidences of the Spanish occupation of 

 America before the year 1492. 



In fact so apathetic were men's minds on this matter, or rather so throughly 

 was incorporated the idea of man's recent origin, that many valuable evidences 

 have been neglected, or lost through this lamentable condition of things. 

 Observations ou the high antiquity of man made by Dr. Schmerling, Mr. Mac 

 Euery, Mr. Grodwiu Austen and others attracted but little attention. Indeed 

 they were received with incredulity, and the memoir of Mr. Vivian read before 

 the Geological Society was considered too improbable for publication.* Yet the 

 labors and discoveries of these men have been repeatedly confirmed by sub- 

 sequent investigations. 



Difficult indeed is it to restore the past history of mankind from the fragmen- 

 tary remains found buried in the earth. Their life history must be made up 

 entirely from the imperishable objects which have been preserved in caves, 

 burial places, the refuse piles of their villages, aud similar places. They left no 

 written record, no hieroglyphics to decipher, because they had none. 



* Lubbock's Pro-liistoric Man. 



