PRIMEVAL MAN IN AMERICA. 



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The character of the implements said to have been found gives pe- 

 culiar emphasis to this last doubt, for they are not Palaeolithic, but 



Neolithic. 



In any case, and whatever be the geological age of the sub-lava 



drift, if man should be undoubtedly found there, it would show an 

 immense antiquity; for, since the lava-flow, 

 canons have been cut by the present rivers 

 2,000 or 3,000 feet deep in solid slate-rock. 



Carson Footprints. — In 1882 scientific at- 

 tention was first drawn to certain remarkable 

 tracks, resembling those of gigantic men, in 

 the sandstone- quarry near Carson, Nevada. 

 The floor of the quarry (which constitutes the 

 yard of the State Prison) is a level area of 

 about two acres. The whole surface of this 

 area is covered with the tracks of many kinds 

 of animals. The depth of the tracks shows 

 that the material was soft mud at the time 

 the tracks were made. The most remarkable 

 are undoubted tracks of elephants (mammoth) 

 and especially certain strangely man -like 

 tracks of enormous size. These were eighteen 

 to twenty inches long and eight inches wide. 

 The stride was about a yard, and the distance 



between right and left series was nineteen inches. 



There has been much discussion as to the nature of these tracks. 



Some think that they are human, and account for their great size by 



supposing that the 



men wore large san- x \|| 



dais. Others think 



that they are the 



tracks of a large 



ground-sloth such as 



the mylodon, which is 



known to have lived 



on the Pacific coast 



in Quaternary times. 



Both in size and shape 



they are certainly 



much like the hind- FlG " 9 ~ 9,— Left nind - foot of Mylodon robustus, x \ (after Owen). 



foot of the mylodon (Fig. 979). But if made by a quadruped, the 

 larger hind-foot must have obliterated the impression of the fore-foot, 

 for there are apparently but two series of tracks ; and the feet must 

 have been clogged with mud, for no impression of toes is seen. It is 



Fig 



978.— Two Series of Tracks 

 in Carson Prison-yard. 



