W. H. HOLMES' ARTICLES PROM THE HANDBOOK OF AMERICAN 
INDIANS, BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY, 1905. 
quired such marked physical characteris- 
tics as to be regarded as a separate race 
of very considerable homogeneity from 
Alaska to Patagonia, is regarded as indi- 
cating a long and complete separation 
from their parental peoples. Similarly, 
the existence in America of numerous cul- 
ture groups, measurably distinct one from 
another in language, social customs, reli- 
gion, technology, and esthetics, is thought 
to indicate a long and more or less exclu- 
sive occupancy of independent areas. 
But as a criterion of age the testimony 
thus furnished lacks definiteness, since to 
one mind it may signify a short time, 
while to another it may suggest a very 
long period. Native historical records of 
even the most advanced tribes are hardly 
more to be relied on than tradition, and 
they prove of little service in determin- 
ing the duration of occupancy of the con- 
tinent by the race, or even in tracing the 
more recent course of events connected 
with the historic peoples. No one can 
speak with assurance, on the authority of 
either tradition or history, of events dat- 
ing farther back than a few hundred years. 
Archeology, however, can furnish definite 
data with respect to antiquity; and, aided 
by geology and biology, this science is 
furnishing results of great value, although 
some of the greater problems encountered 
remain still unsolved, and must so remain 
indefinitely. During the first centuries 
of European occupancy of the continent, 
belief in the derivation of the native 
tribes from some Old World people in 
comparatively recent times was very gen- 
eral, and indeed the fallacy has not yet 
been entirely extinguished. This view 
was based on the apparently solid foun- 
dation of the Mosaic record and chronol- 
ogy as determined by Usher, and many 
works have been written in the attempt 
to determine the particular people from 
which the American tribes sprang. (See 
Popular Fallacies, and for various refer- 
ences consult Bancroft, Native Races, 
v, 1886; Winsor, Narrative and Critical 
History, i, 1884). The results of re- 
searches into the prehistoric archeology 
of the eastern continent during the last 
century, however, have cleared away 
the Usherian interpretation of events 
and established the fact of the great an- 
tiquity of man in the world. Later, in- 
vestigations in America were taken up, 
and the conclusion was reached that the 
course of primitive history had been 
about the same on both continents. Ob- 
servations that seemed to substantiate 
this conclusion were soon forthcoming 
and were readily accepted; but a more 
critical examination of the testimony 
shows its shortcomings and tends to hold 
final determinations in abeyance. It is 
clear that traces of early man are not so 
plentiful in America as in Europe, and 
investigations have proceeded with pain- 
ful slowness and much halting along the 
various lines of research. Attempts have 
been made to establish a chronology of 
events in various ways, but without defi- 
nite result. The magnitude of the work 
accomplished in the building of mounds 
and other earthworks has been empha- 
sized, the time requisite for the growth and 
decay upon these works of a succession of 
forests has been computed (see Mounds). 
The vast accumulations of midden depos- 
its and the fact that the strata composing 
them seem to indicate a succession of oc- 
cupancies by tribes of gradually advanc- 
ing culture, beginning in savagery and 
ending in well-advanced barbarism, have 
impressed themselves on chronologists 
(see Shell-heaps) . Striking physiographic 
mutations, such as changes of level and 
the consequent retreat or advance of the 
sea and changes in river courses since man 
began to dwell along their shores, have 
been carefully considered. Modifications 
of particular species of inollusks between 
the time of their first use on the shell- 
heap sites and the present time, and the 
development in one or more cases of new 
varieties, suggest very considerable antiq- 
uity. But the highest estimate of elapsed 
time based on these evidences does not 
exceed a few thousand years. Dali, after 
carefully weighing the evidence collected 
by himself in Alaska, reached the conclu- 
sion that the earliest midden deposits of 
the Aleutian ids. are probably as much 
as 3,000 years old. Going beyond this 
limit, the geological chronology must be 
appealed to, and we find no criteria by 
means of which calculations can be made 
in years until we reach the close of the 
Glacial epoch, which, according to those 
who venture to make estimates based on 
the erosion of river channels, was, in the 
states that border the St Lawrence basin, 
not more than 8,000 or 10,000 years ago 
(Winchell). Within this period, which 
in middle North America may properly 
he designated post-Glacial, there have 
been reported numerous traces of man so 
associated with the deposits of that time 
as to make them measurably valuable in 
chronological studies; but these evidences 
come within the province of the geologist 
rather than of the archeologist, and find- 
ings not subjected to critical examination 
by geologists having special training in 
the particular field may well be placed 
in the doubtful category. 
Post-Glacial rivers, in cutting their 
channels through the various deposits 
to their present level, have in some 
cases left a succession of flood-plain ter- 
races in which remains of man and his 
works are embedded. These terraces af- 
ford rather imperfect means of subdivid- 
