THE BIRTHPLACE OF MAN 599 
ican paleontologists should not interest themselves to some extent in 
investigations now in progress in Europe and Asia, just as American 
archeologists have contributed to the success of work on the later his- 
tory of man. Whether American paleontologsits, working in their own 
field, are to have a part in interpreting the Pleistocene history of man 
is a burning question at the present time. 
Whether we find that man was in North America in Pleistocene 
time or not, it is certainly true that one of the most important prob- 
lems in the general history of the human race concerns the date of 
occupation of the western hemisphere by the human family. Discussion 
of the numerous finds reported to represent Pleistocene man in North 
America are too well known to every one to require particular mention. 
It should only be noted in passing, that as yet no specimens represent- 
ing either skeletal remains or implements of man found in North 
America are generally recognized by geologists and paleontologists as 
of Pleistocene age. A careful search through the literature, and the 
investigation of many of the actual occurrences, lead the writer to the 
conclusion that we have, as yet, nothing in North America which can 
be considered as unquestionably representing Pleistocene man. 
Also in South America there has been serious discussion of many 
interesting finds. The evidence on the whole seems to be more dis- 
tinctly in favor of Pleistocene occupation there than is the case in 
North America. The discoveries made in recent years in the cave at 
Last Hope Inlet, and the numerous remains found in the Pampean 
formation at levels very far below the surface, seem difficult to interpret 
excepting on the supposition that man was present in South America 
before the beginning of the recent epoch. 
It is to be presumed that any occupation of South America would 
necessarily be through migration by way of the northern continent, and 
proof of the presence of man in South America in Pleistocene time 
would be tantamount to proof that he was in North America at least 
as early. This suggestion does not, of course, take into account the 
theories of Ameghino to the effect that man is possibly derived from 
some of the South American monkey forms. Another suggestion made 
by Ameghino would give us an immigration of old world forms, pos- 
sibly with ancestral man, coming into the southern continent in com- 
paratively late time, by some other route than North America. 
In the consideration of man’s history in America, it is particularly 
important to notice the probable relation of migrations of the human 
family to migrations of other groups of mammals. The presumption 
is that the migrations of primitive man were caused or occasioned 
largely by influences of the same sort as have produced the spreading 
out or migration of many other mammalian types. It becomes then 
particularly necessary to discover exactly when the more recent migra- 
