The Prehistoric World or Vanished races Part 21

He considers the gravels in question to have been deposited near the close of this flooded period, when the land stood at about its present level and the glaciers had retreated perhaps to the Catskill Mountains.

The rivers were still swollen and would be heavily charged with coa.r.s.e gravel brought from the morains and lying exposed on the surface of the ground vacated by the glaciers.<58>

Probably but few geologists will take exceptions to these views. Thus we have very satisfactory reasons for connecting these Paleolithic people with the close of the Glacial Age--a conclusion to which the scattering discoveries mentioned in the preceding pages also points. But as regards Dr. Abbott's discoveries, they are on such a scale, and vouched for by so many eminent observers, that we need no longer hesitate to accept them, or complain of the scattering nature of the finds.

But we might inquire whether this is the earliest period to which the presence of man can be ascribed in this country? Excepting, of course, California, we do not know of any well established fact on which to base a greater antiquity for man. However, this subject is very far from being as closely studied as in Europe. Believing that in Europe man was living before the Glacial Age, and that in all probability he was living in California at the same early time, we would naturally expect to find some evidence of his presence in the Mississippi Basin and along the Atlantic seaboard. But no explorer has yet been fortunate enough to make such discoveries.<59>

It is scarcely necessary to point out that we have only the relative age of these gravel deposits. We have not yet arrived at an answer in years.

This we are not able to do. As we have several times remarked, our American scholars, as a rule, do not think many thousands of years have elapsed since the Glacial Age, and yet they are not all agreed on that point. From the depths in the gravel and loess deposits that the stone relics are found, we may suppose that man was present during the entire series of years their formation represents. Prof. Aughey, to whose discoveries in loess deposits in Nebraska we have referred, estimates the length of time necessary to produce those deposits as between nineteen and twenty thousand years, and this he considers a low estimate. So we see that, at any rate, the date of man's first appearance in America was certainly very far in the past.

In forming a mental picture of the conditions of life at that early time, it is not necessary to imagine a dreary scene of Arctic sterility.

This is not true of the time when the Glacial Age was at its greatest severity. But at the time we are now considering, the glaciers had retreated over a large part of the country, though they still lingered in northern and mountainous regions. Great lakes and majestic rivers were the features of the country. The St. Lawrence was still choked with ice, and the great lakes must have discharged their waters southward.<60> The Mississippi, gathering in one mighty stream the drainage of the Central Basin, sped onward to the Gulf, doubtless many times larger than its present representative. The animals then living included several species that have since become extinct. Mastodons and elephants must have been numerous, as their remains are frequently found in loess deposits.<61> They have also been found in the gravels of New Jersey, in connection with the rude implements already mentioned.

Probably keeping close to the retreating glaciers were such animals as the moose, reindeer, and musk-ox, while the walrus disported itself in the waters off the coast. At any rate those animals now only found in high northern lat.i.tudes were living during Glacial times as far south as Kentucky and New Jersey.<62>

A good deal of interest is connected with the finding of one mastodon's tooth. It was found in the gravel deposit, about fourteen feet beneath the surface. It must have been washed to the position where found when the great floods from the melting glacier, with their burden of sand and gravel, were rolling down the valley. We can either conclude that the climate was such as to permit the existence of such animals, or that the animal to which it belonged lived in some far away pre-glacial time. But our interest suddenly increases when we learn that, but a few feet away, under exactly similar circ.u.mstances, was found the wisdom tooth of a human being. It, too, was rolled, scratched, and polished, and had evidently been swept along by the tumultuous flood. "The same agency that brought the one from the Upper Valley of the Delaware brought the other, and, after long years, they come again to light, and jointly testify that, in that undetermined long ago, the creatures to which they respectively belonged were living together in the valley of the river."<63>

We must now consider the question of race. Who were the men that fas.h.i.+oned the implements? Were they Indians? or were they a different people? As far as we know the Indians, they were Neolithic. Their implements and weapons are often polished, pecked, and finely wrought; and, as before remarked, they employed the best kind of stone for their purpose. Dr. Abbott, who speaks from a very extensive personal experience, tells us, that it is not practical to trace any connection between the well-known Indian forms and the Paleolithic implements of the river gravels: "The wide gap that exists between a full series of each of the two forms is readily recognized when the two are brought together."<64> Besides this difference in form, there is also a difference in material. The ruder forms not being of jasper and allied minerals, but are almost exclusively of argillite.<65> In addition to the foregoing, we must consider the different positions they occupy--the former being found only on or near the surface, the latter deeply buried within. These different reasons all point to the same conclusion: that is, that the Indians were preceded in this country by some other people, who manufactured the Paleolithic specimens recently discovered.

In Europe, Prof. Dawkins, as we have seen, maintains that the Cave-men were the predecessors of the Eskimos. This may serve us as a point of departure in the inquiry as to who the pre-Indian people were? It is manifest, however, that we must have some ground on which to base this theory. The Eskimo seem to belong to the Arctic region, as naturally as the white bear and the walrus. At the early time we are considering in America, glaciers had not retreated very far. So his climatic surroundings must have been much the same as at present. But the Eskimo may not live where he does now by choice: we may behold in him a people driven from a fairer heritage, who found the ice-fields of the North more endurable than the savage enemy who envied him his possession. It seems very reasonable to suppose that the Eskimos long inhabited this country before the arrival of the Indians, if it was not, in fact, their original home.

Mention has been made of the Eskimo traits still to be observed among the tribes of California. Prof. Putnam thinks that this fact can best be explained on the supposition that these tribes came in contact with primitive Eskimo people.<66> Dr. Rink, from investigation of the language and traditions of the different Eskimo tribes, thinks they are of American origin, and must once have lived much farther south.<67> He says, "The Eskimos appear to have been the last wave of an aboriginal American race, which has spread over the continent from more genial regions--following princ.i.p.ally the rivers and water-courses, and continually yielding to the pressure of the tribes behind them until they have at last peopled the sea-coasts."<68> Mr. Dall, in his explorations of the Aleutian Islands, comes to the same conclusion as Dr. Rink. He says his own conclusions are, "that the Eskimos were once inhabitants of the interior of North America--have much the same distribution as the walrus, namely, as far south as New Jersey."<69>

All this tends to prove that the Paleolithic people of New Jersey were ancestors of the Eskimos. This becomes highly probable when we pursue the subject a little farther. Dr. Abbott has shown, from the similarity of implements, position in which found, and so forth, that the Paleolithic people continued to occupy the country down to comparatively recent times, when Indian relics took their place.<70> This is such an important point that we must give his reasons more in detail. Remember that Dr. Abbott speaks from the experience gained by gathering over twenty thousand specimens of stone implements, and paying especial attention to the position in which they were found. The surface soil of that section of New Jersey, where he made his explorations, was formed by the slow decomposition of vegetable and forest growth. In this layer he found great numbers of undoubted Indian implements. The number, however, rapidly decreases the deeper we go in this stratum. This would show that the Indians were late arrivals. Below this surface soil is a stratum of sand, overlying the gravelly beds below and pa.s.sing into the surface soil just mentioned. In this layer were found great numbers of implements inferior to the Indian types found on the surface, but superior to the Paleolithic specimens described. They are not only inferior in finish to the Indian specimens, but are of different material. They are always formed of argillite. It was further noticed that the number of these rapidly decreased in the layer of surface soil, and are but rarely found on the surface.

Now it might be said that these rude forms were fas.h.i.+oned by Indians when in a rude state of culture, and, as they became more advanced, they learned the superior qualities of flint, and so dropped the use of argillite. But it so happens that we have found several places where were veritable manufactories of Indian implements. It is very significant that we never find one where the workman used both flint and argillite. He always used flint alone. Every thing seems to point to the fact, that the tribes who fas.h.i.+oned the argillite implements were different from the Indian tribes who made the flint implements. It is Dr. Abbott's conclusions that the former, the descendants of the Paleolithic tribes, were the Eskimos, who, according to these views, must have inhabited the eastern portion of the United States to comparatively recent times.

In further support of these views, we think we have grounds for a.s.serting that we have veritable historical accounts of the Eskimo people slowly retiring before the aggressions of their Indian foes. It is no longer doubted but that Nors.e.m.e.n, as early as the year 1000, made voyages of discovery along the coast of North America, as far south as Rhode Island: they called the country Vineland. It is true that the Icelandic accounts of these expeditions contain some foolish and improbable statements; but so do the writings of Cotton Mather, made many years later.

These accounts refer but very briefly to the inhabitants they saw, but enough is given to show that the people were not Indians, but Eskimos.

The language used is: "The men were small of stature and fierce, having a bushy head of hair, and very great eyes, and wide cheeks."<71> Their small size is frequently referred to, which would surely not be the case if they were describing the Algonkins that the English colonists found in the same section of country many years later. To the same effect is the a.s.sertion that the Eskimos did not reach Greenland until the middle of the fourteenth century.<72> The traditions of the Tuscarawas Indians that place their arrival on the Atlantic coast in the year 1300, also refer to a tribe of people that were at least much like the Eskimos.<73>

Thus we are led, step by step, to the recognition of a Paleolithic Age in America, and finally to the belief that the descendants of these people were Eskimos. We at once notice the coincidence of these results with some of the conclusions of Prof. Dawkins, of England, and it is desirable to trace a little farther the points of resemblance and difference between this age in America and in Europe. In this latter country we have seen the Paleolithic Age can be divided into two stages, or epochs, during which different races inhabited the country. The first, or the epoch of the men of the River Drift, long preceded the epoch of the Cave-men. It was those latter tribes only that Mr. Dawkins connects with the Eskimos.

We have not yet found evidence in this country that points to such a division of the Paleolithic Age. We have no relics of Cave-men as distinguished from the men of the River Drift. It is true, we are not lacking evidence of the use of caves by various tribes,<74> but there is nothing to show that such use was very ancient, or that the people were properly Paleolithic. We can not say what future discoveries will unfold, but as yet we have only implements of the River Drift type, and these are the men Dr. Abbott considers to be the ancestors of the Eskimos. In this country, then, we have shown the existence of but one race of men in the same stage of culture as the men of the River Drift, but of the same race as the men of the Cave. These results may be cited as an argument in favor of those scholars who think that the men of the River Drift and the men of the Cave were in reality the same people.<75>

In Europe there was apparently a long lapse of time between the disappearance of the Paleolithic tribes and the arrival of the Neolithic people, but we have no evidence of such a period in America. The Paleolithic people remained in possession until driven away by the Neolithic ones. All evidence of Paleolithic man in Europe terminated with the Glacial Age, and there is little doubt but what they date from preglacial times. Our present knowledge does not carry us any farther back in this country than the close of Glacial times. If we consider that the Glacial Age in America coincides in time with the same age in Europe, then the last statements would imply that the Paleolithic Age here was later than in Europe; in fact, that Paleolithic man had run his course in Europe before he appeared in America, and some might even go further, and say that he migrated from Europe to America. There are, however, no good grounds for such conclusions. We believe that future discoveries will show that in America also Paleolithic man was living in Glacial and preglacial times.<76>

We feel that we have done but scant justice to this subject, but we a.s.sure our readers that this question has been but little studied in this country. Referring all relics of stone to the Indians, our scholars have been slow to recognize traces of an earlier race in America. Our sources of information are as yet but few, and much remains to be done in this field. In Europe as in America, scholars are still hard at work on the Paleolithic Age, and we are to hold ourselves in readiness to modify our opinions, or to reject them entirely and adopt new ones as our knowledge increases.

There is one thought that occurs to us. From the combined investigations of both European and American scholars, the Eskimo is seen to be one of the oldest (if not the oldest) races of men now living. They afford a striking ill.u.s.tration of the fact that a race may early reach a limit of culture beyond which, as a race, they can not pa.s.s. Should the American discoveries establish the fact that the River Drift tribes are also Eskimos, then we are fairly ent.i.tled to consider them the remnant of a people who once held possession of all the globe, but who have been driven to the inhospitable regions of the North by the pressure of later people. What changes have come over the earth since that early time? In the long lapse of years that have gone by newer races, advancing by slow degrees, have at last achieved civilization. The fiat of Omnipotent power could have created the world in a perfected form for the use of man, but instead of so doing, Infinite Wisdom allowed slow-acting causes, working through infinite years, to develop the globe from a nebulous ma.s.s. Man could, indeed, have been created a civilized being, but instead of this, his starting-point was certainly very low. He was granted capacities in virtue of which he has risen. We are not to say what the end shall be, but we think it yet far off.

Ill.u.s.tration of Stone Implement.----------

REFERENCES

(1) The ma.n.u.script of this chapter was submitted to Dr. C. C.

Abbott, of Trenton, New Jersey, for criticism.

(2) Dana's "Manual of Geology," p. 735, _et seq._ (3) Ibid., p. 753.

(4) Whitney's "Geology of California," Vol. I.

(5) Whitney's "Geological Survey of California," Vol. I.

(6) Dr. Newbury's "Geological Survey of California."

(7) Whitney's "Auriferous Gravels of California," p. 283.

(8) Cambridge Lecture, 1878.

(9) Cambridge Lecture, 1878.

(10) "Native Races," Vol. IV, p. 698.

(11) In general, all about Sonora, in the auriferous gravels, are found bones of extinct animals, and, a.s.sociated with them, many relics of the works of human hands. These are found at various depths down to one hundred feet. (Whitney's "Auriferous Gravels," p. 263.) (12) _American Journal of Science,_ Vol. XIX, p. 176, 1880.

(13) "Auriferous Gravels," p. 279.

(14) Wright's "Studies in Science and Religion," p. 289.

(15) Dawkins, in Southall's "Pliocene Man," p. 18.

(16) Southall's "Pliocene Man," p. 19.

(17) Schoolcraft's "Archaeology," Vol. I, p. 105.

(18) As bearing on the question of Pliocene man, we might refer to the impression of human (?) foot-prints in the sand-stone quarry of the State prison at Nevada. At one time this area was the bottom of a lake, and we can plainly see the tracks of various animals that came down to drink. A huge mammoth visited the place; so also did horses and other animals. Among these is one series of tracks evidently made by a biped. Some think they are the sandaled foot of a human being. This question is still under discussion.

(19) "Geographical Survey West of the 100th Meridian," Vol. VII, p. 11.

(20) Dana's "Manual of Geology," p. 583.

(21) Putnam, in "Geographical Survey West of the 100th Meridian," Vol. VII, p. 11.

(22) Ibid., p. 18.

(23) "Geographical Survey West of the 100th Meridian," Vol. VII, p. 12.

(24) "Prehistoric Times," p. 436.

(25) "Human Species," p. 147.

(26) The researches of Mr. Dall in the Aleutian Islands demonstrate the long-continued occupation of them by a savage people, and a gradual advance of the same in culture--though this apparent advance may have been simply the inroads of more advanced tribes. U.S. Geographical Survey W. of 100th M., p. 12.

(27) Wright's "Studies in Science and Religion," p. 292.

(28) Morgan's "Ancient Society," p. 108, note.

(29) "Geographical Survey West of the 100th Meridian," Vol. VII, p. 3.

(30) Bancroft's "Native Races," Vol. III, pp. 646, 647.

(31) "U.S. Geographical Survey West of the 100th Meridian," Vol.

VII, p. 12.

(32) Dana's "Manual of Geology," p. 591.

(33) LeConte's "Elements of Geology."

(34) Prof. Winch.e.l.l, in his last work, "World Life," p. 363, _et seq.,_ goes over the entire subject. As might be expected, no decisive results are obtained. He sums up the arguments to show that in this country the close of the Glacial Age is not more than seven thousand years ago (p. 375).

The student who reads these pages and then Mr. Geikie's work, "Prehistoric Europe," will be sorely puzzled to know what conclusions to adopt. We can not do better than refer to the chapter on Antiquity Paleolithic Age.

(35) Dana's _Am. Journal of Science,_ May, 1875.

(36) Foster's "Prehistoric Races," p. 62.

(37) See Lockwood, in _Popular Science Monthly_ for 1883, for account of beaver dam built on a mastodon skeleton and evidence of contemporaneity of Indians and mastodons.

(38) "The Missouri was a stream thirty miles wide."

(39) "Hayden," p. 255.

(40) For the facts on which this paragraph rests, see Report of Samuel Aughey, Ph.D., in "U.S. Survey of the Territories, for 1874," p. 243, _et seq._ (41) "American a.s.soc. Rep.," 1880, p. 720.

(42) "Illinois Geological Reports," Vol. III, p. 123.

(43) "Prehistoric Races," p. 69.

(44) Jones's "Antiquities of the Southern Indians," p. 293.

(45) Jones's "Antiquities of the Southern Indians," p. 295.

(46) Quoted by Abbott's "Primitive Industry," p. 3.

(47) Peet's "Archaeology of Europe and America," p. 11.

(48) Short's "North Americans of Antiquity," p. 27.

(49) Up to the present time (1884) Dr. Abbott has collected over 20,000 specimens of stone implements, and all his more recent "finds" but confirm the opinion he expressed as to their significance ten years ago. His collection is at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology, at Cambridge, Ma.s.s. (See last Peabody Report.) (50) "Nature," Vol. XI, p. 215.

(51) Ibid.

(52) "Nature," Vol. XI, p. 215.

(53) Ibid.

(54) "Primitive Industry," Abbott, p. 506.