Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 42.djvu/794

772 must take the liberty of saying that it is logically irrelevant. Prof. Haynes is only discussing the "find" in its relation to Tertiary man, which is a totally different topic. The fallacy underlying most of the objections to the Californian relics is the tacit assumption that the glaciation of the lava beds was contemporaneous with that of the Northern States. This is unproved, and probably untrue. Its rejection may remove the chief difficulty.

Once more we must return to the charge. We regret to be obliged to criticise the same critic for another example of illogical reasoning, but, in view of the severity of the attack on Prof. Wright, we feel that the assailants should not and will not object to the counter-thrust.

The story of the Nampa image is now well known. It was told by Prof. Wright, in 1890 and 1891, to the Boston Society of Natural History, and by them published in their Proceedings. The image is a small figure of burnt clay, about one inch and a half long, which is said to have been brought up by the sand-pump from the surface of an old soil at the depth of three hundred and twenty feet below a sheet of lava fifteen feet thick. The "find" was not hastily and superficially examined. A long and careful inquiry and a visit were the means of eliciting the details, and collateral investigation was made into the reputation and antecedents of the informants. All this has been before the world for many months, but no refutation or rebutting testimony has been offered. Yet the following extract will show how contemptuously the investigation is tossed aside:

"Dr. Wright's last example is the feeblest of all—the Nampa image. . . . It is sad to destroy illusions, but when this same image, with its story, was laid before a well-known government geologist, he at once recognized it as a clay toy manufactured by the neighboring Pocatello Indians, and the person displaying it replied, with engaging frankness, 'Well, now, don't give me away.' "

Mark in this connection the fact that not a fragment of counter-evidence is brought. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, to shake the previous testimony. An anonymous letter could hardly be used in a court of law, yet here is not even so much as that. Merely an anonymous statement is brought forward solemnly by one who is supposed to be accustomed to serious investigation as a rebuttal of written and repeated testimony from men of