Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 62.djvu/479

Rh As to the character of the remains themselves, both Dr. Hrdlicka and Dr. Dorsey, to whom may confidently be left the final decision, assert that they are of modern type, and might well belong to an Indian inhabiting the plains region within quite recent times, so far as anthropological evidence goes. Nor does this verdict as to the character of the remains have much to do with either of the views presented. It is certainly not improbable that the widespread races of American Indians date back for thousands of years in their history. Mr. Upham's estimate of the time since the death of the Lansing man is about twelve thousand years, a not unreasonable time for the evolution of the American Indian.

Evidences of the high antiquity of man in America have hitherto been wanting, or doubtful, and the Lansing man, whichever age is assigned to him, can claim but little greater age than might be given him from à priori reasoning. One must frankly admit that proofs of man's contemporaneity with the many extinct animals of the pleistocene times in North America have been few, and perhaps in some cases doubtful. But, that man has existed with some of the large extinct animals of North America, the present writer, in company with other vertebrate paleontologists, believes. But this belief does not carry with it, necessarily, a belief in any very great antiquity. It seems very probable that some of these large animals, such as the elephant, mastodon and certain species of bison, have lived on this continent within comparatively recent times.

Furthermore, if the evidences of the commingling of human and extinct animal remains in South America are to be accepted, and such evidences seem almost beyond dispute, it must necessarily follow that man has existed on our own continent for a yet longer time, since there could have been no other way for him to reach the southern continent than through the Isthmus of Panama. In additional support of the evidence of man's high antiquity in South America, I am permitted to quote the following from a recent letter by Professor W. B. Scott, the distinguished paleontologist of Princeton University, who has recently spent some time in those regions in the study of the extinct vertebrate fauna: "I am convinced, from personal examination, that man existed in South America contemporaneously with the great, extinct mammals. To be more explicit, human remains have been found in the Pampean beds in association with large numbers of extinct mammalian genera." Is it not reasonable to suppose that we must seek for the earliest indications of man's habitation on our continent in the Pacific regions?