islets. This theory, however, even if it could be absolutely proved,
would not help us to fix the date of the earliest presence of man in
America, still less to say by what route he arrived there.


FIGURE 5

Fort Hill, Ohio.


Certain facts, amongst which I would, in the first place, quote the
discoveries of Dr. Abbott in the alluvial deposits of the Delaware
and those recently announced in Nevada,[45] prove the contemporaneity
of men like ourselves with the great edentate and pachydermatous
mammals, which were the most characteristic creatures of the American
fauna. The prehistoric inhabitants of North America were familiar with
the mastodon, those of South America with the glyptodon, the shell of
which on occasion served as a roof to the dwelling of primeval reran,
which dwelling was often but a den hollowed out of the ground. As in
Europe, the early inhabitants of America had to contend with powerful
mammals and fierce carnivora; and in the West as in the East man made
up in intelligence for his lack of brute force, and however formidable
an animal might be, it was condemned to submit to, or disappear
before, its master. In course of time Sedentary replaced Nomad races;
shell heaps, some of marine, some of riverine and lacustrine species,
but all alike mixed with a great variety of rubbish, were gradually
piled up extending for many miles and covering many acres of ground,
bearing witness to the existence of a population already considerable.