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Show XVl PREFATORY REMARKS. Dn. NoT'r AND Mn.. GLTDDON, PmLADI~Ll'HIA, Feb. lOth, 1857. Dear Sit'S :-You hA.vc Crcq ncntly expressed tl1o desire that I should give to you a Chapter on some ethnographic snl\icct: which I wo~ld gladly ltavc done had I made Etbnograpl1y an espccutl study .. AiLor tho dcatl1 of D1t. M on:roN, it was proposed to me to take up tho Investigation of tho cranial characteristics of the hnman races, where he had left it, which I omitted, not from a want of intcrc tin ctlwographic science, but b cause other studies occupied my time. Having, as curator of tho Academy of N aLuraL Sciences th charge of Dr. Morton's oxtcnf:!i.vo cabinet of human crania, I confided the undertaking to Dn. Munos, who has shown his capability for investigating tho i.nkicato subject of Btlmog-raphy in the excellent Chapter he pr sents as a contribution to your work. 'l'o the paper of Dr. Meigs it was proposcu that I should add notes; but after a diligent perusal it appeared to me so complete, that I think 1 could uot add MyLhing to cnlumco its value. While ngaged in palroontological researches, I sought for eadicr rec01·ds of the aboriginal races of man than have reached us through va,guo traditions or through later authentic history, but without u 'ins ahlo to discover auy positive ovid noes of tho exact g ological period of tl1e advent of man in the fauna of tho earth. The JIUtncrous facts which have boon br ught to our notice tou ·hing th discovery of human bon s, and rude implem llts of art, in association with the remains of animals of the earlier pliocene deposits, are not conclusive evidence of their contemporaneous existence. It is not from the land of their birth, and upon which they moved anti died, that we learn the history of lost races of tcncstl'ial animals; it is in the beds of lakes and inland seas, ancl in the deltas of rivers, at the boundaries of their habitation. In reflecting upon the p1·cscnt condition of the habitable earth, with its teeming population and tho rapid succcsf:!ion of births and deaths, we might be led to suppose the surface of the earth had become thickly strewn with the remains of aninuds. It is, however, no less true than astonishing, that, with comparatively trifling exceptions, the r mains of each generation of animals ar completely obliterated. Penetrate the forests, traverse tl1c prairies, and explore the mountain chains and valleys of America, and seck for the bones of tho generations of red-men, of tho herds of bison, and of other animals, which have lived and died in past ages. Neither upon nor beneath the surface of the earth are they to be I I • PREFATORY REMARKS. xvii found; for devouring successors, and the combined iu:B.ucnce of air and moisture, have completely extinguished their traces. An occasional swollen carcase, borne by a river current, and escaping the jaws of crocodiles and fishes, leaves its remains in the bed of a lake, or in a delta, to represent in futuro time the era of its existence. Since tho Glacial Period, or rather since the subsequent emergence of the northern zones of America and Europe from tho Groat Arctic Ocean, the general configuration of the continents has remained nearly unchanged down to the present time. In consequence of this circumstance the deposits or geological formations in which we could most advantageously study the earliest traces of primitive man, arc, in tho greatest degree, inaccessible to our investigations. These deposits arc the beds of modern lakes and inland seas, and fluviatile accumulations or deltas. Marshes, in many instances, have served as tho depository of the larger quadrupeds, which have perished in tho mire; but these are places in which tho remains of man would be rarely found, because they arc natmally avoided. Coeval, perhaps, with the Glacial Period of tho north om hemisphere, which at the present time exhibits its similitude in the Great Antarctic Ocean, primitive races of man may have already inhabited the intertropical regions; and in the gradual emergence of the northern zones of the earth he may have followed tho receding waters-traditions of which, in after ages, when conjoined with the view of the accumnlA.tions of drift material, may have given rise to tho idea of a universal deluge, which appears to have prevailed among the aborigines of the western as well as of tltc eastern world. No satisfactory ovid one has been adduced in favor of this early appearance of man ; uut I am strongly inclined to suspect that such evidence will yet be discovered. Many animals, which we may inf< r to have existed in association with the Mastodon and M cgalonyx, have so tlloroughly disappeared from the face of nature that no trace of them is to be discovered. Ncar Natchez, Mississippi, there have boon found together in the same deposit, the remains of the Elephant, MA.stodon, Mylodon, Mcgalonyx, Ereptodon, Bison, Corvus, EqtmA, Ursus, Canis, the lower jaw of a lion, aud the hip bono of a man. All tho bones are infiltrated with peroxide of iron, and present tl1c same appearance. 'l'he lower jaw of the lion, the type of the Felis at1·ox, is tbe only relic of the species yet dif:!covcrecl, though tho animal most probably at one period ranged America as freely and for as long a time as its present congener of Africa and Asia. The human hip-bone alluded to, has boon supposed by ir Chat'lcsJ.ycll to have been subsequently 2 |
