The lost Atlantis, and other ethnographic studiesWilson, Daniel, Sir
History
The lost Atlantis, and other ethnographic studies
Wilson, Daniel, Sir
America -- Antiquities; Atlantis (Legendary place); Ethnology -- America; Indians of North America -- Antiquities
America was indeed little behind Europe in the earlier stages of cavern
research. A cabinet of the British Museum is filled with fossil bones
obtained by Dr. Lund and M. Claussen from limestone caverns in Brazil,
embedded in a reddish-coloured loam, under a thick stalagmitic flooring,
and including, along with remains of genera still inhabiting the
American continent, those of extinct monkeys. Human bones were also
found in the same caves, but superficially, and seemingly of the present
Indian race. But a fresh interest and significance have been given to
such researches by the novel aspect of prehistoric archæology in Europe.
The relations now established between the earliest traces of European
man and the geological aspects of the great Drift formation, have
naturally led to the diligent examination of corresponding deposits of
the continent of America, in the hope of recovering similar traces
there. Until recently, however, any supposed examples of American
palæolithic art have been isolated and unsatisfactory. Colonel Charles
C. Jones, in his _Antiquities of the Southern Indians_, notes the
discovery in the Nacoochee valley, in the State of Georgia, of flint
implements from the gravel and boulders of the drift, and in material,
manner of construction, and appearance closely resembling the rough
hatchets belonging to the Drift type. Other more or less trustworthy
examples of a like kind have been reported; among which may be noted a
large specimen, now in the collection of the Society of Antiquaries of
Scotland, found at Lewiston, in the State of New York, at a great depth,
when sinking a well. Implements of neolithic character, and even of
modern type, have been produced, not only from Kansas and California
gold-diggings, but from the volcanic tufa of the Pacific coast, overlaid
by repeated volcanic deposits. In a terrace of modified drift, near
Little Falls, Minnesota, an accumulation of quartz chips have been
found; the supposed refuse of an ancient workshop. More definitely,
Professor Aughey reports the discovery of rudely chipped flint arrow
heads in the loess of the Missouri valley, beneath the bones of the
mastodon; and the loess gravels of Ohio and Indiana, belonging
unquestionably to the last glacial age, have disclosed what seem to be
genuine palæoliths, pointing to the presence of the rational tool-maker
during the close of the quaternary epoch of the North American
continent.
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