ave done so, it would surely have been detected in other
instances. The variety and explicitness of the testimony brought forward
makes all such supposition improbable.<18>

It is best, in this matter, to hold the judgment in suspense. We have
stated Mr. Whitney's position, and the objections that have been raised
to it. The amount of thought bestowed on the antiquity of man will
doubtless soon clear up the whole matter. We can not do better than to
consider his surroundings, supposing that he was really present. The
country must have been very different from the California of to-day.
Dr. Cooper says, "The country consisted of peninsulas and islands, like
those of the present East Indies; resembling them also in climate and
productions."<19> The probabilities are that to the west and southwest
of California, instead of watery expanse of the Pacific, only broken
here and there by an ever-verdant islet, there was either a continental
expanse of land or, at any rate, a vast archipelago. We know that over a
large part of the Northern Pacific area the land has sunk not less than
six thousand feet since late Tertiary times.<20>

We are certain the ocean area must have presented a vastly different
aspect before that depression commenced. It is not unreasonable to
suppose that communication between North America and Asia was much
easier than in subsequent epochs. It might have been an easy matter for
man to pass back and forth without losing sight of land. It is therefore
reasonable to suppose that if Pliocene man was in existence, he would
have occupied both sides of the Pacific at this early time.<21> These
last conclusions are very important ones to reach, and as there is
reasonable foundation for them, we must bear them in mind in the
subsequent pages.

It will be remembered that the races of men who inhabited Europe in the
Paleolithic Age had only very rudely formed, unpolished implements. It
is not until we arrive at the Neolithic stage of culture that we meet
with specimens of polished stone implements. To judge from the specimens
of early Californian art, the beautifully polished pestles, beads,
plummets or sinkers, spear-heads, etc., Pliocene man in California
must have been in the Neolithic stage of culture. Though they were
not acquainted with the potter's art, yet from their skill in working
vessels of stone, they had undoubtedly passed entirely through Savagism,
and had entered the confines of Barbarism,<22> as f