ds to set forth the grandeur and the resistless sweep of nature's
laws, and to paint the insignificance and trifling nature of man and his
works!

The discoveries in California are not the only instances of the relics
of man and his works found under such circumstances that they are relied
on by some to prove the great age of man in America. But on account of
the rarity of these finds, and the contradictory statements and opinions
respecting them, the scientific world has until lately regarded with
some distrust the assertion of a great antiquity for man on this
continent; but a review of the evidence on this point, and especially
of Dr. Abbott's discoveries in New Jersey, must impress on all the
conclusion that tribes of men were living here at the close of the
Glacial Age, and probably long before that time.

It need occasion no surprise to learn that several of the discoveries of
former years, relied on in this connection, have since been shown to be
unreliable. They have not been able to stand a careful examination at
the hands of later scholars. They were made when European savants were
first communicating to the world the results of the explorations of
the river gravels and caves of that country. The antiquity of man being
amply proven there, may afford some explanation why more discriminating
care was not employed. Of this nature were some of the discoveries in
the valley of the Mississippi; such, for instance, as the portion of
the human skeleton found mingled with the bones of extinct animals a few
miles below Natchez, and the deeply buried skeleton at New Orleans,
in both of which cases a simple explanation is at hand without the
necessity of supposing a great flight of years.

Some of these discoveries yet remain an unsettled point. Such is
the discovery of flint arrow-heads in connection with the bones of a
mastodon found in Missouri. Dr. Koch, who made the discovery, draws from
the facts of the case such a suggestive picture that we will give his
own words. After describing where found, he says: "The greater portion
of these bones had been more or less burned by fire. The fire had
extended but a few feet beyond the space occupied by the animal before
its destruction, and there was more than sufficient evidence that the
fire had not been an accidental one, but, on the contrary, that it had
been kindled by human agency, and, according to all appearance, with the
design of killing the huge creature which had