introduced among the remains of the other animals mentioned; and
this supposition I deem highly probable, although the bone does
present the same appearance as the others with which it was found.1
We cannot, however, positively deny that it was contemporaneous
with those of the extinct animals.
When America was discovered by Europeans it was thickly popu-
lated by a race of man, which appears already to have existed for
many ages, and it is quite as probable that he had his origin on this
continent as that men originated elsewhere;3 and further, it is
probable that the Red-man witnessed the declining existence of
the Mastodon and Megalonyx, in the later ages of the glacial
period. '
The early existence of the genera to which our domestic animals
belong, has been adduced as presumptive evidence of the advent of
rna.n at a more remote period than is usually assigned. It must be
remembered, however, even at the present time, that of some of
these genera only a few species are domesticated: thus of the existing
six species of Equus, only two have ever been freely brought
under the dominion of man.
The horse did not exist in America at the time of its discovery by
Europeans; but its remains, consisting chiefly of molar teeth, have
now been so frequently found in association with those of extinct
animals, that it is generally admitted once to have been an aboriginal
inhabitant. When I first saw examples of these remains I was
not disposed to view them as relics of an extinct species, for
1 Bones of recent animals, -when introduced into older deposits, may in many cases very
soon assume the condition of the fossils belonging te-those deposits. Fossilisation, petrifaction,
or lapidification, is no positive indication of the relative age of organic remains.
The miocene vertebrate remains of the Himalayas are far more completely fossilised than
the like remains of the eocene deposits of the Paris basin; and the remains of the tertiary
vertebrata of Nebraska are more fossilized than those of the secondary deposits beneath.
The Cabinet of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia contains bones of the
Megalonyx and of the extinct peccary, that are entirely unohanged; not a particle of gelatin
has been lost, nor a particle of mineral matter added, and indeed some of the bones of the
former even have portions of articular cartilage and tendinous attachments -well preserved.
2 It is not at all improbable that man (strictly the genus Homo) may have first originated
in central Asia. When we reflect upon the gradual advance in intelligence in the scale of
living beings, through successive geological periods, may we not infer that the apparently
earlier civilization of the human race in Asia is indicative of its earliest advent in that
portion of the world ? Various races of man, in different geographical positions, may have
acquired their peculiar characteristics (their specific origin) at successive periods long distant
from each other. Perhaps when the aboriginal progenitors of the civilized Mexicans
and Peruvians roamed as savage hordes through intertropical America, the great Arctic
Ocean yet concealed the present northern United States in its depths, and Asiatic civilization
was then just dawning from ages of night.
although some presented characteristic differences from those of previously
known species, others were undistinguishable from the corresponding
parts of the domestic horse, and among them were
intermediate varieties of form and size. The subsequent discovery
of the remains of two species of the closely allied extinct genus
Hipparion, in addition to the discovery of remains of two extinct
equine genera (Anchitherium and Merychippus) of an earlier geological
period, leaves no room to doubt the former existence of the
horse on the American continent, contemporaneously with the Mastodon
and Megalonyx; and man probably was his companion.
Some time since, Prof. E. S. H o lm e s , of Charleston, submitted
for my examination a collection of fossil bones from a post-pleiocene
deposit on Ashley River, S. C. Among remains of the extinct horse,
the peccary, Mylodon, Megatherium, Mastodon, Hipparion, the tapir,
the capybara, the beaver, the musk-rat, &c., were some which I considered
as belonging to the dog, the domestic ox, the sheep and the
hog. Prof. Holmes observes that these remains were taken from an
extensive deposit, in which similar ones exist abundantly; and he
further adds, that he cannot conceive that the latter should have
become mingled with the former since the introduction of domestic
animals into America by Europeans. It is not improbable that the
American continent once had, as part of its fauna, representatives
of our domestic animals which subsequently became extinct.—though
I am inclined to doubt i t ; but what we have learned of the extinct
American horse will lead me carefully to investigate the subject.
My letter is much extended heyond what I designed, but I hope its
facts and suggestions will have sufficient interest with you to relieve
its tediousness.
I remain with respect,
at your further service,
J ose ph L e id y .
M r . P u l s z k y (infra, Chapter H . , p. 109) has referred to D r . H o t t ’s
experienced consideration some very interesting points of Egyptian
ethnology, based upon fresher discoveries than any with which we
were acquainted on the publication of our last work in 1854. I
have no wish to interfere with the latter’s specialty of research, in
which I trust the future may rank me also among the taught: but,
taking for granted that the reader can verify accuracy in Egyptological
works (abundantly cited in this as in our preceding publication),
I may here sketch some archaeological facts as preliminary
headings for my colleague’s elaboration hereafter, — being general
results in which he and myself coincide.