PREHISTORIC RACE TRACED.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18073, 15 May 1924, Page 11

PREHISTORIC RACE TRACED.

AMERICAN DISCOVERIES.

(TOOK OUR OWH COXUBSFOXSBST.) SAN FRANCISCO, April 7. ; That a race of thinking men, with some degree of civilisation, lived and died in America thousands of years before even the ape-man made his appearance in Europe, Java, and elsewhore was the deduction drawn by prominent geologists and paleontologists from a number of skulls and skeletons discovered in the closing days of March in the Mesa pit, near Los Angeles, Southern California. Dr. Chester Stock, of the University of California, who was superintending the search in a chance excavation made by sewer builders, said: "The race of men to which these human remains belonged apparently dates back tens of thousands of years." Dr. Robert Thomas Hill, nationally known geologist of Washington and Los Angeles, supported Dr. Stock statement with the following: "This is a tremendous find. The geological formation in which these bones were discovered apparently gives them an antiquity far greater than that of any human remains previously unearthed in Europe or elsewhere." Further bones were discovered, and superficial examination indicated that the find will develop to be that of three men and one woman, although a careful examination after cleaning of the petrified bones and their "repairment" will be necessary to determine this precisely, said the first report issued on the geological find. It was declared these men were a race of stalwart proportions, probably more than six feet tall, as indicated by the largest, which also appeared to be the most complete skeleton. They will be known as the "men of the Eancho Cunajo O'Paso de la Tigressa," or the "men of the- Cunajo or Tigress Pass Ranch," a name given by early Spanish settlers to the parcel of ground which covered the discovery.

Prehistoric Tragedy. The fossils reclaimed from the original mica clay in which they were interred indicated a prehistoric tragedy of the Pass of the Tigress, probably an entrapment in quicksands faces were set to the northward, the bodies in upright position, save the legs which were crumpled under the torso, and the arms we're outstretched or stretched backward. An important discovery the excavations was ad upper jawbone containing one large molar tooth and with the last molar, or "wisdom tooth," retarded. Some retarding, or under-develdp-inent of the last molar, is a characteristic only of advanced or somewhat civilised man, according to the experts, aub-men and anthropoid apes haive fully developed molars, they declared. A few days later more skeletons were unearthed until'five prehistoric human frames • were recovered from the Rancho Cunajo pit, and while scientists continued sifting the age-old quicksands, now buried beneath twentythree feet of sedimentary strata, where these and perhaps other members of a long extinct race were believed to have met death, the experts stated their conviction that the burials must have occurred tens of thousands of years agd.-''.,'. J:'.' .'.'■" '.'. - :'■'';■ .''■■, iv-:: .- ',..'■•'-

The treacherous sands, said by geologists to date back to the Pleistocene era, may have entrapped a great number of these primordial • Southern Calilornians. A new conception of the antiquity of man on the Western Hemisphere was established-by this interesting discovery- and, according to Dr. Clark Wisslery curator of anthropology in; the American Museum of .Natural History, the high standing of Robert T. Hill gives complete authenticity .to Mr Hill's substantiation of the find. "Instead of a new-comer on this.continent, man has undoubtedly . lived, fought and died here for, at Jeast 25,W0 years," Dr. Wissler said in New York. ''The 'Trenton man' bones previously proved to 'us that human beings were living, just after the loe Age, within 1(H) miles of New York, ■, on the banks of the- icy /stream that flowed from the receHing glaciers. But this California discovery is pur first proof that man lived in this country during, and perhaps before, the glaciers." Mr Hill authenticated the find in a telegram received by Henry Fairfield Osborn, President of tho Museum, which read: -"Human remains found here completely fossilised. Occur twenty-five feet deep in stratified ma> terial of old, recent or latest Pleistocene Ago. No possibility of intrusion, or confusion with outwash of Santa Barbara occurrence. Consider , most unquestionable ancient occurrence yet reported." New York scientists took such a deep interest in the California n discovery that they immediately dispatched Mr W. D. Matthews, of the Museum staff, to Los Angeles to study the fossils, exhaustively. The restoration of the skulls and skeletons will involve untold labour, as the different fragments must be fitted together with scrupulous accuracy, modelling clay being used for portions that are missing. Great importance attaches to the restoration of the crania, as the form of the specimens will determine to a large extent the race to which they belong,