Viewing page 17 of 131

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

prehistoric man, acquired from observation, ended with the invasion by Caesar.  So that, while the American goes back no farther than 280 years to study the prehistoric man of his country, and has had him present ever since, the Frenchman, the European, has to go back nigh 2000 years, and his opportunities of personal contact with the prehistoric man ended at that time, if it had not done so before; for it is not at all certain but that the Gaul of that epoch is to be considered as the prehistoric man of that country.  He may have been related to him, possibly his descendant, but it appears certain that the prehistoric bronze age had ended in that country , and the iron age begun, from 400 to 900 years before the advent of Caesar.
I have said this much to show the difference in the respective opportunities for the study of prehistoric man by the Europeans and by the Americans.  The territory of France is about 200,000 square miles; that of the United States is about 3,600,000.  The United States is then