e than the final changes of earth and
ocean which made the continents as they are; and, when we remember
this, it is easy to see how mankind could have passed from Asia or
Europe to America. The connection of the land surface of the globe was
different in early times from what it is to-day. Even still, Siberia
and Alaska are separated only by the narrow Bering Strait. From the
shore of Asia the continent of North America is plainly visible; the
islands which lie in and below the strait still look like
stepping-stones from continent to continent. And, apart from this, it
may well have been that farther south, where now is the Pacific ocean,
there was formerly direct land connection between Southern Asia and
South America. The continuous chain of islands that runs from the New
Hebrides across the South Pacific to within two thousand four hundred
miles of the coast of Chile is perhaps the remains of a sunken
continent. In the most easterly of these, Easter Island, have been
found ruined temples and remains of great earthworks on a scale so vast
that to believe them the work of a small community of islanders is
difficult. The fact that they bear some resemblance to the buildings
and works of the ancient inhabitants of Chile and Peru has suggested
that perhaps South America was once merely a part of a great Pacific
continent. Or again, turning to the other side of the continent, it may
be argued with some show of evidence that America and Africa were once
connected by land, and that a sunken continent is to be traced between
Brazil and the Guinea coast.

Nevertheless, it appears to be impossible to say whether or not an
early branch of the human race ever 'migrated' to America. Conceivably
the race may have originated there. Some authorities suppose that the
evolution of mankind occurred at the same time and in the same fashion
in two or more distinct quarters of the globe. Others again think that
mankind evolved and spread over the surface of the world just as did
the various kinds of plants and animals. Of course, the higher
endowment of men enabled them to move with greater ease from place to
place than could beings of lesser faculties. Most writers of to-day,
however, consider this unlikely, and think it more probable that man
originated first in some one region, and spread from it throughout the
earth. But where this region was, they cannot tell. We always think of
the races of Europe as having come westward from some o