Many
of the rocks had known life, but it was not insect, reptile, bird, beast or
man life; neither did they known anything of grass, flower, shrub or tree
life. In the far-away ages, when they were being deposited deep under the
surface of the Eocene sea, they saw vast monsters floating in the salty
deep, and later, fishes of all sizes, and even great beds of waving
sea-moss and ferns floated back and forth, as the tides ebbed and flowed.
And fishes and ferns, monsters and moss were occasionally caught in the
flowing deposits of lime and sand and silt and clay, and were embedded in
their mass. Thus imprisoned, their otherwise forgotten life and history is
told to the ages of man that were as yet unborn.
Coming of Man. But now the new life is coming! With verdure and animal life
in existence, these hitherto uninhabitable regions became capable of
sustaining human life. And the restless spirit of the human race, wherever
and howsoever it originated, drove bands of men and women into this region.
Who were they? What were they like? Whence did they come? How long did they
stay? Whither did they go? are questions one naturally asks in regard to
these first discoverers and inhabitants. If I were to say "I do not know,"
I would be saying what every other thinking man is compelled to say. Yet
there is pleasure in conjecture.
