"There is the record," he said.
"Nix ten thousand years old!" insisted Jimmie.
No one knows how old," Fenton said. "No one has ever been able
to translate the picture talk of the very early inhabitants.
The man who carved those lines might have existed when the
sandy desert out there was under water."
"Speaking of water, let's go on and see where they got their
drinkings," put in Frank Shaw. "I'm nearly choked, and I'll
bet there's a spring about here somewhere."
"Any old time you don't want something to eat or drink!" laughed
Harry. "Well," he added, handing the flashlight to Nestor, "we
may as well go in and see if there is a water system here."
"There surely is," Fenton said. "The people who dug this shelter
out did not work where there was no water. If Nature did not
supply it, they built aqueducts to convey it to locations where
it was wanted. But Professor Agassiz says they lived ten
thousand years ago, so, if they did put in a water system here,
it may be out of commission now."
"How does he know how long ago they lived?" asked Jack.
"By their bones," was the reply. "Near New Orleans, under four
successive forests, one on top of the other, and each showing
traces of having been occupied by man, explorers recently
discovered a human skeleton estimated to be fifty thousand
years old. That fellow must have lived just after the last
glacial epoch."
"I don't believe they know anything about how long ago he lived,"
observed Jimmie.
Pages:
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159