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The long-held notion that America was settled by hunters who had crossed over a frozen Bering Strait during the last Ice Age had seemed implausible to us all along, for it re- quired familiarity with an ice-free, warmer hunting continent thousands of miles away by people who, by definition, had not known of "America." If they did know of such a land, others must have preceded them! This notion, according to which the First Americans came down the Pacific coast and established their first settlement at a North American site called Clovis is now completely discredited, primarily owing to the discovery of much earlier settlements in the eastern parts of North America, and even more so of settlements dating back 20,000, 25,000 and even 30,000 years in South America, both near the Pacific and the Atlantic coasts. This is way before such candidates as Africans or Phoeni- cians (who had certainly been to Mesoamerica) or Vikings (who had probably reached North America); indeed, it is way before the Deluge, and thus in the time frame of the pre- Diluvial descendants of Adam. According to local lore, the arrivals were by sea. The latest estimate, of some 30,000 years ago from Asia via the Pacific Ocean, requires seafaring knowledge at such an early date. This is no longer deemed outlandish by scientists, since it has been established by now that the first settlers in Austra- lia arrived there—by boat—some 37,000 years ago. Australia and the Pacific Islands are now considered logical stepping- stones en route from Asia to the Americas. Rock art by Australian Aborigines includes depictions of boats. So do the rock paintings of Cro-Magnon Man in Eu- rope—as we show in the next chapter. more so THE FIRST AMERICANS