And, from what can be learned from the relics of man’s prehistoric life, it seems to point to the lands of the tropical latitudes as having been his home during the frigid ages; and, because of his long undisturbed residence in favored portions of the tropics, he there attained his earliest civilization. For it appears that the tropical zone was not only less burdened with ice in glacial times than the higher latitudes of the globe, but was also more exempt from the great flooding of lands which obtained in the more northern latitudes through the shifting of the ocean waters, from causes set forth in the preceding pages. Yet it may be said that the low lands of the tropical zone south of the equator during cold epochs were much more extensive than at this age, on account of the shrinkage of the sea, because of the great amount of water evaporated from its surface, and stored in ice-sheets on the great continents and islands. Hence the reefs and shallows which surround such tropical islands as include the Seychelles Archipelago, and also the extensive banks covered with shoal water in that portion of the Indian Ocean, were during the glacial period elevated above the surface of the sea, possessing a climate favorable for vegetable and animal life. But, owing to the great rain-fall of that region, it is probable that the highest lands were glaciated, as it is reported that granite bowlders still rest on the mountain slopes of the highest island. The numerous islands and shoals of the south-western tropical Pacific must also have afforded wide land areas, with a temperate climate, owing to their having been situated on one of the warmest regions of the earth during the ice age. Moreover, it is probable that these tropical lands afforded space for numerous lagoons which had little connection with the surrounding oceans, and consequently were able to maintain, in their secluded shallow basins, a warmer temperature than obtained in the open seas; and at the same time, owing to the great rainfall in such tropical portions of the Indian and Pacific regions, the waters of the lagoons were rendered less salt than the briny depths of the shrunken oceans of a cold period. Hence because of such conditions the fauna of the tropical seas were preserved from the destructive rigor which beset the earth during the frigid epochs. Transcriber’s Notes Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they were not changed. Simple typographical errors were corrected; unbalanced quotation marks were remedied when the change was obvious, and otherwise left unbalanced. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Coming Ice Age, by C. A. M. Taber