The Prehistoric World; Or, Vanished RacesAllen, Emory Adams
History
The Prehistoric World; Or, Vanished Races
Allen, Emory Adams
Archaeology; Indians; Prehistoric peoples
Interest in the Antiquity of man—Connected with the Glacial
Age—The Subject Difficult—Proofs of a Glacial Age—State of
Greenland to-day—The Terminal Moraine—Appearance of the North
Atlantic—Interglacial Age—Causes of the Glacial Age—Croll’s
Theory—Geographical causes—The two theories not Antagonistic—The
date of the Glacial Age—Probable length of the Paleolithic
Age—Time since the close of the Glacial Age—Summary of results.
As we have already remarked, geological periods give us no
insight as to the actual passage of years. To say that man lived
in the Glacial Age, and that we have some faint traces of his
presence in still earlier periods, after all conveys to our minds
only vague ideas of a far-away time. The more a geologist studies
the structure of the earth, the more impressed is he with the
magnitude of the time that must have passed since “The
Beginning.” At present, however, there are no means known of
accurately measuring the time that has passed. It is just as well
that it is so, since, were it known, the human mind would be
utterly incapable of comprehending it. But as to the antiquity of
man, it is but natural that we should seek more particularly to
solve the problem and express our answer in some term of years.
Now, we have seen that the question of the antiquity of man is
intimately connected with that of the Glacial Age. That is to
say, the relics of man as far as we know them in Europe, are
found under such circumstances that we feel confident they are
not far removed from the period of cold. For it will be found
that those conservative scholars who do not think that man
preceded the Glacial Age, or inhabited Europe during the long
course of years included in that period, do think he came into
Europe as soon as it passed away. So, in any case, if we can
determine the date of the Glacial Age, we shall have made a most
important step in advance in solving the problem of the antiquity
of man himself. So it seems to us best to go over the subject of
the Glacial Age again, and see what conclusions some of our best
thinkers have come to as to its cause, when it occurred, and
other matters in relation to it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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