Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1890-07-11
PREGIACIAL MAN.
Ii He Existed de Had Bitterly Cold Time
of it.
Washington Star.

Washington Star.
Mr.. Elmer B. Reynolds. in his lecture at
the Catholic University, on the subject of
'Paleocosmlc Man. referred to the differ
ent schools of opinion founded on recent
discoveries IN prehistoric archaeology re-
spectlng the question of the existence of the
human race upon the earth prior to the
glacial era. He said that several glacial
DRIFT theories have divided the scientific
world According to Agassiz there was
descent OF ice from the poles. f rming a
huge ice cap, which extended from the
Arctic and the Antarctic Seas to within 40
or % degrees of the equator. According
10 some the mass Of ice IN the Northern
hemisphere was quarter of a mile thick,
or, according to more conservative esti
mates about 400 feet on an average.
The men who inhabited the circumpolar
region he'd before the great arctic eruption
and the tremendous field of ice plowed up
the surface of the ground, under which
their rude implements had been strewn.
hlllng up with debris the rivers which it
met IN Its march.
According to third story, preached re-
Gently by well known anthropologist,
man hrst appeared upon the earth not be-
fore. but during the last secular winter,
which Is varlouSly coniected to have lasted
from ten thousand to one hundred thouS-
andyears. The speaker objected to this
on the ground of its discord with what we
would recognize as the eternal fitness of
things" He appealed to the sympathy of
his hearers.
IN BEHALF OF THIS ADAM
bowed down beneath the icy heel of inter
glacial de~rotism. Imagine, if you can,
that the glaciers are now within three de-
grees of our old homestead. the Mesapota-
milan Eden, for such was the case. lmag-
Inc this wretched forefather of ours. hust-
ling about, waist deep in snow. trying to
split kindling wood with a rude stone
Ratchet, that he might have cup of hot
coffee with which to brace himself up be-
fore going out to pillow and SOW his inter
glacial OatS-wlld oats for us TO harvest!
Imagine also that the thermometer regist-
ers 500 degrees below zero and the wooly
mastodon Is frozen as stark as Lto's wife,
II your imagination can wear such sCIen-
tltic seven-league boots as that, you can
d1mly grasp the situation. for it is a mild
ly-drawn chrOmO-lIthOgraph of the inter
glacial Eden"
The lecturer spoke on the discoveries of
DIR. Charles G. Abbott. of Trenton, the
observer of preglacIal remains on this side
of the Atlantic. The first ones discovered
by him were found projecting from an
eroSed bank of the Delaware River, and
| they were subsequently found to be imted-
ded at intervals throughout the entire
mass of the undisturbed riparian terrace
forty-fve feet in depth. These imple-
ments were more or less of uniform size
and shape, closely resembling in both re-
spectS the drift implements of Europe and
Asia. The observations of Mr.. Abbott were
verified by Professor Putnam and other
eminent archaoIogists, and confirmed by
the similar discoveries in the glacial
gravels of Ohio, the terrace gravels of the
Mississippi, and the glacial mud of the
Missouri.
Altogether, Mr. Reynolds said in clos
ing his lecture, the facts would not war
rant one in coming to an absolute conclus-
regarding the existence of preglacial man,
| although he felt warranted in giving a
conservative and provisional adhesion to
the affirmative side Of the question