Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-06-05
MAN OF THE ICE AGE.
The Suferines OF the ~InterGIacial
Adam-was He q Myth?

-
Mr.. Elmer r Reynolds, in his lecture at the
Catholic University yesterday afternoon on the
subject Of 'Palsocosmic man" referred TO the
different schools OF opinion founded on recent
discoveries in prehistoric archaeology respect
ing the question Of the existence of the human
race upon tho earth prior 70 the glacial era.
He said that several glacial drift theories have
divided the scientific world. According to
Agasiz there was q descent OF ice from the
poles, forming q huge ice cap, which extended
from the Arctic and the Antarctic seas to within
40 or 50 degrees of the equator. According 20
some the mass Of ice In the northern hemis-
phere was q quarter Of q mile thick, or. accord
feet on An average.
The men who inhabited the ~circumpolar re-
gions fed before the great arctic eruption and
the tremendous field Of ice ploughed up the
surface o. the ground, upon which their rude
implements had been strewn. filing up Will
the debris the rivers which il met in its march.
The second glacial theory. that OF Sir J. Daw-
son, Is that the northern hemisphere was de-
pressed so abnormally as to form a continental
basin, something like that formed at present
By the Sahara desert. This basin was then
filled by the adjacent ocean, and icebergs then.
as now, were carried toward the tropics by the
arctic currents, and these produced the mounds
and terraces of gravel and other indications Of
glacial action. This sea is considered 20 have
been 1000 feet deep and covered nearly all of
Europe. Man, of course. could not have ex-
isted under such circumstance.
AN ISTERGLAcIAL EDEN.
According to Q third theory, broached re-
ce nifty by a well-known an~thropologist. man
first appeared upon the earth not before but
during the last great secular winter, which is
variously conjectured TO have lasted from ten
thousand TO enc hundred thousand years. The
.aoEA- alsantaI - tA,. -. Il - -
discord with what We would recognize as 1.-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 ~despotism. Imagine. if you can. that
the glaciers are now within three degrees Of
our old homestead, the Mesapotamian Eden.
for such was the case. Imagine this wretched
forefather OF ours hustling about. waist deep in
snow, trying to split kindling wood with a rude
stone Ratchet. that he might have a cup of hot
coffee with which TO brace himself up before
going out to pillow and SOW his int rglacial
oats-wild oats for us TO harvest Imagine also
that the thermometer registers 500 degrees be-
low zero and the woolly mastodon is frozen as
stark as Lots wife! II your imagination can
wear such scientific seveneleague boots as that,
you can dimly grasp the situation, for it is a
mildly drawn chromo-lithograph of the inter-
glacial Eden"
PREGLAcIAL REMAINS IN AMERICA.
~ bPNhO "a thV VI NE
Charles G.. Abbott Of Trenton. the first OBJ
server of preglacial remains on this side of the
Atlantic. The first ones discovered by him
were found projecting from an eroded bank of
the Delaware river, and they were subsequently,
found to be Embedded at intervals throughout
the entire mass Of the undisturbed riparian
terrace forty-ive feet in depth. These imple-
ments were more or less of uniform size and
shape, closely resembling in both respects the
drift implements of Europe and Asia. The OBJ
seryations Of DIR. Abbott were verified by Prof.
Putnam and other eminent archeologists, and
confirmed by the similar discoveries in the
glacial gravels of Ohio, the terrace gravels of
the Mississippi and the glacial mud of the Mis-
souri,.
Altogether, Mr.. Reynolds said in closing his
lecture, the facts would not warrant one in
coming to an absolute conclusion regarding the
existence of preglacial man, although he felt
warranted in giving a conservative and pro-
visional adhesion to the affirmative side of the
question.
MIR. Reynolds will lecture next Wednesday on
the prehistoric Mortuary Remains Of Mary
land and Virginia."