l8 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL.83 



lems than 1 had l)y reading. Being much interested in cooperation between 

 geology and anthropology, I wish to give some data on the present stand of the 

 absolute clay geochronology. The stand in 1925 is treated in Geographical 

 Review. Vol. 15, 1925, PP- 280-284. 

 What is known in Europe is briefly this : 



1. Tlie retreat of the last ice sheet from northeastern Scania, the southern- 

 most province of Sweden, to Stugun in northern Sweden (63° N.) took some- 

 what more than 4,000 years. The material as a whole is not yet published. The 

 time may be tolerably correct. — De Geer and Sauramo. 



2. When the ice edge had reached Stugun the ice rest split in two parts, and 

 this event initiates postglacial age in Scandinavia. Postglacial age began about 

 8,700 years ago. The material is not published. The figure may be practically 

 correct. — Liden. 



The absolute geochronology in Europe thus takes us more than 4,000 plus 

 8,700 years back in time, say 13.000 years. 



In "On the Solar Curve" (Geograf. Annaler, Stockholm, 1926) and else- 

 where Baron De Geer has attempted to extend the European geochronology 

 farther back by correlating varves in Denmark with such in southern Scania. 

 The correlations, however, have no justification, being clearly contradicted by 

 well-known conditions (see for instance Milthers in Geogr. Annaler, Vol. 9, 

 1927, p. 162). The dating of the Baltic moraine in northern Germany at 18,000 

 years before our time is only a guess. The correlation of this moraine with the 

 ice edge in Scania is disproven in Denmark. 



The release from the ice of northern Germany and the Danish Islands was a 

 very slow affair, as indicated by many morainic lines and readvances of the 

 ice border (most recent summary in my "The Last Glaciation," p. 155J. 



Varve correlations between North America and North Europe will perhaps 

 never be possible, since the first condition is lacking, viz., knowledge that the 

 summer temperature underwent the same yearly variations in the two areas. 

 The transatlantic varve correlations made by De Geer ("On the Solar Curve" 

 and elsewhere) betray a regrettable ignorance of the geology of North America 

 and disregard for the work done here, besides violating the main principles of 

 varve correlations. 



An attempt at correlating the major climatic late Quaternary fluctuations in 

 the main areas of glaciation is made in my Canadian Geol. Survey Mem., 146, 

 1925, and in the last glaciation. 



On the basis of De Geer's, Sauramo's, and Liden's clay studies in Sweden and 

 Finland and my own in North America, on the estimates based on the Niagara 

 Falls and on my transatlantic correlation I am inclined to place tlie climax c)f 

 the last glaciation some 40,000 years back ("The Last Glaciation," p. 168). 

 However, since a restudy of parts of the Niagara gorge (by W. A. Johnston — 

 not yet published) tend to show that it represents shorter time than previously 

 supposed, this figure will perhaps prove to be too large. The maximum of the 

 last glaciation lies perhaps some 35,000 years back in time. 



Very sincerely yours, 



Ernst Antevs. 



