ANTIQUITY OF THE HUMAN RACE 211 



founded conclusions as to the first advent of man 

 upon this planet. While geological clocks are 

 usually the most unreliable of time-pieces, in so 

 far as the conditions of today are often vastly 

 different from those which existed at other peri- 

 ods, yet the uniformity of the Niagara rock 

 makes possible such delightfully picturesque, yet 

 scientifically reliable descriptions as the follow- 

 ing chronological determinations: 



With great confidence we can locate the position of the 

 Falls at different past historical epochs. For example, at the 

 time of the Crusades the cataract was about one-third of the 

 way down to the head of the rapids. When the Falls had 

 receded to the head of the rapids, Rome was being founded 

 and Greece was just entering upon her classical career. When 

 the Falls were at the whirlpool, Israel was just entering Egypt, 

 while the beginning of the Falls at Queenstown occurred only 

 a short time before the building of the great pyramids, and 

 the expedition of Sargon from Babylonia to the shores of the 

 Mediterranean about 3,800 B.C.* 



On this and much other reliable evidence he 

 bases his conclusion certainly not infallible, but 

 as safe as any that science has to offer that the 

 entire glacial epoch, whose period will most help 

 us to ascertain the age of man, did not exceed 

 80,000 years, while the portion of this epoch 

 during which man existed, he concluded: 



"Cannot be less than 10,000, it need not be 

 more than 15,000 years; 8,000 years of historic 



M G. F. Wright, "The Origin and Antiquity of Man" (1912). 



