282 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 



present, accompanied with a marked amelioration of 

 climate, connected, perhaps, with the narrowing of those 

 northern channels which supply drift ice to the north 

 Atlantic, and with a wider heating-surface of low land. 

 In this respect eastern America corresponded with Europe, 

 and a similar mammalian fauna overspread both sides of 

 the Atlantic. In this " Second Continental " period, as it 

 has been called, man certainly appeared in Europe, and 

 not improbably in America, though this may as yet be 

 regarded as uncertain. 



Every reader of the scientific journals of the United 

 States must be aware of the numerous finds of '' pala^o- 

 lithic " implements in " glacial " gravels. I have 

 endeavoured to show, in a work published several years 

 ago,* how much doubt attaches to the reports of these 

 discoveries, and how much such of the " paheoliths " as 

 appear to be the work of man resemble the rougher tools 

 and rejectamenta of the modern Indians. But since the 

 publication of that work, so great a number of " finds " 

 have been recorded, that, despite their individual impro- 

 bability, one was almost overwhelmed by the coincidence 

 of so many witnesses. Now, however, a new aspect has 

 been given to the question by Mr. W. H. Holmes, of the 

 American Geological Survey, who has published liis 

 observations in the Ainericmi Journal of Anthropology and 

 else where. f 



One of the most widely known examples was that of 

 Trenton on the Delaware, where there was a bed of gravel 

 alleged to be Pleistocene, and which seemed to contain 

 enough of " palaeolithic," implements to stock all the 



* " Fossil Men," Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1880. 

 t Science, Nov., 1892. Journal of Oeology, 1893. 



