198 THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN 



he will not hesitate to accept the wildest of state- 

 ments and to put them forward as if they were 

 indisputable truths. Meantime the real authori- 

 ties on the subject are admittedly groping their 

 way, full of uncertainty, and amidst the most 

 difficult and conflicting facts and theories. 



The books set down at the head of this review 

 represent the work of authorities of the first 

 class : let us see how far they agree and to what 

 extent we may consider the questions with which 

 they are concerned as in any way settled. We 

 may start with the fact, undisputed to-day, that 

 there was an Ice Age or Glacial Period, which 

 occupied that era of Geological time called 

 Pleistocene. As to what caused that condition of 

 affairs men of science are not in any kind of agree- 

 ment, and as the questions involved in a dis- 

 cussion on that point involve a knowledge of 

 physics and of astronomy which the present 

 writer does not possess, no attempt will be made 

 to deal with this matter. Nor is it in any way 

 necessary for the purposes of this paper once 

 more to recapitulate the evidence upon which 

 our belief in the existence of an Ice Age depends, 

 nor to describe the familiar objects which exist 

 to-day to bear witness to its work. 



During this period a vast area of Europe and 

 North America, not to speak of other parts of 

 the earth which do not come into consideration 

 in this paper, were covered by a sheet of ice, as 

 to the extent and thickness of which there is 

 little difference of opinion amongst those who 

 have given attention to the question. Speaking 



