THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN 199 



generally, and neglecting for the moment the 

 oscillations in temperature which will subse- 

 quently be dealt with, the lower edge of the ice 

 may, in the words of Sollas, be described in Europe 

 as stretching from Kerry to Wexford, and through 

 the Bristol Channel to London, where it crosses 

 the sea and continues its course through Ant- 

 werp, past Magdeburg, Cracow, Kiev, runs 

 south of Moscow to Kazan, and then terminates 

 at the southern end of the Ural mountains. All 

 that lies to the north of the line in question, that 

 is, the greater part of the British Isles, Northern 

 Germany, Scandinavia, and almost the whole of 

 European Russia, was buried out of sight ben- 

 neath a mantle of ice formed by the confluence 

 of many colossal glaciers (p. n). The area thus 

 covered was not less than two million square 

 miles and the average depth of the ice seems to 

 have been fully one mile (Wright, G. F., p. 

 162). As to North America, the great terminal 

 moraine which marks the southern boundary of 

 the ice can be traced with occasional interrup- 

 tions from Nantucket, through Long Island, 

 past New York, towards the western extremity 

 of Lake Erie ; then along a sinuous course in the 

 same direction as the Ohio, down to its con- 

 fluence with the Mississippi ; then it follows the 

 Missouri as far as Kansas City, and beyond runs 

 approximately parallel to that river, but south of 

 it, through Nebraska, Dakota and Montana, and 

 Washington, where it meets the coast north of 

 Columbia river. Within this boundary nearly 

 half of North America was buried beneath a 



