2H'2 THE ICK A(iK IN CANADA. 



present, accompanied with a marked amelicn-ation of 

 climate, connectad, perhai)s, with the narruwin*,' of those 

 northern channels which supply drift ice to the north 

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

 In this respect eastern America corresponded with Europe, 

 and a similar niannnalian fauna oversjnead both sides of 

 the Atlantic. In this "Second (V)ntinental " period, as it 

 has been called, man certainly ai)])eared in Europe, and 

 not improbalily in America, Lhou^■h this may as yet be 

 rei^arded ds uncertain. 



Every reader of the scientific journals of the United 

 States Huist be aware of the numerous finds of "pal;eo- 

 lithic " ini[)lements in " L,dacial " gravels. I have 

 endeavoured to show, in a work })ublished several years 

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

 discoveries, and how nnich such of the " pahcoliths " as 

 appear to be the work of man resemble the rougher tools 

 and rejectamenta of the modern Indian.s. ]^ut since the 

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

 have been recorded, that, despite their individual impro- 

 bability, one was almost overwlielmed l>y the coincidence 

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

 been given to the (luestion by Mr. ^T. H. Holmes, of the 

 American (leological Survey, who has published his 

 observations in the A)iierica)i Journal of Ant hrojwiot/t/ and 

 elsewhcre.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 " paljcolithic," implements to stock all the 



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

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



