November 4, 1922J 



NA TURE 



617 



"2. The appearance of atomic moments as integral 

 multiples of the same elementary moment— the mag- 

 neton — is thus one of the important aspects of mag- 

 netic phenomena." 



Altogether a convincing exposition, in spite of 

 Sir Ernest Rutherford's amusing allusion to the 

 fascination which whole numbers have for physicists. 

 A. O. Rankine. 



Man and the Ice Age. 



OF the many discussions which took place during 

 the recent meeting of the British Association 

 at Hull, few are likely, on purely scientific grounds, 

 to prove of more importance than that on the relation 

 of man to the ice age in Britain, in which the sections 

 of geology, geography, and anthropology took part. 

 It cannot be said that any agreement was reached ; 

 but the significance of the discussion lies in the fact 

 that protagonists of different schools of thought in 

 geology were brought face to face, while archaeologists 

 and geographers were able to formulate and lay before 

 them problems for the solution of which they await 

 the assistance of geologists. In considering the 

 problems of the ice age, geologists and archaeologists 

 are dealing with the same material, but each from 

 their special point of view. The result has been a 

 difference in nomenclature and method of classification : 

 the geologist thinks in terms of the deposits ; the 

 archaeologist in terms of the artefacts found in them. 

 Consequently, as Prof. P. F. Kendall pointed out, any 

 discussion between them is likely to come to a dead- 

 lock through disparity of nomenclature. This discus- 

 sion, however, showed that the difficulty is by no 

 means insuperable. 



It was apparent at an early stage in the discussion 

 that there existed a clear-cut difference of opinion as 

 to the method of approach in attacking the problem. 

 Indeed the title of the discussion, in suggesting a 

 restriction of the subject matter to Britain, was 

 a challenge which Prof. W. J. Sollas was not slow to 

 take up, when at the outset he maintained that it 

 was impossible to consider the evidence in Britain 

 apart from conditions on the Continent. Prof. 

 Kendall, on the other hand, held that not merely 

 must consideration be confined to the evidence as it 

 is presented in the British area alone, but that the 

 solution of the problem must be sought in East Anglia 

 in the relation of the northern drift to the chalky 

 boulder clay. On this point, Prof. Kendall's lucid 

 summary of the evidence gave his audience a clear 

 indication of the nature of the problem and of the 

 extent to which the British data may be expected 

 to throw light upon the problem as a whole. . It 

 turns to a great extent upon the view which is taken 

 of the relation of the glacial deposits of Yorkshire 

 to those of East Anglia. The chalky boulder clay 

 of East Anglia was carried down by ice from north 

 of the Wash and the fens. In Yorkshire there is a 

 clear glacial sequence of at least three boulder clays, 

 in the lowest of which is a Scandinavian element. 

 In Prof. Kendall's opinion the hope of correlating 

 the Yorkshire evidence with that of East Anglia is 

 to be found in the Wolds, on the west of which is 

 found the purple clay of Yorkshire, and on the east, 

 the chalky boulder clay. Was it possible, he asked, 

 that the latter might be the purple clay transformed 

 by its passage over the Wolds ? 



The trend of the discussion was to show that the 

 archaeological problem is narrowing down to the 

 question of the relation of the gravels containing 

 Chellean and Acheulean implements to the boulder 

 clay, a definite issue for solution by excavation. At 

 Hoxne, such implementiferous gravels were found to 

 overlie a boulder clay, but the evidence is by no means 

 entirely conclusive and appears to conflict with that 

 from elsewhere. Prof. Boswell had hoped to be in 



NO. 2766, VOL. I io] 



a position to place before the sections the results of 

 excavations undertaken to determine this point, but, 

 unfortunately, they had not been completed in time. 

 On the other hand, Mr. Hazzledine Warren showed 

 himself an uncompromising opponent of anything 

 but a post-glacial date for the palaeolithic gravels, 

 on the ground that they are conformable to the 

 holocene alluvium, a condition which would be im- 

 possible had they been subjected to glacial action. 

 The general disposition appeared to be, however, 

 that further evidence on this clear crucial point must 

 be awaited. On the whole, this would appear to 

 be in agreement with the tendency of the opinions 

 which have been elicited by the British Association 

 Committee appointed at the Cardiff meeting to report 

 on the relation of early types of palaeolithic implements 

 and glacial deposits. Of these some have appeared 

 in Man ; others await publication. 



The interest of archaeologists and geographers, 

 however, is not bounded by the position of man in 

 relation to glacial deposits in this country. They 

 would wish to know how far conditions in this 

 country can be equated with conditions in the 

 Continental area, extending this term to include 

 North Africa, and how far it is possible by geological 

 evidence to link up the palaeolithic cultures of this 

 country with the cultures of these areas. They 

 welcomed, therefore, the opening remarks of the 

 president of the anthropological section, Mr. Peake, 

 in which he referred to the tentative scheme for 

 effecting this which he had put forward, 1 and the 

 pronouncement of Prof. Sollas that the British 

 evidence could not be considered apart from the 

 Continental evidence. Prof. SoUas ably summarised 

 Penck's views, and pointed out how the differences 

 between the French and German geologists might 

 be reconciled — differences however, which did not 

 affect the question of the geological age of man. 

 Penck's four great periods of glaciation in the Eastern 

 Alps could be correlated with the river gravels, while 

 in France glaciation could be brought into relation 

 with raised beaches. As a result of such a correlation, 

 it appeared that the Chellean implements belonged 

 to a warm period, the Riss-Wurm, the Mousterian 

 straddled the Wiirm, and the Aurignacian and later 

 phases of palaeolithic culture were post-Wurm. 



The point of view of the archaeologist and geographer 

 was well put by Prof. H. J. Fleure. The archaeologist 

 in particular has arrived at certain conclusions on 

 purely archaeological evidence, for which he looks to 

 the geologist for confirmation or the reverse. Prof. 

 Fleure pointed out that the three centres of glaciation, 

 Scandinavia, Britain, and the Alps, could not be 

 considered apart. Any change in the distribution 

 of ice in one area was bound to affect the climate 

 and distribution of ice in the others. It was therefore 

 incumbent upon the geologists to produce a scheme 

 applicable to all areas. 



An interesting question to which Prof. Fleure 

 alluded is raised in the relation of the Buhl period, 

 which was marked by a readvance of the ice, to the 

 conditions in Scandinavia described by de Geer. 

 The study of climatic conditions may also be expected 

 to throw light upon the problem. Prof. Fleure 

 pointed out that a constant anticyclone over the 



1 Man, 1922, No. 5. 



