80 Revietcs — Geological Survey of Canada. 



Boulder-clay. He fails to find any satisfactory explanation of the 

 occurrence of Scandinavian boulders in our drift, and he tells us that 

 Sir Henry Howorth has abandoned the notion that such stones were 

 brought as ballast by the Vikings. Yet he uses most inconsiderate and 

 exaggerated language when i-eferring to the work and views of men 

 like Agassiz, Ramsay, Croll, and James Geikie, when a calm and 

 dispassionate view of vexed questions would have been far more 

 appropriate. So much of what he says is good, and he appears so 

 animated with the desire to present the truth, that his tirade 

 is deplorable. Even the term " Great Ice Age " seems to have 

 aroused the indignation of our otherwise temperate author ; but the 

 reader must pass by the uncomplimentary exclamations and pay 

 attention to the facts. 



With regard to the comparative neai'ness in time of the Glacial 

 period, the author would date the ending of it to not more than 

 15,000 to 25,000 years — these are the rough limits he would assign 

 to the antiquity of Man, and he says " the Palgeolithic hunters were 

 certainly here during tlie Glacial period." He thinks " It is ridiculous 

 to suppose that the glacial striations in Wales or Scotland, to say 

 nothing of moraines, etc., could have survived for so long a period " 

 as Croll suggested — 80,000 years. No doubt many striations have 

 been eifaced ; others are preserved, and may be long preserved, 

 beneath mantles of Boulder-clay. What, then, is the worth of such 

 an argument? The author admits that civilized man appears to 

 have lived in Egypt about 10,000 years ago. We must, therefore, 

 be patient in awaiting further evidences before speaking with con- 

 fidence on this vexed subject of Man's antiquity. 



There is a curious slip on p. 144, where the author says : " Again, 

 there are the high-level gravels, containing Palaeolithic implements 

 such as those of the Thames, to be seen at Hampstead Heath": we 

 have never heard of any such discovery. And on p. 154, Dr. Keith, 

 instead of Dr. Sugli Falconer, is mentioned. Such slips are, however, 

 rare, and we may speak confidently of the careful way in which 

 the author has given his facts and references. 



The second part of his book deals with Men of the later Stone Age 

 and Bronze Age; with lake-dwellings, kitchen-middens, baiTows ; 

 with the science of fairy-tales and folklore, and with various mega- 

 lithic monuments. The subject is treated in a full and pleasant 

 style, and it will be read with interest and profit. The ten illus- 

 trations by Mr. Cecil Aldin are of a more sober type than those 

 (previously alluded to in Punch) by Mr. E. T. Eeed, and they are 

 doubtless more true to nature. 



III. — Geological Survey of Canada. — G. M. Dawson, C.M.G., 

 F.E.S., Director. Annual Report (New Series) : Vol. VII, 1894. 

 (Ottawa : S. E. Dawson, 1896.) 



HEREIN is described the great field of work in which the 

 Canadian geological corps carried on their operations during 

 the season of 1894, under their new Director, Dr. G. M. Dawson. 



