THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 79 



NOTES ON THE GLx\CL^L MAN CONTROVERSY 

 (AS REGARDS ONTARIO). 



BY COL. -C. C. GRANT. 

 Read before the Geological Section, March 23iicl, iSg^. 



Since the discoveries of human implements in Trenton drift 

 gravel beds by Dr. Abbott, the late Miss Babbitt, and others, an un- 

 necessarily angry discussion has been going on for years in the States 

 respecting Glacial Man on this continent. Personally the locality is 

 unknown to me, so I prefer to abstain from any remarks on this 

 particular find. If man existed here in the ice age (viz., in North 

 America), as a hunter he would naturally follow the differ- 

 ent animals driven Southward by the great ice sheet as it approached. 

 Now, where should we look for evidence of man's existence then ? 

 Where but in places which contain terminal Moraines, derived from 

 the continental glacier ? We can hardly expect to find it elsewhere, 

 since all human records would probably be obliterated wherever the 

 moving mass passed over. 



Even admitting that Dr. Abbott may be mistaken (a circum- 

 stance many eminent men deny), some of us may feel we are 

 indebted to the scientific pioneers who first called attention to a very 

 important and highly interesting subject, which some carping critics 

 themselves neglected. 



The writings of another glacial geologist (Professor Wright) we 

 cannot afford to lose sight of, whose views coincide with Abbott's. 

 The most formidable opponent these are likely to encounter is the 

 archfeologic geologist, W. H. Holmes. He describes how he went 

 systematically to work in opening up trenches in the undisturbed 

 portion of the gravel beds in question without obtaining a trace of 

 an " art relic." " Relics of art," he states, " were found upon the sur- 

 face and in such portions of the talus as happened to be exposed. 

 Nothing in the gravels in place, and we closed the trench with the 

 firm conviction that it was absolutely barren of art." After all, the 



