334 N. H. WINCHELL — WAS MAN IN AMERICA IN GLACIAL PEKIOD 



that traverse whole continents. Where the river divides, the explorer 

 may take the wrong branch, and at the end of his journey he may rest 

 satisfied with the result of his search. Later explorers, perhaps after 

 the lapse of several decades, may be led to follow up the great branch 

 which was neglected by the pioneer explorer, and, although they soon 

 find reason to correct their predecessor, they fall into a similar error by 

 a similar branching of the stream higher up. The source of the Missis- 

 sippi was discovered onl}^ after it had been announced erroneously sev- 

 eral times ; so the investigators of the early history of man have driven 

 their research farther and farther up the stream of time. A man's life- 

 time may be spent in the investigation of one line of research, only to 

 find that he had followed the wrong branch. Another line of pursuit 

 perhaps yields similar results. Even after many years of labor the sum 

 total of the knowledge derived may be summed up as negative results. 

 The future only will reveal whether we are now at a corresponding stage 

 of the search for evidences of Glacial man in America. 



Surface of the Country prior to the Glacial Period 



In considering the possibility or the probability of the existence of 

 man before or during the Glacial period it will be appropriate to recall, 

 as nearly as present knowledge will permit, the condition of the surface 

 of North America at the advent of the Glacial period. 



What were the features of the countr}^ before the age of the drift? 

 Were they such as to warrant the suggestion of the existence of man? 

 It must be admitted by all geologists that the advent of Arctic glaciers 

 in temperate latitudes in America was an event unique in geological 

 history, and that it is set off from earlier geological history by a long 

 period of equable if not tropical climate in those same regions. I refer 

 to the Tertiary age, during which the larger part of North America was 

 a land surface on which flourished a remarkable fauna of bizarre mam- 

 mals. These mammals were prevailingly of large, even mammoth, stat- 

 ure. They probably roamed in forests of Edenic luxuriance or basked 

 on the plains of tropical grassy verdure. Of savannas or swamps there 

 were probably very few, and these were near the ocean or in the vicinity 

 of the mouths of some of the great rivers. The uplands must have 

 been deeply cut by the drainage courses. The waterfalls had receded 

 to the sources of the streams. The rocky substructure stood out con- 

 spicuously along the strike of the harder formations, but in general it 

 was buried under a thick stratum of residuum resulting from its own 

 decay. Such residuary stratum is familiar in southern latitudes and 



