354 MAN AND THE GLACIAL PERIOD. 



lowest stratum were really in place, since, according to 

 Dr. Evans, " Owing to previous excavations and to the 

 presence of burrowing animals, the remains from above 

 and below the stalagmite have become intermingled." * 



An attempt was made by M. Morlot in Switzerland to 

 obtain the chronology of the Glacial period by studying 

 the deltas of the streams descending the glaciated valleys. 

 He paid special attention to that of the Tiniere, a stream 

 which flows into Lake Geneva near Villeneuve. The 

 modern delta of this stream consists of gravel and sand 

 dej)osited in the shape of a flattened cone, and investiga- 

 tions upon it were facilitated by a long railroad cutting 

 through it. " Three layers of vegetable soil, each of which 

 must at one time have formed the surface of the cone, 

 have been cut through at different depths." f I n the 

 upper stratum Roman tiles and a coin were found ; in the 

 second stratum, unvarnished pottery and implements of 

 bronze ; w r hile in the lower stratum, at a depth of nineteen 

 feet from the surface, a human skull was found, to which 

 Morlot assigned an age of from 5,000 to 7,000 years. 



But Dr. Andrews, after carefully revising the data, felt 

 confident that the time required for the whole deposit of 

 this lower delta was not more than 5,000 years, and that 

 the oldest human remains in it, which were about half 

 way from between the base and the surface of the cone, 

 were probably not more than 3,000 years old. 



Still, the significance of this estimate principally arises 

 from the relation of the modern delta to older deltas con- 

 nected with the Glacial period. Above this modern delta, 

 formed by the river in its present proportions, there is 

 another, more ancient, about ten times as large, whose ac- 

 cumulation doubtless took place upon the final retreat of 

 the ice from Lake Geneva. ~No remains of man have been 



* Stone and Elint Implements, p. 446. 

 f Lyell's Antiquity of Man, p. 28. 



