GLACIAL EPOCH UPON THE EARLY HISTORY OF MANKIND. 59 
5th. Though there was a great destruction of animal species 
in connection with the closing stages of the Glacial Epoch, there 
has been little change since then in the species of plants that 
remain ; while the identity of the species of plant life and the 
freshness of their remains found in glacial deposits make an 
irresistible impression of the proximity of the great ice age to the 
present time. In various parts of the United States there are 
the remains of red cedar forests buried beneath glacial drift in 
which the perfume of the cedar lingers as fresh as if cut but 
yesterday. 
Comparing now the chronology of the human race in the 
Euphrates Valley and that of glacial man in North-Western 
Europe and in America, it would appear that they were for a 
time contemporaneous ; and that the human race presented 
about as great extremes in culture then as it does now. With 
the exception of various labour-saving inventions which have 
been made within the last three or four centuries, the civiliza- 
tion in ancient Babylonia was as far above that of contemporary 
Paleolithic man, living on the border of the ice-fields in 
England and America, as that of Europe is above that of the 
Esquimaux who live upon the borders of the Greenland ice- 
fields. Substantially the same differences in culture existed 
then as exist now. 
Considered in its total result, the progress of mankind has not 
been by any means so great as it is popularly represented to 
have been. Ten thousand years ago the human race possessed 
all the leading characteristics which it possesses at the present 
time. There were centres of high civilization in favoured 
localities, and there were wide areas of barbarism and savagery 
where man barely maintained his existence through a desperate 
struggle with the conditions of life. The same is true to-day, 
only the centres have shifted and some races have come into 
possession of knowledge enabling them to control the forces of 
nature for certain purposes much more completely than ever 
before ; but a large portion of the human race is still carrying 
on the struggle while in possession of only the most primitive 
means of culture. The Stone Age has not wholly disappeared 
from the world. 
The probable influence of the Glacial Epoch upon the early 
history of mankind will be best perceived by taking a general 
view of the progress of geological events in post-Tertiary time. 
In doing so it is important to note that the Tertiary Period 
which culminated in the Glacial Epoch closed with a high 
