i 8 yg.\ 
Antiquity of Man . 
675 
IV. ANOTHER VIEW OF THE ANTIQUITY 
OF MAN. 
By Prof. B. F. Mudge, Manhattan, Kansas. 
^ J E were much interested with the article in the June 
number of the “ Review ” on the Antiquity of 
Man, by the Rev. J. L. Templin. He has very 
clearly and fairly stated the faCts in the case, though we 
think he has left the question of the age of our race, in 
years, too indefinite. 
We agree with him (and Dana) that man was on earth 
“ at the close of the Glacial epoch, that he witnessed the 
retreat of the glaciers from Central Europe,” &c. After the 
Glacial epoch, geologists fix three distindl epochs, — viz., 
the Champlain, terrace, and delta, — which have been con- 
sidered of nearly equal lengths. The question then arises, 
have we no evidence to show the length of either of these 
periods ? 
There are fafts which circumstantially give us a near 
approximation of the age of each, but they are nearly all 
based on considerations which only an expert geologist can 
appreciate. There are, however, in the delta period of the 
Mississippi, proofs which will give a very close approxima- 
tion, in years, to the length of that epoch. 
Various estimates have formerly been made for the time 
of the delta period, with varied results, Lyell and others 
placing it at least at 100,000 years, and others making it 
less. Further researches, extensively made, have confirmed 
Lyell’s estimate. The most reliable evidence is as follows : 
— For a distance of about 200 miles of the delta are seen 
distinct forest growths of large trees, one over the other, 
with interspaces of sand, — showing distinct periods of the 
entire destruction of the forests, and, after burial, again a 
new generation of trees over the others. There are ten of 
these distindt forest growths, which have begun and ended 
one after the other. The outstretched, undisturbed position 
of the roots of the trees, as well as the other conditions of 
the deposits, show that they were not washed in, but grew 
on the spot. 
Now if we can fix the time occupied by the life of these 
trees, we can give, at least, an approximate result. Fortu- 
