Artic Home of the Aryans by Lokamanya Bal ... - Mandhata Global

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period of Oak and the Iron with that of Beech. It has been calculated
that about 16,000 years will be required for the formation of these
peat-mosses and according to this estimate we shall have to place
the commencement of the Neolithic age in Denmark, at the lowest,
not later than 10,000 years ago. But these estimates are not better
than mere approximations, and generally speaking we may take the
Neolithic age in Europe as commencing not later than 5000 B.C.
But when we pass from the Neolithic too the Paleolithic period
the difficulty of ascertaining the commencement of the latter becomes
still greater. In fact we have here to ascertain the time when the Post-
Glacial period commenced. The Paleolithic man must have occupied
parts of Western Europe shortly after the disappearance of the Ice
age and Prof. Geikie considers that there are reasons for supposing
that he was inter-glacial. The Glacial period was characterized by
geographical and climatic changes on an extensive scale. These
changes and the theories regarding the cause or the causes of the
Ice Age will be briefly stated in the next chapter. We are here
concerned with the date of the commencement of the Post-Glacial
period, and there are two different views entertained by geologists on
the subject. European geologists think that as the beginning of the
Post-Glacial period was marked with great movements of elevation
and depression of land, and as these movements take place very
slowly, the commencement of the Post-Glacial period cannot be
placed later than 50 or 60 thousand years ago. Many American
geologists, on the other hand, are of opinion that the close of the last
Glacial period must have taken place at a much more recent date.
They draw this inference from the various estimates of time required
for the erosion of valleys and accumulation of alluvial deposits since
the last Glacial period. Thus according to Gilbert, the post-glacial
gore of Niagara at the present rate of erosion must have been
excavated within 7000 years.* Other
* See Geikie’s Fragments of Earth Lore, p. 296; also Dr. Bonney’s Story of
our Planet, p. 560.