[CHAPTER VIII.]

RELICS OF MAN IN THE GLACIAL PERIOD.

In Glacial Terraces of the United States.

Although the first clear evidence of glacial man was discovered in Europe, the problem is so much simpler on the Western Continent that we shall find it profitable to study the American facts first. We will therefore present a summary of them at once, and then proceed to the more obscure problems of European archæology.

The first definite discovery of human relics clearly connected with, glacial deposits in America, and of the same age with them, was made by Dr. C. C. Abbott, at Trenton, N. J., in the year 1875. The city of Trenton is built upon a delta terrace about three miles wide which occurs at the head of tide-water on the Delaware River. This terrace bears every mark of having been deposited by a torrential stream which came down the valley during the closing period of the great Ice age. The material of which the terrace consists is all water-worn. According to the description of Professor N. S. Shaler:

Fig. 63.—The glaciated portion is shaded. The shading on the Lehigh and Delaware Rivers indicates glacial terraces, which are absent from the Schuylkill.