Page:Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man.djvu/15

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CONTENTS.
ix

CHRONOLOGICAL RELATIONS OF THE GLACIAL PERIOD AND THE EARLIEST SIGNS OF MAN'S APPEARANCE IN EUROPE—continued.

Signs of extinct Glaciers in Wales—Great Submergence of Wales during the Glacial Period proved by Marine Shells—Still greater Depression inferred from stratified Drift—Scarcity of organic Remains in Glacial Formations—Signs of extinct Glaciers in England—Ice Action in Ireland—Maps illustrating successive Revolutions in Physical Geography during the Post-Pliocene Period—Southernmost Extent of Erratics in England—Successive Periods of Junction and Separation of England, Ireland, and the Continent—Time required for these Changes—Probable Causes of the Upheaval and Subsidence of the Earth's Crust—Antiquity of Man considered in relation to the Age of the existing Fauna and Flora
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EXTINCT GLACIERS OF THE ALPS AND THEIR CHRONOLOGICAL RELATION TO THE HUMAN PERIOD.

Extinct Glaciers of Switzerland—Alpine Erratic Blocks on the Jura—Not transported by floating Ice—Extinct Glaciers of the Italian Side of the Alps—Theory of the Origin of Lake-Basins by the erosive Action of Glaciers, considered—Successive Phases in the Development of Glacial Action in the Alps—Probable Relation of these to the earliest known Date of Man—Correspondence of the same with successive Changes in the Glacial Condition of the Scandinavian and British Mountains—Cold Period in Sicily and Syria
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290

HUMAN REMAINS IN THE LOESS, AND THEIR PROBABLE AGE.

Nature, Origin, and Age of the Loess of the Rhine and Danube—Impalpable Mud produced by the grinding Action of Glaciers—Dispersion of this Mud at the Period of the Retreat of the great Alpine Glaciers—Continuity of the Loess from Switzerland to the Low Countries—Characteristic organic Remains not Lacustrine—Alpine Gravel in the Valley of the Rhine covered by Loess—Geographical Distribution of the Loess and its Height above the Sea—Fossil Mammalia—Loess of the Danube—Oscillations in the Level of the Alps and lower Country required to explain the Formation and Denudation of the Loess—More rapid Movement of the inland Country—The same Depression and Upheaval might account for the Advance and Retreat of the Alpine Glaciers—Himalayan Mud of the Plains of the Ganges compared to European Loess—Human Remains in Loess near Maestricht, and their probable Antiquity
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