File:Ridpath's history of the world; being an account of the ethnic origin, primitive estate, early migrations, social conditions and present promise of the principal families of men (1897) (14760356776).jpg

Identifier: ridpathshistoryo01ridp (find matches)
Title: Ridpath's history of the world; being an account of the ethnic origin, primitive estate, early migrations, social conditions and present promise of the principal families of men ..
Year: 1897 (1890s)
Authors: Ridpath, John Clark, 1840-1900
Subjects: World history Ethnology
Publisher: New York, Merrill & Baker
Contributing Library: Mugar Memorial Library, Boston University
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston University

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the preceding age of heat andthe succeeding age of cold is, as it ap-pears to be, measured by a thousand cen-turies—if the distance from the woollyelephant to the mammoth is so great—we may be sure that under the slow andregular processes of the natural worldthe distance from the close of the glacialepoch to the present time is almostequally immense. Without the abilityto lay a measuring rod upon these vastspaces of time, and limited as we are toestimates, the mind is necessarily embar-rassed with uncertainty; but the condi-tions of the inquiry, its metes andbounds being determined from scientificdata, we are enabled to rest securelyupon the general knowledge of the greatduration of the astronomical and geolog-ical epochs which we are considering,and to accept with confidence a belief inthe remote date of mans appearance onthe globe. A summary of the leading facts gath-ered in this inquiry may serve to bringbefore the reader with conciseness thedata from which the deduction of the
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CONDITION OF EXTREME COLD, ILLUSTRATED FROM ARCTIC LANDSCAPE.-Drawn by Riou. TIME OF THE BEGINNING.—ASTRONOMICAL ARGUMENT. 75 high antiquity of man is made. Thesesummary of de- data, reduced to theirductionsfrom briefest expression, are astronomical r laws and data. about as follows : i. The last period of greatest elonga-tion of the earths orbit fell about a thou-sand centuries before the Christian era. 2. This epoch of greatest eccentricitywas coincident with the aphelion of theearth in winter. 3. These two conditions acting togeth-er produced, so far as the climate of thenorthern hemisphere was concerned, anepoch of extreme cold, correspondingwith that period in geology known asthe glacial age. 4. The crisis of the glacial period laysomewhat this side in time of the coinci-dence defined in paragraphs first andsecond of this summary. 5. Our planet ever since the crisis ofthe glacial age has, by favoring astro-nomical changes, been coming more andmore into an epoch of climatic mode

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