THE AGE OF THE HUMAN RACE.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3117, 24 June 1881, Page 3

THE AGE OF THE HUMAN RACE.

In a lecture delivered in Illinois On the 16th April, Professor Paige developed, among many other strong theories, the rapidly-growing belief that the great iceperiod that ground the rocks into soil had been attributed fco a time too remote in the earth's history. He said ifc had been the quite universally accepted opinion that the great ice-caps were formed by a climate rendered cold by reason of changed cosmic relations. It was known that the eccentricity of the earth's path around the sun was subject, afc long periods, to considerable change, resulting in carrying the earth from the sun some fifteen millions of miles farther at times than now. The earth.'s great aphelion, together with changed conditions attributable to the precession of the equinox, was believed fco have produced the great periods of ice in the past. From this standpoint of reckoning Clifford claims man to have been on earth 2,000,040 years. The Professor said he believed the modern tendency of thought was in favour of a different view. During the winter in our northern hemisphere, we are 25,000,000 miles nearer to the sun than in summer. This helps to equalise our climate, rendering the winters much more mild, and the summer's heat far less than ifc would be if the conditions were reversed. In the southern hemisphere the exact reverse state of condition exists. They are nearer the sun in summer and further off in winter.

They have cold winters and hot summers. At the south pole there is a vast excess of ice over that of the north pole. The vast accumulation of ice afc the south pole attracts the waters of the ocean, changing the equilibrium of the earth's centre, moving the equator to tho south, drawing off the waters of the north pole toward the south pole. This accounts for the clearly noticeable subsidence of waters in the north, and for the fact that there is but little dry land in the southern hemisphere. If the ages of ice can be traced up to the causes, a glacial period is approaching in the southern hemisphere, and will be at its greatest height in about 5500 years. The last period of ice in the northern hemisphere is also of equally recent date, occurring probably about 6000 years ago. The lecturer was of opinion that if these recent views proved correct, there would be a recurrence of the ice period in about 16,C00 years in the northern hemisphere. This view would also shorten the time of man's existence on the globe. Ifc was probably safe to say that man had not existed more than 50,000 or a 100,000 years.