वेदों की प्राचीनता एवं काल-निर्णय / ओरायन (लोकमान्य बाल गंगाधर तिलक - खगोलीय वैदिक शोध)

14 . THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
elapsed since the close of the last Glacial period. This estimate
agrees very well with the approximate date of the Neolithic
period ascertained from the amount of silt in some of the
lakes in Switzerland. But it differs materially from the
estimate of the European geologists. It is difficult to decide,
in the present state of our knowledge, which of these
estimates is correct. Probably the Glacial and the Post-Glacial
period may not, owing to local causes, have commenced or ended
at one and the same time in different places, just as the ages of
Stone and Bronze were not synchronous in different countries.
Prof. Geikie does not accept the American estimate on the
ground that it is inconsistent with the high antiquity of the
Egyptian civilisation, as ascertained by recent researches. But
if no traces of glaciation are yet found in Africa this objection
loses its force, while the arguments by which the American view
is supported remain uncontradicted.
There are other reasons which go to support the same view.
All the evidence regarding the existence of the Glacial period
comes form the North of Europe and America; but no traces of
glaciation have been yet discovered in the Northern Asia or North
Alaska. It is not to be supposed, however, that the northern
part of Asia did not enjoy a genial climate in early times. As
observed by Prof. Geikie "everywhere throughout this vast
region alluvial deposits are found packed up with the remains of
mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, bison, and horse;" and "the fossils
are usually so well preserved that on one occasion the actual
carcass of a mammoth was exposed in so fresh a state that dogs
ate the flesh thereof." * These and other equally indisputable
facts clearly indicate the existence in Siberia of a mild and genial
climate at a time, which, from the freshness of the fossil remains,
cannot be supposed to be removed from the present by several
*. See Geikie's Great Ice Age, 1st Ed., p. 495; Dr. Croll's Climate
and Cosmology, p. 179.