The Vedic fathers of geology

GEOLOGICAL ANTIQUITY OF THE VEDAS. 83

the genial Arctic Colonies, finally returned Home ; that the Indo-Iranians remained in their adopted country Iran; and that other minor Avryan branches endeavoured to settle in the regions which could afford them shelter.

We shall now return for a while to the several queries mentioned before (ante 17-50-31), and try to answer them one by one. The irrefragable evidence cited in the preceding pages, conclusively proves, (1) that the oldest of our Vedas the Rig-Veda—which by the bye is also the most ancient document in the world—seems to be as old as the Tertiary Epoch, at any rate a portion of it, since some of the utterances of the Rvg-Vedic Bards appear to show, beyond al] manner of doubt, that our Rig-Vedic Rishis had personally seen all the Arctic phenomena-viz. the long Dawns, the long days, as also the long, dreadful, and tiresome nights, that continued for months together ; (2) that our Rig-Vedic ancestors were older than the Quaternary Period +) that they belonged to the Tertiary Eva ; (4) that they had seen the Great-Ice-Age ; (5) that the fact seems to have been supported and fortified by the Rig-Vedic and Avestie evidence ; and (6) that, above all, even the testimony of the science of Geology has proved (ante pp. 5.6,32,33 ) the existence of the Tertiary Man.