Friday. April I7. I964 Swampy Forest Covered. Area Thousands of Years Ago; Remains Discovered Beneath Stage of The extent of glaciation over Iowa during the tour "recent glacial periods is shown on the map above. Below are pic- tured several samples of thousand-year-old wood which was unearthed frain beneath the stage of Roberts Theatre last July. Shown with the wood is n s' -ini:h ruler. > Social Preview Continued from Page 4 will serve as publicity chairman for the social coordinating com- mittee. At the present time, the so- cial committees are finishing preparation of their budgets to be presented to the social plan- ning board for approval before being submitted to the Student Senate. These budgets include a request for an increase in the social fee. Hartl said the increase, if approved, would be used to improve the quality of the program rather than to pro- vide a significantly larger number of events. When asked about Spring Day, the social coordinator said, “There is really not too much I can say about Spring Day at this time. There will be a Spring Day, but we want it to be a surprise." Prospects for next year in- clude the grand opening of the Grinnell Forum, now scheduled for late October or November, and an Inaugural ball, if a new president of the college is named. “We would like to be able to get some people off campus each weekend to enhance the program,” l-lartl explained. There will be attempts to ex- pand transportation facilities. on - campus trips will be handled by the Informal com- mittee this year. There will also be an increase in the In- formal program especially planned for non-daters. The concerts committee has already booked the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra for next year. This committee also plans to experiment with seat- ing arrangements in Darby gymnasium for the various big concerts held there. The movies committee will try toiinclude more American movies than this year but will continue to present outstand- ing work from abroad as Well. Dithyramb and Gadabouts will continue with programs similar to those of last year, Hart], explained. “We’ll defi- nitely repeat the Christmas Formal dinner," he said. Gad- abouts will be sponsoring three formal dances. Homecoming and Parents Weekend fall on the same weekend next fall, and one dance will be presented then, besides the Christmas and Spring Formal dances. If the college names a new President, he said, one of these will be an Inaugural Ball. The North and South Campus social chairmen will he working with the halls. The North Cam- pus chairmen will be schedul< ing informal parties at Oakland Acres to be offered as package deals to the halls. The transportation issue is not dead either. A committee will be appointed by the Social Planning Board to study trans— ' portation at colleges with car rules similar to ours. They will also investigate transportation available at nominal expense and will recommend action to the Planning Board. SCARLET AND BLACK Roberts Theatre By John Wolf Remains of a swampy forest that may have covered the Grinnell area 130,000 years ago were discovered by Benjamin Graham (bid) during excava- tions for the Fine Arts Center in June, 1960. Last July 4, aided by La- Verne Durkee (him) and Mich- ael Hager, junior, Graham re- trieved peat samples from be neath the stage of Roberts Theatre shortly before cement was laid over the site. “Sample of coniferous wood found in the peat were readily identified as Tamarack,” Gra- ham remarked. “There is some mineral replacement evident, but much of the wood is in cel- lulosic form. Insofar as they are not completely mineralized, the samples are not true fos- sils. “Several samples of the wood are now being dated by the carbon 14 method. The results might prove inconclusive, 'how- ever, since carbon 14 dating is effective only if the samples are less than 50,000 years Old. “The samples we have found “We can’t place the deposits more exactly because of the lack of local dateable glacial deposits from the two most re- cent periods of glaciation. The Illinoian glaciation just touched the southeastern corner of the state, while the Wisconsin glac— iation stopped about eight miles north of Grinnell. “Had the peat been deposited during one of the other two recent glacial periods, the Kan- sas or Nebraskan, it would have been fairly easy to date because of the local sedimentav tion, often hundreds of feet deep, which were deposited during those epochs. ”From an examination of pollen grains found in the peat, we have been able to conclude that the climate of Iowa was very similar to the climate of present