Focuses on the last time glaciers spread across the continent, using the records of former ice sheets, glaciers, and pluvial lakes to understand the response of North American ice sheets and glaciers to the climate change that ended the last (before ours) interglacial period. The 21 papers, most from a symposium at the Geological Society of America's 1988 annual meeting in Denver, discuss glaciation in Wisconsin, Illinois, Toronto, and other areas; evidence from the uranium-series dating of coastal deposits, and the marine oxygen isotope record; and other topics. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.