CLIMATE OF THE QUATERNARY PERIOD. 309 



hy?Bna of the Cape, and a hippopotamus closely resembling 

 that of the great African rivers. 



Influenced mainly by the presence of the great pachyderms, 

 and particularly by that of the hippopotamus, M. d' Archaic 

 is disposed to consider that the climate of the quaternary 

 period was warmer than ours,* while M. Lartet-f suggests that 

 we may have had a climate like that of Chili, where, as Mr. 

 Darwin has pointed out, glaciers actually come down to the 

 sea-level in latitudes corresponding with that of our south 

 coast and the northern provinces of France. 



In other respects, however, the fauna of the quaternary 

 deposits indicates a more severe climate. The presence of the 

 reindeer and musk ox, the lemming and the marmot, corrobo- 

 rated, as we shall see in the next chapter, by physical evidence, 

 leaves little doubt on this subject. Moreover, we must remem- 

 ber that the trichorhine rhinoceros and the mammoth were 

 not only well provided against cold, but in some cases were 

 enveloped in the ice and frozen mud of the Siberian rivers so 

 soon after death that the flesh had not had time to decay. 

 Much weight is also to be attributed, I think, to the presence 

 of smaller quadrupeds, as, for instance, of the lemming and 

 lagomys. 



Yet I feel strongly that some of the species, and particu- 

 larly the hippopotamus, indicate a warmer climate. Even if 

 protected by fur, as Mr. Prestwich supposes, this animal could 

 never live in a country where the rivers were frozen every 

 winter. To meet this difficulty, a suggestion has been thrown 

 out that it may have made annual migrations. In the Gulf 

 of Penas, on the west coast of South America, lat. 47 S., Mr. 

 Darwin has pointed out that glaciers now "descend to the 

 sea within less than nine degrees of latitude from where palms 

 grow, less than two and a half from arborescent grasses, less 



* Legons sur la Faune Quaternaire, pp. 15, 16. 

 f Lartet, Ann. des Sc. Nat. 1867, p. 37. 



