The Scottish Naturalist. 83 



by man. It is the discussion of those climatic and geographical changes 

 which forms the subject of the handsomely printed and beautifully illustrated 

 work at the head of this notice. The Pleistocene or Quaternary and Recent 

 deposits comprise a great variety of terrestrial, fresh-water, and marine 

 accumulations, which have yielded relics and remains of man, together with 

 those of various animals and plants ; and it is from a study of these and the 

 mode of their occurrence that the geologist endeavours to shape out the his- 

 tory of the later geological changes. The older relics of man are strongly 

 marked off from those belonging to more recent times, not only by their 

 dissimilarity, but by the fact that they are associated with a more or less 

 peculiar fauna and flora, and the consideration that they occur in positions 

 which clearly evince their much greater antiquity. Archaeologists have 

 classified all these relics, and referred them to what are termed respectively 

 the Palaeolithic or Old Stone Period, the Neolithic or New Stone Period, 

 the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age. The oldest of these epochs — the Palaeo- 

 lithic Period — is embraced by the Pleistocene or Quaternary Period of geolo- 

 gists, while the Neolithic and later epochs belong to Postglacial and Recent 

 times. This is Dr Geikie's correlation of the archaeological and geological 

 periods, and it differs widely from that which Professor Prestwich, Sir 

 Charles Lyell, and other English geologists, have maintained. It must be 

 understood that the Ice Age or Glacial Period occurred in, and was nearly 

 coextensive with, Pleistocene times ; and thus, according to our author, the 

 Old Stone Age dates back to the Glacial Period, the prevalent opinion in 

 England having hitherto been that Palaeolithic man did not appear in Europe 

 until glacial conditions were passing away. Amongst Continental geologists, 

 however, it has long been the opinion that Palaeolithic man lived in our 

 continent during the Ice Age. It is clear, therefore, that in order to decide 

 the true succession of events that took place during the accumulation of the 

 Pleistocene and Recent deposits, it is necessary to consider a wide range of 

 evidence, as well palaeontological as physical. Accordingly, Dr Geikie first 

 discusses in great detail the evidence furnished by the mammalia, which 

 have left their remains in the Pleistocene deposits commingled with relics of 

 Palaeolithic man. These, as is well known, embrace a number of forms 

 which are now extinct, or no longer indigenous. They belong to three marked 

 groups — northern, temperate, and southern. This curious commingling of 

 discordant species has been variously interpreted. Lyell was inclined to 

 attribute it to former migrations — a view which has been supported of recent 

 years by Professor Boyd Dawkins. But, as Dr Geikie has pointed out, 

 the physical conditions of our continent will not permit us to suppose that a 

 Siberian climate of strongly-contrasted summers and winters could ever have 

 obtained in Pleistocene times. So long as Europe continues to be exposed 

 to the influence of the Atlantic and the winds which come over that vast 

 expanse of water, a Siberian climate in our continent is simply impossible. 

 And besides this very strong objection to the migration hypothesis, there is 

 another hardly less forcible. The annual migrations in Siberia take place 

 between arctic and temperate provinces — the reindeer, the moose, and 

 other associated forms trespass alternately upon each other's domains, — but 

 in Europe, according to the hypothesis which Dr Geikie overturns, the 

 migrations must have occurred between arctic and southern regions, across 

 the whole breadth of the temperate zone — a view which is manifestly un- 



