382 NATURAL SCIENCE [December 



small-antlered form which can be traced, by its remains in south 

 European beds, from Western Asia into Greece, and " along the 

 borders of the Mediterranean, at the time when Corsica and Sardinia 

 were still connected with Sicily and Greece on the one hand and 

 with Tunis on the other." In this wav it is suggested that animals 

 from western Asia and south-eastern Europe found their way to 

 the western edge of the continent, while the central European plain 

 was still covered by sea. 



If Dr Scharffs views as to the geological periods during which 

 the British fauna entered the country be accepted, it follows that 

 the vast majority of our animal population must have survived the 

 rigours of the Ice Age ; as regards Ireland, the whole fauna (ex- 

 cept comparatively modern immigrants) must have lived in the area 

 from a time before the deposition of the British Lower Boulder Clay. 

 It will be remembered that Forbes, who believed the distinctive- 

 South-western flora to be pre-glacial, suggested that the plants sur- 

 vived in a sunken land to the south-west. Dr Scharff, however,, 

 rejects the idea of such an asylum for the fauna on the ground that 

 the south-western corner of Ireland is remarkably poor in species,, 

 many forms of life, common throughout the rest of the island, 

 being absent from the peninsulas of counties Cork and Kerry ; fur 

 example, the Helices of the sub-genus Xcwphila. He insists that 

 portions at least of the present Irish area must have been able to- 

 support the present animal population throughout the Pleistocene 

 period. 



Those geologists who adopt the extreme view of the glaciation 

 of Ireland, advocated by the Bev. M. H. Close, and accepted by 

 Professor Hull, 1 will naturally reject Dr Scharff's conclusions with 

 decision, if not with derision. For, according to the opinion of this 

 school, an ice-sheet of great depth covered the whole country. It is 

 needless to say that Dr Scharff rejects with equal decision the 

 existence of such an ice-sheet. In the closing section of his paper, 

 he expresses his agreement with those geologists who believe that 

 the Boulder Clay was formed in an ice-laden sea, and not as the 

 ground-moraine of vast glaciers. Of course, this view requires the 

 submergence of much of the country. But, recalling the opinion 

 of several geologists that the western margin of the British area 

 stood higher in relation to the eastern during the Glacial Period than 

 now, Dr Scharff reconstructs the physical geography of our islands 

 during that time of greatest submergence, which left shell-bearing 

 gravels on the Dublin mountains and Moel Tryfaen. According to 

 his map, the Scottish highlands, the Hebrides, and northern, western,, 

 and southern Ireland formed a peninsula still continuous witli 

 Scandinavia ; the Scottish lowlands and northern England were an. 



1 " The Physical fieology and Geography of Ireland," London, 1878. 



