42 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



them a pastoral or agricultural mode of life. It is highly 

 probable that these neolithic folk were already in existence, 

 previous to their entrance into the Magdalenian area, and if so, 

 the time was almost certain to arrive when by a natural increase 

 in numbers they would begin to exert a pressure on adjacent 

 tribes. The chase is extravagant in the demands it makes 

 upon territory : possibly a hundred farmers could exist on the 

 land which would only support a single hunter. Thus, from 

 the very nature of their industry the neolithic people could 

 scarcely fail to grow strong numerically, and consequently 

 capable of forcing their way into fertile regions in face of 

 whatever resistance the hunters might oppose. Simultaneously 

 with this pressure from behind, an attraction may well have 

 arisen in front, for towards the close of the Magdalenian age a 

 steady amelioration of climate was in progress which especially 

 affected the temperate zone ; as a consequence the sub-arctic 

 fauna which supplied the Magdalenian hunters with so large a 

 part of their food, especially that important member of it, the 

 reindeer, so highly esteemed by Indian and Eskimo alike, was 

 shifting its limits towards the north. In this connection we may 

 recall the fact that Magdalenian stations are known to occur well 

 within the limits of the greatest extension of the ancient ice, as 

 for instance at several localities in Switzerland, and at Cresswell 

 Crag in' England. The cold fauna, represented by fossil remains 

 of the reindeer, musk-ox, and walrus, is found in North America 

 as far south as southern New Jersey, or in the adjoining region to 

 the south and west ; and it seems to be confined to superficial 

 gravels, a fact which points to a comparatively late immigration. 

 Possibly it was followed or accompanied by Magdalenian man. 



Ingress to the North American continent might take place 

 over Behring Strait and the Aleutian Islands, or across the 

 Icelandic bridge. At first sight the latter route appears most 

 promising. It is doubtful, however, whether at this time it was 

 still standing; it had possibly ceased to be intact during Miocene 

 times, and is generally supposed to have completely broken 

 down before their close. Besides this, no relics of Magdalenian 

 man have been discovered on those remnants of the bridge 

 which still stand above water, nor on the neighbouring shores. 

 Scotland has yielded none, 1 and the earliest human remains 



1 Perforated bone harpoons like those of the Azilian stage have been found at 

 Oban. Joseph Anderson, Proc. Soc. Antiq. of Scotland, vol. xxix. p. 211, 1895. 



