I9I2. ScHARFF. — BiUannic Flora and Glacial Epoch, 109 



Arctic Fox, and Lemming at any rate are able to thrive 

 and can be kept in perfect health in southern latitudes if 

 suitable food is offered to them. Almost all southern species 

 on the contrary suffer and even die from cold in the extreme 

 north, no matter what comforts we supply them with in 

 the way of nourishment. I mention this fact because Mr. 

 Reid omits to refer to a most remarkable feature connected 

 with the occurrence of this arctic fauna southward of its 

 present habitat. It is that the remains of arctic species in 

 recent geological deposits occur invariably mixed with those 

 belonging to warm climates. It is so in England and on the 

 Continent. In Ireland it is precisely the same. The 

 Reindeer lived together with the Irish Elk, the Red Deer, 

 Wild Boar, and even with the Hyaena. In the caves near 

 Doneraile, Co. Cork, so successfully explored by Mr. Ussher, 

 the carcases of hundreds of Reindeer had evidently been 

 dragged in by Hyaenas, as the remains of the two species 

 were mixed in the same deposits. In other Irish caves 

 the remains of Lemmings, Arctic Foxes and Reindeer were 

 mingled with those of Wild Cats, Common Foxes and other 

 southern species. If we could use the evidence of these 

 mammalian remains in favour of former climatic conditions, 

 they would tend to point to a warmer period rather than 

 to a colder one. We must also remember that another 

 arctic animal occurs in abundance in the English deposits 

 referred to which has since retreated northward in England, 

 namely the Arctic Hare. And yet this same species or 

 one very nearly related to it, still flourishes in Ireland from 

 sea-level to the highest mountains, indicating that changed 

 climatic conditions were probably not the cause of its 

 disappearance from southern England. 



However, having apparently shown to his own satis- 

 faction that both animals and plants were practically 

 wiped out of the British Islands through the effects of the 

 Glacial Epoch, Mr. Reid advances to the next step of his 

 argument, which is : How did the flora come back again 

 after it was all over ? After once more reminding us of 

 Krakatoa — a problem which I have dealt with in another 

 paper — he leads us to the culminating point of his theory 



