220 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



correlates the Chalky Boulder Clay with the Rissian (third) 

 Glacial Period, and thinks, therefore, that the Middle Glacial 

 Gravel was laid down in the second interglacial period. All this 

 is of great importance in view of the long controversy in regard 

 to the dating of the pre-neolithic periods. And Mr. Moir's 

 results support Penck's chronological scheme, which placed 

 the Chellean in the second interglacial period and the 

 Aurignacian in the third interglacial period, as against the 

 French chronology, which gave later dates to all the pre-neolithic 

 periods. 



On April 20th last Mr. C. P. Brooks read a paper to the 

 Royal Meteorological Society dealing with the evolution of 

 climate in North-West Europe (see Man, July 1921). The 

 paper dealt with the climatic oscillations that have occurred 

 since the height of the last great glacial period — the Wurmian 

 period. The author divides the time which has elapsed since 

 the climax of the Wurmian glaciation into seven climatic phases, 

 and he ventures to give dates to these in years. The first 

 phase is that of the Wurmian glaciation itself, from 30,000 to 

 18,000 B.C. The second phase is that which he describes as 

 the retreat of the glaciers, when the climate was still severe, 

 this phase running from 18,000 to 6,000 B.C. The third he 

 describes as the continental phase. This was from 6,000 

 to 4,000 B.C. The next he calls the Maritime phase, which 

 was warm and moist and lasted till about 3,000 B.C. The 

 fifth was the Later Forest period, which was warm and dry, 

 and endured from 3,000 to 1,800 B.C. The sixth he names 

 the Peat-bog phase, which was, of course, cooler and damper. 

 The author dates the Peat-bog phase from 1,800 B.C. to 

 A.D. 300. The existing phase therefore dates, of course, from 

 A.D. 300. 



The third of Mr. Brooks' phases corresponds to that known 

 as the Ancylus Lake period in Scandinavia, when the Baltic 

 Sea was reduced to a lake. Mr. Brooks' fourth period also 

 corresponds well with what the Scandinavian geologists call 

 the period of the Litorina Sea, when the Baltic had a very much 

 wider opening to the North Sea than it has now. It is very 

 interesting to compare Mr. Brooks' scheme with that put 

 forward by Prof. James Geikie some years ago. It will be 

 remembered that Geikie divided post-Wiirmian time into five 

 phases : a Lower Forestian, a Lower Turbarian, an Upper 

 Forestian, and an Upper Turbarian, the latter immediately 

 preceding the existing (or fifth) period. Brooks' Peat-bog 

 phase clearly corresponds to Geikie's Upper Turbarian ; and 

 his later forest phase is clearly the same as Geikie's Upper 

 Forestian. Brooks' third phase is perhaps the same as Geikie's 

 Lower Forestian ; but it is somewhat difficult to correlate 



