204 The Itisk Aatmalisi. December, 



The glaciation in Ireland was even more extreme, for 

 apparently no part oi Ireland escaped. ICven the warmest 

 parts of the south-west are striated and covered by morainic 

 material, the ice extending well out into the Atlantic. The 

 icebergs were so big, or the ice-luol so thi( k, that, l)reaking 

 away from the Irish coast, the masses were able to float 

 across to the Scilly Isles before they melted ; for they carried 

 with them numerous striated stones of well-known rocks, 

 now found stranded on the highest parts of the Isles of 

 Scilly. Thus it is evident that in those days Scilly, our most 

 southerly and warmest point, was surrounded by a bitterly 

 cold ocean, and it was submerged to such an extent that it 

 could be overridden by pack-ice. Could any temperate plant 

 survive such treatment ? I particularly want you to realise 

 the climate that Scilly enjoyed in those days, for it is now 

 one of the warmest spots in our islands, and its temperate 

 flora has come back, though the islands are surrounded by 

 fairly deep sea. 



It seems evident, therefore, that a temperate flora could 

 not have survived the cold in Ireland or in the Scilly Isles. 

 But there is still the non-glaciated area south of the Severn 

 and Thames to consider, and botanists may tell us that the 

 temperate flora survived in some warm nooks in Devon or 

 the Isle of Wight. Here, however, we can point to evidence 

 that the botanist himself must accept as conclusive. 



In the south of Devon one of the warmest of the sheltered 

 valleys is that through which the Teign flows to Newton 

 Abbot. But in the alluvial deposits of this valley, and onty 

 a few feet above the sea-level, Professor Oswald Heer and 

 Professor Nathorst discovered leaves of the dwarf Arctic 

 Birch and some Arctic mosses. 



Time will not allow us to go into all the evidence ; so I 

 will only point to one or two other areas which prove the 

 extreme rigour of the climate in the South of England. Close 

 to Salisbury are found in profusion remains of various Arctic 

 mammals — Reindeer, Musk Ox, Arctic Fox, lemming, and 

 several others. Unfortunately plants do not seem to have 

 been searched for, and the sections were obscured when I 

 visited the pit ; however, the flora associated with this 

 assemblage of mammals can only have been the flora of the 

 Arctic regions. 



