•No. ().] DAWKINS — THE ANTIQUITY OF 3IAN. 365 



{'ornied a covert for the wild boar, and for beasts of prey, ninny 

 in species and formidable in nnmbers, the cave bear, the hugest 

 of its kind, the sabre-tooth lion, the wolf, the fox, and the wol- 

 verine, x^nions; the smaller animals were to be noted the musk 

 shrew, the common shrew, and a vole. In the trees were squir- 

 rels. Underfoot the moles raised their hillocks of earth, and 

 from between the lofty fronds of the Osmund royal beavers were 

 to be seen building their lodges, and the hippopotamus as he 

 emerged from the water and disappeared in the forest. Out of 

 thirty species identified, no less than .seventeen are living in some 

 part of the world, and we have there obviously the stage in the 

 evolution of mammalian life when the living species were becom- 

 ing more abundant than the extinct. We may note, too, the 

 absence of arctic animals in this fauna, more particularly of the 

 reindeer. 



The presence of these animals in Norfolk and Suffulk implies 

 that at this time Britain was united to the Continent, and the 

 presence of fossil species found in France indicate a southern 

 extension of land in the direction of the Straits of Dover. The 

 forest covered a large portion of the area of the North Sea, and 

 in all probability the Atlantic seaboard was then at the 100- 

 fathom line of the west coast of Ireland. 



No traces of man have as yet been discovered in these deposits, 

 although the large percentage of living species of higher Mam- 

 malia indicates that the ireoloi>ical clock had struck the hour when 

 he may be looked for. 



THE APPEARANCE OF THE RIVER-DRIFT HUNTER AT 

 CRAYFORD AND ERITH. 



The living species in the forest bed are to be looked upon as 

 an advanced guard of a great miuration of Asiatic and African 

 species, finding their w^ay into North-western Europe, over the 

 plains of Russia, and over barriers of land connecting Northern 

 Africa with Spain by way of Gibraltar, and with Italy by way 

 of ]Malta and Sicily (see " Cave Hunting aud Early Man''). 



In the course of time the other living species followed, and 

 extinct species become more rare. In the deposits, for instance, 

 of the ancient Thames, at Illford and Grays Thurrock in Essex, 

 and at Erith and Crayford in Kent, out of twenty-six species, six 

 only belong to extinct forms — the new comers comprising the 

 lion, wild cat, spotted hyena, and otter, the bison and the musk 



