€32 SCIENTIFIC KECOED FOR 1882. 



justify specification. From their remains it appears tliat in the age 

 which is only separated from our own by the intervention of the gla- 

 cial epoch, a fauna rich in large quadrupeds of types now confined 

 to the tropics coexisted with many species s'ill living in Britain. 

 Coeval with carnivores, insectivores, and rodents that now characterize 

 the northern fauna, were two species of horses {Equus cahallus fossilis 

 and Equus Stenonis), two species of rhinoceros {R. etrtiscus and B. mega- 

 rhinus), a hippopotamus {H. major), very like, and possibly identical with, 

 the living one of Africa; and no less than three species of elephants 

 {E.antiquus, E. ineridionalis, and E. primigcnius). These special forms 

 have all become extinct, although allied ones are living in tropical or 

 subtropical countries. The ruminants of that period were also numer- 

 ous, as many as 13 species of deer having been identified with more or 

 less reason. With them were associated a species of ox {Boft primige- 

 nius%) and a peculiar kind of sheep, apparently related to "the Sardin- 

 ian sheep {Caprovis musimon),''^ which has been called Caprovis Savinii. 

 The beaver still living in Europe then also lived, but with it existed a 

 much larger form, distinguished by a i^eculiar dentition [Trogontherium 

 Cuvieri). It might naturally be supposed that where so many large 

 herbivorous animals were found, carnivorous species would abound, but 

 unquestionable remains of only three large species have been discov- 

 ered — a j)eculiar saber-toothed tiger-cat {Machwrodus), and two bears — 

 the gigantic cave-bear ( JJrsus spelceus), and one that has been identified 

 (with questionable correctness) with the grizzly of the United States 

 ( Cfrsus ferox fossilis). Ambiguous remains of a felid which may have 

 belonged to Machwrodus or some other form have been found; but besides 

 these, so far as known, were only a couple of canine animals (possibly 

 the wolf, Canis lupus, and the fox, Vulpes), the mart^^n {Maries sylva- 

 tica), and, remarkable as coexisting with the tropical types enumerated, 

 the glutton {Gulo luscus). Another form, noteworthy on account of its 

 present distribution, whose remains occur in the upper fresh-water 

 bed of the "forest series," is the Myogale moschata — a shrew-like mole, 

 which is now confined to Eussia, between the Don and the Volga. 



Such were the forms that lived in Britain at a late geological epoch, 

 and when specialized man undoubtedly existed in a savage or "wild" 

 state, in his natal country at least. The climate must then have been 

 still warm and humid, and the vegetation rank and luxurious. But 

 a violent contrast was to supervene. The Pliocene epoch was closing, 

 and a period remarkable for its cold and accompanying phenomena — 

 the glacial period, or age of ice — in time succeeded. Many of the large 

 forms that lived in the Pliocene died out; some retreated and survived 

 farther south ; and when at last modern Britain appeared with its 

 present conditions, a comparatively scanty fauna and mostly small 

 forms were its only heritage and final occupants. (Gill, in The Critic 

 for February 10, 1883.) . 



