392 Sir William Turner [March 26, 



independent ice sheets, each indicating a distinct epoch, separated by 

 an interglacial period. The earlier epoch was that of maximum 

 ghiciation, and the ice sheet extended over the north and middle of 

 England, as far south as the Thames Valley and the foot of the 

 Cotswold Hills, but the high moors in Derbyshire and Yorkshire and 

 the tops of the highest mountains in Wales and Scotland rose above 

 its surface. The great Mer de Glace stretched westward over Ireland 

 into the Atlantic, whilst on the east it was continuous across the 

 North Sea, with a similar ice sheet which covered Scandinavia and 

 the region of the Baltic, and extended south to the foot of the hiils 

 of central Europe, and overspread much of the great central plain. 

 In the extreme south of England, therefore, the conditions differed 

 from those that obtained in the country further north. Although not 

 actually covered with a sheet of ice, yet the more southern counties 

 had been of necessity under the influence of cold, and must have been 

 subjected to the effects produced by rain and snow, by freezing and 

 thawing. 



During the succeeding intergrlacial epoch the climate eventually 

 became temperate and genial, and vegetable and animal life abounded. 

 It is to this stage that most of the Pleistocene river alluvia and 

 cave deposits of England and the adjacent parts of the Continent are 

 assigned. The British Islands appear at that time to have been 

 joined to the Continent, and the same mammalian fauna then occupied 

 Britain, France and Belgium, which implied similar climatic condi- 

 tions. As examples of these, it may be sufficient to name the larger 

 mammals, as the cave and grizzly bear, the hyaena, lion, Irish deer, 

 reindeer, hippopotamus, woolly rhinoceros, straight-tusked elephant 

 and mammoth, all of which are now either locally or wholly extinct. 



Abundant evidence exists that man was contemporaneous with 

 these mammals in western Europe, as is shown by the presence of 

 his bones alongside of theirs, and of numerous works of his hands, 

 more especially the implements and tools which he had manufactured 

 and employed. To a large extent these consisted of flint, rudely 

 chipped and fashioned. To these implements, and to the men who 

 made them, the well-known term "Palaeolithic" is applied. But 

 along with these, other implements have been discovered, made from 

 the bones, horns and teeth of the larger mammals, on some of which 

 animal forms and incidents of the chase have been sculptured both 

 with taste and skill. Up to now, however, no trace of pottery which 

 can without question be referred to Palaeolithic men has been found, 

 and no habitations, except the caves and rock shelters which nature 

 provided lor them. 



One may now consider how far northwards in Britain Palaeolithic 

 man and the large mammals, with which he was contemporaneous, 

 have been traced. The exploration of caverns made by Professor 

 Boyd Dawkins, and other geologists associated with him, has proved 

 that bones of certain of the mammals of this epoch were present 

 in caves in Derbyshire, Y.orkshire and North Wales, and that human 



