382 NATURAL SCIENCE [December 
small-antlered form which can be traced, by its remains in south 
European beds, from Western Asia into Greece, and “along the 
borders of the Mediterranean, at the time when Corsica and Sardinia 
were still connected with Sicily and Greece on the one hand and 
with Tunis on the other.” In this way it is suggested that animals. 
from western Asia and south-eastern Europe found their way to 
the western edge of. the continent, while the central European plain 
was still covered by sea. 
If Dr Scharff’s views as to the geological periods during which 
the British fauna entered the country be accepted, it follows that 
the vast majority of our animal population must have survived the 
rigours of the Ice Age; as regards Ireland, the whole fauna (ex- 
cept comparatively modern immigrants) must have lived in the area 
from a time before the deposition of the British Lower Boulder Clay. 
It will be remembered that Forbes, who believed the distinctive 
South-western flora to be pre-glacial, suggested that the plants sur- 
vived in a sunken land to the south-west. Dr Scharff, however, 
rejects the idea of such an asylum for the fauna on the ground that 
the south-western corner of Ireland is remarkably poor in species, 
many forms of life, common throughout the rest of the island, 
being absent from the peninsulas of counties Cork and Kerry ; for 
example, the Helices of the sub-genus Xerophila. He insists that 
portions at least of the present Irish area must have been able to 
support the present animal population throughout the Pleistocene 
period. 
Those geologists who adopt the extreme view of the glaciation 
of Ireland, advocated by the Rev. M. H. Close, and accepted by 
Professor Hull,! will naturally reject Dr Scharff’s conclusions with 
decision, if not with derision. For, according to the opinion of this. 
school, an ice-sheet of great depth covered the whole country. It is 
needless to say that Dr Scharff rejects with equal decision the 
existence of such an ice-sheet. In the closing section of his paper, 
he expresses his agreement with those geologists who believe that 
the Boulder Clay was formed in an ice-laden sea, and not as the 
ground-moraine of vast glaciers. Of course, this view requires the 
submergence of much of the country. But, recalling the opinion 
of several geologists that the western margin of the British area 
stood higher in relation to the eastern during the Glacial Period than 
now, Dr Scharff reconstructs the physical geography of our islands 
during that time of greatest submergence, which left shell-bearing 
eravels on the Dublin mountains and Moel Tryfaen. According to 
his map, the Scottish highlands, the Hebrides, and northern, western, 
and southern Ireland formed a peninsula still continuous with 
Scandinavia; the Scottish lowlands and northern England were an: 
1 «The Physical Geology and Geography of Ireland,” London, 1878. 
