17 
that animal and its companions were finally extinguished by a 
sudden catastrophe, involving a great diluvial movement over all 
the Northern hemisphere from the Pyrenees to Behring Strait, but 
it is consistent with no other conclusion.” He has with him in 
this opinion Dr. Buckland, Sir J. Dawson, Duke of Argyll and 
several others, English and Foreign. This is then the explanation 
given by the Catastrophists. As to the cause of such a wide-spread 
flood, there is much doubt; but it is generally believed to have 
arisen from ‘ some immense submergence and some corresponding 
re-elevation during and towards the end of the Glacial Age.” 
(D. Argyll—19 Cent., February, 1894.) 
The authority of Professor Prestwich is claimed in support of 
this submergence. The Post-glacial Period says Sir J. Dawson 
“‘was terminated by a great and very general subsidence, 
accompanied by the disappearance of Paleocosmic man and some 
large mammalia.”’ 
By the Uniformitarians we are told that the Mammoth dis- 
appeared gradually as other creatures did, though there may have 
been local instances of many meeting a sudden death at once. 
‘‘ Herds of the Mammoth and Woolly Rhinoceros,” says Professor 
Prestwich, ‘‘seem to have been destroyed in early Quaternary 
times. Swept down by the river floods and entombed in the ever- 
increasing annual ice-growth of the Glacial Period, there they had 
remained for untold ages, until now released by Summer thaws.’’ 
No geologist will deny the existence of widely flooded and marshy 
lands during the time that the accumulation of ice lasted, Every 
Summer the melting of the ice must have caused these, and dur- 
ing those milder periods known as inter-glacial these floods must 
have been excessive. Mr. Skertchly, a great authority on the Fen 
District, speaking of the gravels and sands in the Eastern Counties 
says ‘‘ every phase of their character shows that they are the effect 
of great floods sweeping across the face of the country.” These 
floods increased in violence and extent towards the close of the Ice 
Age. ‘Whilst the last ice-sheet was disappearing” says the 
greatest authority we have on those times (James Geikie) “ creat 
floods from the melting ice swept over the low grounds of England. 
To this period must be attributed those tumultuous deposits with 
palzolithic implements and mammalian remains which are scattered 
over hill and valley alike. No mere river action can possibly 
account for the appearance presented by these confused accumula- 
. tions; they clearly indicate the flow of immense bodies of waiter. 
When the final melting ensued the floods probably increased still 
more so as to inundate wide regions with torrential waters.’”’ (Ice 
Age, p. 534 abbreviated.) 
There is no difficulty in our imagining that there must have been 
great loss of life among the animals during such floods as those 
