FAUNA OF THE POST-PLIOCENE. 363 
by impenetrable forests, for the most part of Birch, Poplar, 
Larch, and Pines, and low creeping dwarf Cedars, they present 
every gradation in climate from the temperate to that in which 
the cold is too severe to admit of the growth of trees, which 
decrease in size as the traveller advances northwards, and are 
replaced by the grey mosses and lichens that cover the low 
marshy ‘tundras.’ —The maximum winter cold, registered by 
Admiral Von Wrangel at Nishne Kolymsk, on the banks of 
the Kolyma, is—65° in January. ‘Then breathing becomes 
difficult ; the Reindeer, that citizen of the Polar region, with- 
draws to the deepest thicket of the forest, and stands there 
motionless as if deprived of life ;’? and trees burst asunder with 
the cold. Throughout this area roam Elks, Black Bears, 
Foxes, Sables, and Wolves, that afford subsistence to the 
Jakutian and Tungusian fur-hunters. In the northern part 
countless herds of Reindeer, Elks, Foxes, and Wolverines 
make up for the poverty of vegetation by the rich abundance 
of animal life. ‘Enormous flights of Swans, Geese, and Ducks 
arrive in the spring, and seek deserts where they may moult 
and build their nests in safety. Ptarmigans run in troops 
amongst the bushes; little Snipes are busy along the brooks 
and in the morasses ; the social Crows seek the neighbourhood 
of new habitations ; and when the sun shines in spring, one 
may even sometimes hear the cheerful note of the Finch, and 
in autumn that of the Thrush.’ Throughout this region of 
woods, a hardy, middle-sized breed of horses lives under the 
mastership and care of man, and is eminently adapted to bear 
the severity of the climate. . . . The only limit to their 
northern range is the difficulty of obtaining food. The severity 
of the winter through the southern portion of this vast wooded 
area is almost compensated for by the summer heat and its 
marvellous effect on vegetation.”—(Dawkins, ‘Monograph of 
Pleistocene Mammalia.’) 
Finally, a few words must be said as to the occurrence of the 
remains of Man in Post-Pliocene deposits. That Man existed 
in Western Europe and in Britain during the Post-Pliocene 
period, is placed beyond a doubt by the occurrence of his bones 
in deposits of this age, along with the much more frequent 
occurrence of implements of human manufacture. At what 
precise point of time during the Post-Pliocene period he first 
made his appearance is still a matter of conjecture. Recent 
researches would render it probable that the early inhabitants 
of Britain and Western Europe were witnesses of the stupend- 
ous phenomena of the Glacial period ; but this cannot be said 
- to have been demonstrated. That Man existed in these 
