PAST GEOGRAPHICAL MUTATIONS i\ 



the climate abated, the ice-sheets of the north dis- 

 appeared, the glaciers slowly shrank up the mountain 

 valleys, and once more a general faunal and floral 

 northern exodus commenced. The larger southern 

 mammals — elephants, rhinoceroses, and hippopotamuses, 

 hyrenas, and the larger carnivores — however, never appear 

 to have invaded Europe again, for no relics of their 

 occurrence have yet been met with in the Post-Glacial 

 deposits of that region. This absence of the large 

 southern mammalia is very generally ascribed to the 

 submergence of the land connections across the Alediter- 

 ranean between Europe' and Africa, but I think their 

 disappearance from the European fauna of Post-Glacial 

 times is due to other causes which will be discussed in a 

 later chapter. We must omit from this period the great 

 submergence of the British area, and in proceeding to 

 discuss Post-Glacial phenomena, merely remark that 

 with the passing away of this and the Baltic glacier 

 phase of the Ice Age a very general elevation of pre- 

 viously submerged land took place, the loo-fathom 

 contour being eventually re-established. This elevation 

 would restore the plains of the North Sea, and perhaps 

 connect Greenland with Europe by way of Iceland and 

 the Faroes, not necessarily by a continuous coast-line, but 

 by a considerable increase in the area of those islands. 

 Following this elevation we have the series of submerg- 

 ences through Post-Glacial time which eventually cul- 

 minated in the severance of the British area from 

 continental land. I may here take the opportunity of 

 remarking that the evidence furnished by the early 

 Post-Glacial Scandinavian fauna is against the presump- 

 tion of a direct land connection between Europe and 



