RANGE BASE OR REFUGE AREAS -9 



Glacial Epoch was broken, although it is probable that 

 ice-sheets and snow-fields in ]\Ioravia and elsewhere 

 helped to isolate Eastern from Western Europe, between 

 the Alps and the Carpathians. 



The condition of the Mediterranean and the distri- 

 bution of land in that area during the Glacial Epocii 

 are the next stage in our investigations. There is strong 

 evidence to suggest that the JMediterranean Sea has 

 endured throughout Pliocene and Post-Tertiary time ; 

 but, on the other hand, there is equally good ground for 

 beheving that the relative distribution of land and water 

 in past ages has been very different from that which 

 characterizes this region during present time. At a 

 period no more remote than the penultimate inter- 

 glacial era, and when the west European coast-line 

 extended beyond the British Islands, it is suggested 

 that Southern Spain was united to Barbary (Alboran 

 Island probably then marking the western limit of the 

 Mediterranean Sea) ; the Balearic Islands formed part 

 of the Spanish mainland ; Sardinia and Corsica were 

 united and formed an isthmus which joined continental 

 Europe in the Gulf of Genoa with North-west Africa ; 

 Italy, Sicily, and Malta were connected with each other 

 and with the opposite coast of Tunis ; the Adriatic and 

 the waters surrounding the Grecian Archipelago were to 

 a great extent dry land, extending southwards possibly 

 to beyond Crete and Cyprus. The Mediterranean would 

 then form three seas divided by the comparatively 

 narrow necks of land formed by the Italian and 

 Sardinian peninsulas being prolonged southwards into 

 isthmuses joining Europe and Africa. What is now the 

 northern portion of the latter continent was thus united 



