THE PLEISTOCENE OR GLACIAL PERIOD 921 



land bridge which then connected it with the continent. A similar 

 flora and fauna advanced to corresponding latitudes on the main 

 land. A luxurious deciduous flora occupied the valleys of the Alps, 

 and flourished at heights which it no longer attains. Toward the 

 close of this interglacial epoch, the temperate flora gave place to 

 an arctic flora. 



During the second glacial epoch, according to Geikie, 1 the ice 

 reached its 'maximum extent in Europe, and arctic-alpine plants 



Fig. 601. A club-tailed glyptodont, Dcedicurus davicaudatus, from South 

 America. (Lydekker.) 



occupied the low grounds of central Europe, while northern mam- 

 mals, including the reindeer, the arctic fox, etc., reached the 

 mountains of southern Europe, and even the shores of the Med- 

 iterranean. 



During the second interglacial epoch, the arctic-alpine flora 

 and the northern fauna of central Europe were replaced by a tem- 

 perate flora and fauna. The plants which then occupied northern 

 Germany and central Russia imply a climate milder than the 

 present, and the mammalian fauna, which included the hippopota- 

 mus and elephant (Elephas antiquus), was in keeping with the flora. 

 Toward the close of this interglacial epoch, however, a northern 

 facies began to be assumed, and as the third glacial epoch came 



1 The Great Ice Age, Third Edition, pp. 607-615. 



